Sunday, October 12th, 2008

No wine? Wine not?

Neglected by students and historically oppressed, wine is making a return that need not squash your wallet.

By Nathan Gill

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

If you’re tired of the habitual weekend kegger or need a break from your alcoholic barley and hops staple, you might want to take a shot at the alcohol most neglected by college students—wine.

“I think it’s more social because you’re not down chugging beer, you’re able to sip, become relaxed and be more social,” says Carey Winfield, a junior from Tulsa, Okla., who prefers wine to beer or liquor.

Winfield, a waitress at Pachamama’s, 800 New Hampshire St., knows more about wine than many students because she serves it off the upscale restaurant’s extensive wine list and works the occasional wine tasting event. She developed an interest in the drink about five years ago after a friend introduced her to it.

“It’s something that you can sit and enjoy and try to pick up on the different flavors,” she says.

When she couldn’t find words to describe what she tastes in her favorite wine, Ben Davis, a fellow waiter and Leawood junior, helped her out.

“You can just taste things in wine that you wouldn’t ever think you’d taste in a beverage,” he says.

VINE HISTORY

“Bold, yet supple with a big, smoky earthy nose of cherry and currant fruit” is how manufacturers of a wine kit (a box of yeast, crushed crapes and other do-it-yourself wine essentials) being used in Lindley Hall describe their product’s taste.

The class, GEOG 571, Topics in Cultural Geography: Wine, is full of wine-curious students and taught by professor and self-described wino George McCleary. He says that there are few fruits that are more sensitive to their environment than grapes.

However, it’s been Kansas’ political, rather than physical, environment that’s contributed to the state’s rather puny grape and wine market. Prohibition, that scourge of fermented merriment, resigned bottles to be more often shattered than swallowed.

According to a Kansas State Research and Extension publication on the history of grape growing in Kansas, Kansas became the first state to outlaw the manufacture and sale of alcohol in 1880. National prohibition in 1919 made matters worse and Kansas’ wineries and thousands of acres of grapes were wiped out. Though national prohibition ended in 1933, Kansas winos like McCleary had to wait until 1985 for Kansas to allow wineries to operate again.

Since then there’s been a flowering of Kansas grape growers and winemakers.

“There’s a lot more happening here than there was 10 years ago,” McCleary says.

LOCAL FLAVOR

Kansas is now home to more than a dozen wineries, one of them in Lawrence’s backyard.

Tony and Kay Kugler run Kugler’s Vineyard just a few miles south of Lawrence. After Tony gets off work at Allen Press and Kay ends her day as a programmer at the University’s Information Technology department, they tend their 1,200 grape vines.

If you’re surprised to learn that the Kuglers can grow grapes in the same summer that has the University’s grass a crispy brown, you’ll be astounded to know that they only irrigate the vines once or twice per year. Tony says that when they planted their vineyard in 1996 they had to pick vines that would survive Kansas’ sizzling summers and freezing winters.

“Those wines that grow in California, they cannot grow here,” Tony says.

The five grape varieties that do grow at Kugler’s Vineyard produced six tons of grapes last year.

After the mid-August and September grape harvest, Tony says he and Kay ferment about 3,000 bottles of wine per year in the climate-controlled wine cellar beneath their house. One of the seven types of wine the Kuglers market, both at Lawrence’s Mass Beverage, 3131A Neider Rd., and from at-home sales, won a bronze medal at St. Louis’ National Norton Wine Competition in August.

With wine selling from about $10 to $12, the Kuglers remind that you shouldn’t buy wine simply because of a flashy label or high price.

“That’s for snobs. It’s all about the flavor,” Tony says.

WALLET WINE

If you’re ready to take a sip out of your beverage cocoon, the rows of bottles at any liquor store may still be daunting. You can make your wine purchase more approachable by finding a vendor with some wine smarts.

Steve Berger, owner of The Wine Cellar on the corner of Iowa and 25th streets, is a certified sommelier, a professional that can help you choose the right wine.

Berger says that he would typically start a wine beginner off with a white wine with a little bit of sweetness, perhaps a Riesling, and then suggest something dryer, or less sweet. If you know you like dry wines, you might try a Chardonnay, which is among the driest wines.

Though white wines vary widely between sweet and dry, red wines are almost always dry. If you go red, try a Pinot Noir, then maybe a Merlot.

Whatever wine you choose, be it a $2.99 jug, $6 box or $1,000 bottle, remember: It’s what’s on the inside that counts.

“You don’t have to spend $50 to get a good wine,” Berger says. “You spend what you want, and if you’re happy, perfect.”

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