Bacchus in Southern Illinois

by Chris McKinley

Southern Illinois is known as the home of Southern Illinois University, the Shawnee National Forest, and awesome fishing and hunting. The area is also increasingly recognized for its abundance of vineyards and wineries. The region’s wine industry is growing like a vine, bringing in tourists and their dollars.

Southern Illinois’s hilly landscape is ideal for growing grapes. Suitable topography, climate, and soil type provide elements for successful crops. The soil has a mild clay content, which allows water absorption and drainage. Steep hillsides also provide adequate drainage and prevent frost from accumulating on plants. Grapes like a good amount of rainfall, but also prefer a droughty summer.

A handful of determined individuals have taken advantage of the natural elements and set forth to create winemaking businesses. Many of these people literally built their operations from the ground up with hard work and determination.

Five of the wineries in the southwestern part of the state have banded together with the help of the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau to form the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. These wineries are located in a part of the state known as the Illinois Ozarks, an extremely beautiful area typified by forested hills and majestic scenery. Each winery is unique and has something special to offer.

Pomona Winery
(618) 893-2623

George Majka and Jane Payne built the Pomona Winery on 125 acres of lush forest land. An impressive three-story structure sits among thousands of trees, an inviting venue in which to taste Pomona’s award-winning wines.

Pomona Winery is best known for its apple wines. With many apple orchards in close proximity, this seems only natural. All Pomona wines are made from fruit grown within fifteen miles of the winery.

Orchard Spice, often referred to as "apple pie in a bottle," is perhaps the winery’s most popular and most consistent medal-winner in competition. A semi-dry Jonathon apple wine is also extremely tasty and represents Pomona very well.

The Pomona Winery offers free wine-tasting and a gift shop. Wine may be purchased by the bottle or case. Visitors can roam the grounds or sip wine gardenside while enjoying the surroundings of the Shawnee National Forest.

The Pomona Winery is open April through December, Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Special events planned for this year include an October 14 and 15 Octoberfest with food, wine, and live music, and a November 24, 25, and 26 holiday open house with the release of Pomona’s latest wines.

Von Jakob Vineyards, Ltd.
(618) 893-4500
email this vineyard

The next stop on the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail is Von Jakob Vineyards, also located in Pomona. The Von Jakob winery was established in 1996 by Dr. Paul Jacobs, his wife Rhoda, and their family.

Von Jakob Vineyards offer a little taste of Germany on a Shawnee hillside. A six-acre vineyard surrounds a Tudor-style home in which the winery is housed. The winery also offers a tasting room and gift shop. A covered outdoor deck allows visitors to sip wine while enjoying a view of the vineyard. A 1,200-square-foot glass atrium, complete with a fireplace, allows visitors to enjoy Von Jakob year-round.

Von Jakob’s nine wines won twelve medals out of twelve entries in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana competitions their first year of competition. Not a bad start.

Von Jakob’s wines have particularly appealing names such as Cave Creek, Little Grand Canyon Gold, and Country Red.

Unique to Von Jakob is their Honey Blush wine, which uses honey instead of traditional spicing, and is blended with Concord wine. Tasting this wine brings to mind visions of fireside sipping on a cold wintry day.

The Kroshenfeler wine sounds convincingly German but is actually a word created by combining the first few letters of each of the Jacobs children’s first names.

Von Jakob sells wine by the glass or bottle. Visitors may have picnic lunches on the deck, or take walks through the vineyard to the pond. It’s a great way to spend a day in warm sunshine with warm people.

Von Jakob is open year-round, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Special events include an annual Maifest in May with a barbecue, wine-tasting, and live music. Other festivals are planned throughout the year.

Alto Vineyards/Winery
(618) 893-4898

After thirty years of working at SIU, Guy Renzaglia retired and decided to grow grapes. His first grapes were planted in 1982 on a sloping hill in Alto Pass. He then began what is now a beautiful ten-acre vineyard and extremely successful winery called Alto Vineyards.

Most area winemakers have established businesses during the past few years. Alto Vineyards, however, has been making wine for nearly twenty years; the Renzaglia family essentially carved the niche for Southern Illinois wine production. As a result of their success, many area residents are following in their footsteps by realizing the possibilities of growing grapes and producing wine.

Alto Vineyards.

Alto Vineyards’ tasting room features a superb wine list. The sweet, white Shawnee Gold, a dry, red Rosso Classico, and a light, fruity Alto Festa rosé are among the most popular. The Porto di Guido is a fortified wine made with the ripest Chambourcin grapes and is wood aged for eight months to produce a rich, distinctive port wine.

A gift shop features retail items such as T-shirts, hats, stemware, wine accessories, cheese, and crafts made by local artists.

Alto Vineyards’ visitors can stroll through the vineyard to a pond in its valley, enjoy the scenery of the Bald Knob Cross of Peace on a distant hilltop, take a scheduled tour, or simply stop in to say "hi" and sample a few of the extraordinary wines.

Alto Vineyards’ annual Spring Festival is held each May with seafood, wine, and live music in the gazebo. An annual crawfish boil is held in May, and a fall festival in October features great food, wine, and music amidst the magnificence of Southern Illinois’s autumn colors.

Owl Creek Vineyard
(618) 893-2557

Owl Creek Vineyard is a small winery and vineyard operation in the heart of the Shawnee National Forest owned and operated by family and friends. The winery was founded in 1995 and produces a variety of wines, from dry barrel-aged red wine to late-harvest dessert wine. The wines have won many medals since the winery was founded. In 1999, the dry red, Owl’s Leap 1997, won two gold medals and the Best of Show award at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. About four acres of vineyard surround the winery, producing about sixty to seventy percent of the grapes used in Owl Creek wines. All grapes used to produce Owl Creek wines are grown in Southern Illinois.

Owl Creek offers free wine tasting year round and a small gift shop. Several wine festivals and other events take place every year. Mayfest is celebrated Mother’s Day weekend and Octoberfest on the second weekend in October. The winery also began to host an annual June Grape Stomp.

Picnic tables are available around the vineyard and winery for those who wish to bring a lunch or snack, and for those who wish to enjoy a glass of wine on the back deck.

Owl Creek is located fifteen miles south of Carbondale and seven miles north of Anna. It is just a short two-and-a-half-mile drive east of U.S. Route 51 on Water Valley Road, four-and-half miles south of Giant City State Park.

Owl Creek sells wine both by the bottle and the glass. The winery is open Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. from May through December, and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. from January through April, or by appointment. The winery is closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Easter.

Winghill Winery
(618) 893-9463

The newest member to the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail is the Winghill Winery in Cobden. Open since February 2000, the winery has produced three wines from grapes grown on the six-acre vineyard.

The winery is a family business, operated by Judith and Richard Parks and their daughter Martha Ferguson. The family’s members are bird enthusiasts. They have about a dozen peacocks and have adopted a peacock feather as the company logo.

The family has accordingly named their three premier wines. The wine list consists of a dry, red Robin’s Revenge, a semi-sweet white Whippoorwill White, and the Blue Bird Blush.

Visitors to Winghill Winery can enjoy free wine-tasting, tours of the vineyard, or peaceful afternoons sitting on the winery’s outdoor deck. A gift shop features a gallery of local art, including photographs, jewelry, fibers, and ceramics.

Winghill Winery is open Fridays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.

According to a recent edition of the Illinois Visitor’s Guide, the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail is number six on the top ten things to do in Illinois. If you enjoy country backroads, viewing breathtaking scenery, meeting friendly faces, and tasting magnificent wine, you must set aside a day to experience the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. The forested hills of the Shawnee National Forest are the perfect backdrop for a leisurely day of sipping wine.

To hop on the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, take Illinois Route 127 four miles south of Murphysboro to Orchard Hills Road and go west. Wine Trail signs are easily noticeable. Wine Trail brochures and maps are also available from the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau at (618) 529-4451 or (800) 526-1500.