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Among fields of wheat, winemakers prosper

By Stephen Montemayor

Monday, November 9, 2009

When life handed Greg Shipe grapes, he made wine.

Shipe, now the co-owner of Davenport Orchards and Winery, said he never had any intention of taking over his grandfather’s farm and later expanding it by adding 17 acres of grapes.

But without enough money to continue his education at the University of Kansas, in 1970 Shipe began farming peaches, apples and pears on his grandfather’s land just a stone’s throw away from Lawrence.

Twenty years later, the first grapes fated to be crushed and fermented were planted at 1394 E. 1900 Rd. Seven years after that, he converted an old tool shed into a room where customers could taste and purchase the bottled libations. It even has a black walnut bar top salvaged from an old barn and polished down. It’s where Shipe rests an arm as he reflects on the literal fruits of his labor.

“We wanted to make the wine 100-percent Kansas grown,” Shipe said. “From the beginning we decided not to bring in any juices or grapes from anywhere else. We wanted to build an identity for Kansas wine and it has to grow in the state for us to do that.”

Shipe was born in Chicago and raised in Dodge City. Before beginning farming, he was a surgery technician in the Navy during the Vietnam War.

The farm he operates with his wife, Charlee Glinka, was originally purchased by his grandparents C.W. and Mary Davenport in 1949.

It now boasts 54 rows of vines, each a quarter-mile long — lush green in the spring and darker hues in the fall.

The most well-known U.S. wines come from places such as Napa Valley on the California coast and Martha’s Vineyard south of Cape Cod. That’s why some people, including Pep Solberg, owner of Bluejacket Crossing Winery, 1969 North 1250 Rd., were surprised a decent wine could be produced in the Midwest.

“I took a sample of his wine to California winemakers and experts and they told me it was different but excellent,” Solberg said.

Solberg, also a KU graduate, has been growing grapes for seven years and has been licensed to make wine for a year-and-a-half. He followed Shipe’s lead in using only Kansas fruit.

Solberg, who moved back to Lawrence after a stint in the California bay area, said he never previously thought a Kansas-grown wine product would be worth sampling. And then he tasted Shipe’s wine. That, and wanting to be closer to family, brought Solberg home.

That first glass from Shipe wasn’t just a surprise, Solberg said — it was an epiphany. It’s largely why Solberg said he became a vintner, an occupation which Shipe said could demand between an 80- to 100-hour work week.

Josh Bryant, a part-time worker for Shipe, is finishing a degree in enology, or wine making, through the Viticulture and Enology Science and Technology Alliance. He is honing his skills by working at Davenport Orchard and Winery and conducting taste tests of Davenport products at Topeka’s historic Matrot Castle.

Bryant met Shipe when touring wineries in Kansas after deciding that he, too, wanted to take part of the state’s winemaking culture.

“Greg’s by far was the best of all that I went to,” Bryant said of Shipe. “He really does put a lot into it. He’s genuinely individual.”

Bryant said time devoted to grapes and wine-making was comparable to relationships with people, an approach he said Shipe consistently took.

“He puts the same care he gives to people into his wine production,” Bryant said.

Michelle Meyer, co-owner of Holy-field Winery in Basehor, 18807 158th St., started a winery with her dad around the same time as Shipe. However, she said she did not see him not as a competitor, but rather a fellow member of a wine-making community. After all, they were the founding members of the Kansas Viticulture and Farm Winery Association.

“He believes in the agriculture of wine,” Meyer said. “He’s a detailed-orientated person. He wants a quality product.”

Shipe knows the different varieties of his wine are all flavorful. He’ll point customers to a dry red with hints of oak or a sweet, fruity wine for a lighter palate. But in his small, converted tool shed, Shipe still pauses for a moment to consider the reception of what was initially a hobby but turned into more than just a few bunches of table grapes.

“I’m just humbled that people like what I’m doing,” Shipe said. “I never thought that we could do this.”

— Edited by Betsy Cutliff

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