A Short History of Wine-Making in Illinois

In the last decade, the Illinois wine business has been booming. When GenKota Winery in Mount Vernon opened its doors a decade ago, there were five other wineries in Illinois. Now, there are more than 60 and the number keeps growing.
Next year, locals expect to see new wineries in Muddy and Creal Springs and that's just the ones that are already announced.

According to the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association, last year, Illinois produced 500,000 gallons of wine and wineries had a $20 million impact on the economy.

This is a business that has a past in Illinois and finally, once again, a future.

Prior to the institution of Prohibition in 1920, Illinois was the country's fourth largest producer of grapes and wine. The state's earliest settlers in the Peoria area were French colonists and brought their love of wine and grapes with them. The first winery opened in Nauvoo in 1857. That Baxter family winery is still business, except for a short break during the years when wine-making was illegal.

When it became illegal to produce wine, some of the vineyards starting shipping their grapes for basic consumption, but many others simply pulled up their grape vines and planted other crops.

After Prohibition ended in 1933, many farmers were not willing to go to the effort to regrow the vines. Starting new vines means almost three years before you have a marketable crop of any size and four to five years for a full crop.

The resurgence in Illinois wine began for Southern Illinois in 1984 when a retired Southern Illinois University Carbondale professor opened Alto Vineyards in Alto Pass. Then, in the 1990s, the state Department of Agriculture convinced farmers to consider grapes as a new alternative crop. In 1995, owners of Owl Creek Vineyards, Pomona Winery and Alto Vineyards together with state tourism officials created the Shawnee Wine Trail. Today, the wine trail has eight official members and many other stops along the way.

By 2000, there were about 20 wineries across the state and now, there are more than 60. Grapes are grown in almost every part of the state with more than 300 individual vineyards, most of them about 5 acres, or less. In 2005, Gov. Rod Blagojevich proclaimed the first Illinois Wine Month and last year, wine and the related activities added $20 million to the state's economy.