Rosé, you say? This (usually) pale pink wine, dry please, not sweet…has become my all-time favorite. So, when I was invited to Southern Illinois to learn about the Illinois Rosé Project, attend a special tasting of Rosé wines produced from estate-grown grapes in the area, and then tour five of 12 wineries on the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, I was in… all the way in.
It had been decades since I had visited Southern Illinois, less than three hours from my home in the Southern Indiana city of Evansville. During my college days, Shawnee National Forest was a popular weekend destination for hikes and overnight camping trips with friends.
Back then, my interest in wine was limited to sweet wine coolers and fruit wines. But things have changed over the past 40 years, both in my knowledge and appreciation of wine and in the development of the wine industry in the southern tip of Illinois.
About the Illinois Rosé Project
Photo Credit: Illinois Grape Growers
I was surprised to learn that Rosé has been the state’s official wine since 2016. In 2017, the year of Illinois’ bicentennial, the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Alliance (IGGVA) established the Signature Series Rosé program. An enology specialist first determined that wineries across the state could all participate in producing a single style (Rosé) despite differences in weather and growing conditions.
Winemakers from roughly 150 wineries across the state are eligible to submit their wines to the association for review each year. They must use 100% Illinois-grown grapes, with residual sugars below three percent. Most use Chambourcin grapes, while others are blends, using the French-American Frontenac grape, Marquette, or Niagara grapes.
Lisa Ellis, IGGVA Executive Director, notes, “The program has taken off. It gives us something to hang our hat on and gives Illinois winemakers something to be known for. We are battling a mindset that great wines cannot come from the Midwest, but there are indicators that this is changing. In a blind tasting comparing Whispering Angel, the best-selling French-style rosé, one of our Illinois rosés was selected as the favorite.”
Illinois wines have also received awards in several international competitions in recent years.
Shawnee Hills Wine Trail: The First in Illinois
Shawnee Hills has become one of the most established wine regions in the Midwest.
Wine trails are popping up everywhere, but the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, created in 1995 with three winery members, was the first in the state.
Ten years earlier, the area’s first winery, Alto Vineyards in Alto Pass, Illinois, was established. Five acres of grapes, planted in Chancellor, Chambourcin, Vidal, and Villard Blanc varieties, produced its first wines three years later. Its success prompted Pomona Winery (specializing in non-grape wines) to open in 1991, followed by Owl Creek Vineyard in 1994.
Nine more wineries have been added over the years, bringing the Wine Trail’s total to an even dozen as of 2024.
My mission, should I choose to accept it—and I readily did—was to spend the next day (following the special Rosé tasting previously mentioned) visiting five of the 12 wineries with other writers and influencers.
Wichmann Vineyard Joins Wine Trail in 2024
Wichmann Vineyard was our first stop, and the most recent addition to the Wine Trail. Like others on the trail, it is family-owned and operated. Even though its opening date was 2020, its oldest vines were planted 40 years earlier in Niagara and Norton grapes by Ted Wichmann, the father of the current owner, Hanna Wichmann.
While more than 1,100 new vines were planted with Chambourcin, Traminette, and Chardonel grapes in 2021, the original part of the vineyard is the oldest commercial vineyard in southern Illinois. Ted’s daughter, Hanna, is now a winemaker and owner/operator of the vineyard with her husband, Don Moberly.
Following our wine tasting, we had time to relax on the back deck with a glass of its award-winning Crush – Dry Rosé, made from estate-grown Chambourcin grapes.
Shawnee Hills Designated First AVA in Illinois
The elder Wichmann was also instrumental in designating Shawnee Hills as the state’s first AVA (American Viticultural Area).
The state’s only other AVA, the Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA, is the largest in the US. It also includes parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Owl Creek – An Original Wine Trail Member
©Debbra Dunning Brouillette
Owl Creek Vineyards, one of the original members of the wine trail, was next. Founded by Ted Wichmann in 1980, it was purchased from founding shareholders by the Genung family in 2005. Seven years later, they launched Apple Knocker Hard Ciders, a departure from the well-established winery. The ciders have become a very successful part of their product line.
We stayed for a hard cider tasting — my first. While I still prefer wine to hard cider, I gained a new appreciation for it after learning more about how Brad Genung makes it. He uses hops, like a craft beer maker, and brews the hard cider in oak barrels, like wine. Four core ciders are on tap, along with six seasonal ones, like Piña Colada and my favorite, Blueberry Lemon.
In case you were wondering, an “apple knocker” in traditional terms is anyone who sells, grows, or picks apples. In days gone by, it was also used regionally as a colloquialism meaning a “country bumpkin.”
Blue Sky Vineyard and Winery – Inspired by Tuscany
If you can’t make it to Tuscany, the closest thing to it, at least in Southern Illinois, is Blue Sky Vineyard and Winery near Makanda, which opened in 2005. Its tagline, “The Romance of Italy in the Hills of Southern Illinois,” says it all.
The movie Under the Tuscan Sun influenced Blue Sky’s Tuscan-inspired Winery building. Jim Ewers, General Manager and part-owner of the winery, recalls, “My father-in-law, Barrett Rochman, had recently seen the movie and decided to use that as inspiration for the winery we started together.”
The Winery building includes a large Tasting Room open to the second level, showcasing murals of the Italian countryside, painted by local artist Beth Martell. A staircase outside the building leads to two suites available for overnight stays.
Sit and sip inside the tasting room, on the large outdoor deck, under a vine-covered gazebo, or by a sparkling pond. We were treated to pizza during our visit, but there are plenty of other food options, too, including deli sandwiches, appetizers and desserts. Weekend musical entertainment is scheduled throughout the year.
Blue Sky’s 13 acres of vineyards planted with eight grape varieties have produced award-winning wines. Most recently, its 2022 Chambourcin Reserve received Best of Show at this year’s Illinois State Fair Wine Competition.
StarView Vineyards
StarView Vineyards was founded in 2006 as Wing Hill Winery. Brett and Regina Morrison, who relocated to Southern Illinois from Pennsylvania, purchased the winery in 2013.
Eighteen wines are produced from three grape varieties — Vignoles, Norton, and Chambourcin. Like some other Shawnee Hills wineries, grapes from Washington State and other states are also brought in to produce wines, often as a blend with estate-grown grapes.
A selection of appetizers, sandwiches, and salads accompany wines from the Cafe. Enjoy them from the second-level deck overlooking a lake or outside under the shade of a sprawling oak tree. Musical entertainment is scheduled year-round on weekends.
The restored Event Barn, frequently used for wedding receptions and parties, was the site of our wine tasting.
A four-bedroom home on the property is available for rent.
Feather Hills Vineyard and Winery
Our fifth and final stop was at Feather Hills Vineyard and Winery. The property had been an existing winery for decades. In 2017, it was purchased and renamed by Randy and Renee Feather (that’s really their last name!), ushering the winery into a new era.
Our group toasted to the day we’d experienced on the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail with glasses of Pink Bubbles, a Feather Hills sparkling Brut Rosé wine. A five-course dinner followed paired with five wines.
When you visit, you may want to end the day here to dine at Fork & Vine, the onsite restaurant. Open daily, it offers a farm-to-table menu.
Feather Hills vineyards grow Chambourcin, Vignoles, Vidal Blanc, and Cabernet Franc. Fifteen wines are currently on its product list. Its estate-grown 2022 Chambourcin Rosé was the Gold Medal Winner in the Experience Rosé Competition. It is also a Silver Medal Winner in the American Fine Wine Competition (THE Rosé), billed as “the first and only wine competition in the United States to seek out the best and most compelling Rosé wines on the planet.”
Visit on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and stay a while to enjoy the weekend entertainment. Several Feather Hills cabins are available for nightly rentals.
Where We Stayed
Our group stayed in Anna, Illinois, in the area’s most unique lodging. The Davie School Inn, a former elementary school, has operated as a bed-and-breakfast since 2004. Choose to stay in one of eight school classroom subject-themed suites or one of three larger suites. Mine was formerly the kindergarten room. Anna is just a short distance off Interstate 57 in the hilly countryside of the Shawnee National Forest.
If You Go
Reach the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail from Interstates 57 or 24 in less than three hours from several cities, including St. Louis, MO; Memphis and Nashville, TN; and Evansville, IN.
Several members of our media tour group arrived from Chicago’s O’Hare (ORD) on a new daily flight on Contour Airlines to Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois in Marion (MWA ).
Several tour and shuttle services are available to provide safe transportation through the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail.
Why is the Shawnee Hills Region’s Terroir So Well Suited for Wine Grapes?
- Its limestone bedrock topography results in thin, loose soils for planting.
- Its elevation is 400-800 feet higher than the glaciated land to the North and the delta/coastal land to the South than that found in other parts of the state.
- Its warmer winter temperatures provide a longer growing season for grapes.
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Debbra covers her travels to islands and coastal destinations throughout the world on her website: Tropical Travel Girl
