Furrow Vineyard & Winery To Close

Filed in archive Vineyards on January 21, 2008

The wine business is a tough one. It is hard enough when your winery is in an area that is well-know for wine such as California or Washington. I think it must be even harder when you're a small winery in the Midwest. Furrow Vineyard & Winery in El Paso, Illinois can attest to that. Unfortunately it looks like the winery will be closing some time in March because it hasn't been able to attract enough people to visit and buy their wines. The winery was a labor of love and a family business. It was also Central Illinois' first winery.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

After talking about closing for the past year, the family recently announced the difficult decision to quit growing grapes and making wine.

''It's pretty hard. We put our heart and soul into it for six years,'' Furrow said.

Wayne Furrow said they'll likely tear out some grape vines and plant corn and soybeans again. He'll also look for another job off of the farm.

The Furrow winery was one of four stops on the Central Illinois wine trail that also includes Mackinaw Valley Vineyard, Kickapoo Creek Winery near Peoria and Willett's Winery & Cellar in Manito. The loss of one-fourth of the trail will make it even harder to bring in tourism dollars, said Paul Hahn, owner of the Mackinaw Valley Vineyard.

In addition to the lack of visitors, Furrow's also has experienced a problem with a plant disease that originated with the vines and all of the plants on the 10-acre vineyard eventually will die. About 30 percent of the plants are infested now and are close to dying, but that problem is unrelated to the closure, Furrow said.

I think it's really important to support your local wineries. It doesn't mean that you can't enjoy wine from other areas of the world, but I do think we, as wine lovers, should support those people near us who make a quality product and really do put their hearts in it. Business ventures are always a risk, but it still makes me sad to see family businesses close.

If you live in Central Illinois, or will find yourself in that area between now and March, take a trip over to Furrow Vineyards to show your support and check out the other wineries on the wine trail. Support your local businesses and small-production wineries. The big, famous wine producers are still going to be there. These little guys might not.