Illinois wine refers to any

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

that is made from grapes grown in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. In 2006, Shawnee Hills, in southern Illinois, was named the state's first American Viticultural Area. As of 2008, there were 79

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...

in Illinois, utilizing approximately of vines.

History

Grapes have been growing in Illinois for over 150 years. One of the first areas to begin growing grapes was on the banks of the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in Nauvoo. The oldest recorded

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

vineyard in Illinois was planted in 1851 and is located in

Nauvoo State Park Nauvoo State Park is an Illinois state park on in Hancock County, Illinois, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in No ...

; the vineyard is still producing fruit. By 1880 there were over of grapes and 40 wine cellars in Nauvoo, and the town was known for its fine wines. The oldest surviving family-owned vineyard in Illinois is also located in Nauvoo. Emile Baxter came to Nauvoo in 1855 to join an Icarian commune and remained after the breakup of the group. Learning about grape culture from his Icarian friends, Emile planted of vineyards. After

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

in 1936, the Baxter family winery became Illinois' first bonded winery. In a sharply different region of Illinois, the

Shawnee Hills The Shawnee Hills is a region of southern Illinois that rests mainly in an east-west arc roughly following the outline of the southern end of the Illinois Basin. Whereas Mississippian and Pennsylvania Age rock layers are deep beneath the soil su ...

, Guy Renzaglia founded Alto Vineyards in 1982. He planted new varieties such as Chancellor,

Chambourcin Chambourcin is a species of grapevines belonging to the ''Vitis'' genus in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. It is a French-American interspecific hybrid grape variety used for making wine. Its parentage is uncertain. The hybrid was produced ...

Vidal blanc Vidal blanc (or simply Vidal) is a white hybrid grape variety produced from the '' Vitis vinifera'' variety Ugni blanc (also known as Trebbiano Toscano) and another hybrid variety, Rayon d'Or (Seibel 4986). It is a very winter-hardy variety that ...

, and Villard blanc. Renzaglia and two other growers founded the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail in the 1990s. As of 2004, 63 Illinois wineries, working with 193 grape arbors, produced 451,079 U.S. gallons (1.7 million liters) of wine annually with an annual total positive economic impact estimated at $20 million. Winemaking expanded rapidly in Illinois from about 1990 onward. The number of operating Illinois wineries increased in the state from 3 in 1985, to 12 in 1997, to 63 in 2004, and 79 in 2008. In 2016, Southern Illinois University — Carbondale announced plans to create a degree-granting program in fermentation sciences, including winemaking.

Varieties

In 2004, twelve grape varieties accounted for 89% of grape area harvested in Illinois. The favorite varieties, in descending order by area devoted to production, were

Chardonel Chardonel is a late ripening white wine hybrid grape which can produce a high quality wine with varietal character. It is a result of a cross made by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station of the popular French American hybrid Seyval ...

, Chambourcin, Vignoles,

Traminette Traminette is a cross of the French American hybrid Joannes Seyve 23.416 and the German ''Vitis vinifera'' cultivar Gewürztraminer made by Herb C. Barrett ca. 1965 at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. His intention was to produce ...

, Concord,

Foch Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Ar ...

Seyval Seyval blanc (or Seyve-Villard hybrid number 5276winepros.com.au ) is a hybrid wine grape variety used to make white wines. Its vines ripen early, are productive and are suited to fairly cool climates. Seyval blanc is grown mainly in England,win ...

Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada * Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...

, Vidal blanc, Frontenac, Niagara, and

Cayuga White Cayuga White is a mid-season ripening wine grape developed from crosses of the ''Vitis labrusca'' hybrids Schuyler and Seyval Blanc at Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. It is a hardy vine wit ...

. Many of these varieties are "hybrid" varieties. These hybrids, which are adapted to the cold climates of central and northern Illinois, are grapes grown from vines that are hybridized descendants of both European vinifera grapes and native American grape varieties. The Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association informed wine critics for the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

in 2008 that hybrid wines were the state's "strong suit."

American Viticultural Areas (AVAs)

Shawnee Hills AVA

One of the foremost grape-growing regions of Illinois is the Shawnee Hills, in Jackson County and Union County near Carbondale, Illinois in far southern Illinois. This region was designated the Shawnee Hills AVA in December 2006, becoming the first American Viticultural Area within Illinois. Besides the benefits of appellation recognition, this designation allows wineries to use the term “Estate Bottled” for wines produced on the same premises on which the grapes are grown. As of 2006, the Shawnee Hills AVA included 15 wineries and 55 vineyards. Jackson and Union Counties were the two foremost wine-producing counties in Illinois. Characteristics that contributed to this decision are the lack of glaciation, as well as the bordering rivers. The heightened elevation (400 ft above neighboring land) in concert with

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

subsoil offers satisfactory drainage, and summer breezes reduce fungal infestation. The climate of the Shawnee Hills AVA, within the Illinois Ozarks region, resembles several areas in

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

known for their wine (see

Missouri wine Missouri wine refers to wine made from grapes grown in Missouri. German immigrants in the early-to-mid-19th century founded the wine industry in Missouri, resulting in its wine corridor being called the Missouri "Rhineland". Later Italian immigran ...

). The climate also resembles certain regions in Spain and Italy.

Upper Mississippi Valley AVA

The Upper Mississippi Valley AVA, which primarily covers

Driftless Area The Driftless Area, a topographical and cultural region in the American Midwest, comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois. Never covered by ice during the las ...

regions in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, also covers the Galena region of Illinois.

Wine trails

As of 2009, there are four wine trails in Illinois. Part of

Illinois Route 127 Illinois Route 127 is a north–south highway in central and southern Illinois. Its southern terminus is at Illinois Route 3 near Olive Branch and its northern terminus at Interstate 55, along with the southern terminus of Illinois Route 48 in ...

south of Carbondale, which passes through the Shawnee Hills AVA, has been designated by the Illinois General Assembly as the ''Shawnee Hills Wine Trail''. The Northern Illinois Wine Trail passes through the Galena subdistrict of the Upper Mississippi Valley AVA. The Illinois River Wine Trail centers on wineries in the upper drainage of the Illinois River, and the Heartland Rivers Wine Trail centers on wineries in and around the mouth of the same river.*

Promotion

In addition to the Illinois State Fair, the Illinois wine industry has developed independent promotional pathways. The first Chicago & Midwest Wine Show was scheduled to be held in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in September 2008.

References

External links

Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association"Normal Daily Mean Temperature- Selected Cities"History of Wine in Southern Illinois (video)
{{American wine

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

Wine regions of the United States by state