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Fruits of Summer's Labor
Montana's Burgeoning Wine Making Industry
Oenophiles in western Montana have ample reason to smile.
Indeed, the number of individual local wineries is
increasing, the amount of homemade choices growing, and the
measure of interest in wine spreading. Some of these local
wineries utilize fruits and grapes cultivated within our
boundaries; others truck in grapes from several locations
throughout the West and Northwest to ferment, blend and
bottle here. Since Montana traditionally has been shunned or
disregarded in the wine producing category, it’s still
difficult for some to fathom that commercial wine
enterprises here in Montana are progressing with three of
the budding wineries located right here in Missoula:
ClearWeather, Lolo Peak and Ten Spoon. Thus, for you wine
connoisseurs already apprised, well, it’s time to get
reacquainted. Conversely, for the unaware and less
cognizant, there’s no better time than this summer to
familiarize your unlearned taste buds with our area’s unique
undertakings.
Doug Wagner is wholly familiar with all the mistaken
notions, ideas and thoughts about Montana wine. He’s
listened to the prattle, been riled by it, and is attempting
to make such gibberish a conversational relic of the past.
See, Wagner, owner of ClearWeather Winery, goes about
pulverizing preconceived notions about Montana wine, and
spurring greater acceptance by swaying consumers’ palettes
one hardy swish at a time.
“There are lots of people here that haven’t developed a real
wine taste yet,” says Wagner, pointing to the different sets
of stainless steel tanks required for aging wines. “Many
people think that wine drinking is something that’s too
sophisticated for Montana.”
From his production facility and tasting room located at 410
Expressway Boulevard, Suite F., Wagner discusses the wine
making and bottling processes and why he thinks our state’s
paltry reputation is unwarranted. “In reality, a
satisfactory wine can be created here,” proudly states
Wagner, before explaining that his winery doesn’t put out
“cookie cutter” or generic wines, which are really a blend
of several grape varieties and do not carry the name of any
specific grape. In reality, ClearWeather, issued the state’s
ninth winery permit in May 2003, is definitive of the best
wineries, often coming very close to the threshold of
time-honored winemaking practices.
 Additionally,
the wine at ClearWeather reflects Wagner’s painstaking
technique, distinguished by a nearly impeccable balance of
components – alcohol, acid, tannins – that produce vivid,
dry flavors of red and black fruit, notably, cabernet
sauvignon and merlot. “Wine is defined by the quality of the
fruit. For me, it’s really all about the fruit and what you
can do with it. Because Missoula is so close to the grapes,
the area has the potential to make as good a wine as
anywhere else,” says Wagner.
ClearWeather wines are produced predominately from grapes
shipped in from the finest vineyards in both Washington
state and Oregon (and, in the future, Montana, if plans
follow suite), and handcrafted in small batches (the
operation expects to approach the 2,500 case mark by the end
of this year), emphasizing quality over quantity. The aging
formation takes place in both French and Oregon Oak barrels.
Wagner believes that wines shouldn’t be over-oaked, and
should maintain a splendid evenness.
For a certain wine to draw attention, evoke the right taste,
and strike the right balance, various components, like the
acids and the fruitiness, need to achieve absolute
agreement. Comparatively, one nice thing about Montana
wines, he says, is that no preconceived or defining style
exists to live up to, revamp, or splinterize.
A former plumber, Wagner spent many years employed in
mechanical and sheet metal trades before job dissatisfaction
nudged him into wine making, a practice he originally
pursued for leisure only. When the diversion evolved into a
vocation, he studied under Judy Chapman at Lolo Peak Winery.
 Wagner
says that all three Missoula wineries are on amiable,
supportive terms. In fact, they often swap equipment and
share encouraging words and cordial advice; this mutual
cooperation and responsibility is something he sees as part
of an important and necessary collaboration for the
betterment of a nascent, shared commercial venture. In
essence, not only do these wineries exist, but they
complement and enrich each other in a gregarious context.
“I hope to see another couple of wineries come to Missoula
soon because I want to promote the wine industry here,” says
Wagner, who frequently muses over the possibility of wine
tasting circuits in the Missoula-area, similar to tours
given by California counterparts.
While Wagner’s unplanned and casual foray into the spiffy
world of wine happened within the last few years, Judy
Chapman made her first fruit wine nearly forty years ago.
Using instructions and directions from her mentoring father,
she tested his techniques, blended and mixed different
fruits, and delighted in the results. This started a pastime
that developed into a passion. The thought of turning that
love and joy into a profession flourished in her mind; that
notion of starting a wine business slowly emerged into Lolo
Peak Winery.
“My dad made fruit wines,” says Judy, a second-generation
Montanan raised in Missoula. “One year in particular, the
weather was perfect, so the apricot tree was loaded. We had
an abundance of apricot jam and dried apricots, so I decided
to make wine. I had my dad’s recipe, and his friend’s
recipe. Dad’s recipe was very sweet, and the other was very
dry and tart. I didn’t like either one of them; I mixed them
together. That’s how I got started.”
Although Judy began creating fruit wine almost four decades
ago, she hasn’t been a vintner for as long as you’d suppose.
In 1995, when Judy was attending a reception celebrating her
twenty-five years of service as an employee at St. Patrick
Hospital, she expressed a strong desire to husband Mark to
turn her enjoyment of wine into a profession.
“I asked Judy what she wanted to do for the next
twenty-five,” says Mark. “Judy told me she wished to spend
the following twenty-five years making wine. So we decided
to try making commercial fruit wines from ingredients that
grow here in Montana.”
Over the next few years, Judy dedicated herself to an
education in assorted topics relevant to wine production. UC
Davis, one of the nation’s most prestigious public research
universities, provided her with courses germane to the wine
industry. Montana’s second winery permit was issued to Lolo
Peak Winery in August of 1998. At that time commercial
production of wine commenced.
Lolo Peak Winery makes seven different wines, all concocted
from local vendors’ fruits. Indeed, Lolo Peak has turned
many of western Montana’s summer offerings into wine,
including Flathead cherries, Bitterroot Valley apples,
Mission Valley raspberries, Frenchtown-area plums, and
rhubarb from Missoula-area gardens. It has been Judy’s
intention to use solely Montana products since the winery’s
inception.
Lolo Peak’s signature fruit wines include Raspberry, which
is perfect with desserts, and the seasonal Montana Warmer, a
spiced apple and honey product that can be served chilled or
heated. By mingling various fruits with honey, Judy has
created many tasteful wines fit for special moments or your
ordinary light dinner.
This year, Lolo Peak Winery expects to produce between
1,000-1,500 cases of wine. Moreover, summer is tourist
season, lines are longer, souvenir purchases are greater
and, undoubtedly, myths will be eradicated. “It’s nice to
show visitors that we do know what we are doing,” says Judy.
Judy Chapman says she enjoys having other wineries present
because such an existence creates a type of whimsical
synergism easy to feed off. Accordingly, one mile south of
the mountainous and rugged Rattlesnake Wilderness Area, Ten
Spoon Winery, (formerly known as Rattlesnake Creek), is the
final piece of that combined effort.
Beginning its commercial winemaking operations in 2003, the
property now inhabited by Ten Spoon was purchased more than
a decade earlier, when Connie Poten and Andy Sponseller
joined two other families to purchase 21 acres of pristine
pasture in the Rattlesnake Valley. The pair helped rescue
the property from swiftly encroaching housing and road
development, and have mutually decided not to redevelop this
acreage into private housing or subdivisions.
Instead, they did what they felt was proper and respectful
to the community and the land, establishing themselves as
farmers, a move quickly revealing itself to be both
encouraging and symbolic. Since then, the local vineyard has
developed into a gathering place for the community, while
retaining its rural aura, and proving that development and
conservation can neatly coexist. And at every turn, they
also have created a space that is elating, accessible,
pedagogical and light.
“Missoula is a terrific place to be,” says Poten. “Our
vineyard is something that Andy and I both felt would be
special and important for the community.”
Driven by the same insatiable curiosity that compels
children to prod anthills with sticks, or turn over rocks to
see what may slither out, Poten and Sponseller couldn’t help
but wonder about the implications of starting a new wine
operation.
In the mid-1990s, the right intersection of forces and
alignments in the land, rocky patches of soil generously
supplied with miles of sunlight, a gentle slope to the
south, and good drainage, convinced Poten and Sponseller
that the land would be suitable for a homegrown vineyard.
Like sunflowers pointing to the sun, their attention shifted
to wine-making. Soon thereafter, they drilled a well and
starting shoveling trenches.
Described as foolish by family and friends, they
rationalized and celebrated the concept of starting a
vineyard in the Rocky Mountains as a logical, long overdue
rejuvenation of Missoula’s agricultural heritage. Thinking
back a century ago to the culmination of the Copper Kings
and Missoula’s role in providing an abundance of fruit,
vegetables and flowers to the mining metropolis of Butte,
the inspiring concept of local wine, many decades later,
didn’t seem so outlandish, they thought.
In fact, time has vindicated their sentiments. Sure enough,
the aesthetically joyful Ten Spoon Winery (the name is a
combination of Connie and Andy’s last names) will produce
seven different wines this year,
 including
two separate pinot noirs, its signature Flathead Cherry Dry
and a new ice wine. Grapes for the ice wine are selected
from the winery’s own vineyards, while grapes for their
pinots and sauvignon blancs originate from friendlier
climates in California. And, true to Ten Spoon’s overriding
themes, those grapes arrive from smaller, family-owned
organic vineyards, similar to their own.
Exemplifying energetic devotion to task and endeavor,
ClearWeather, Ten Spoon and Lolo Peak, are providing a new
sector to the local economy, while forming the backbone of a
fresh industry. As these respective operations continue to
break through and step forward, they are steadily making
converts, slowly shattering fallacies, and deftly
encouraging Montanans to enjoy the available wine tasting
opportunities located within the closest of proximity.
“The naysayer is quite surprised by the pleasant taste of
our city’s locally produced wine,” concludes Wagner. |
