Volume 8, No.4

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Wine: A Booming Business in Illinois

Volunteering in the United States

Brenda Russell Named New Director of IDES

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WINE... A BOOMING BUSINESS IN ILLINOIS
by Charles “Mike” Vessell and C. Dennis Hoffman

A list of wineries in Illinois. Click on the image for a larger representation.

Both components of the wine industry in Illinois, vineyards and wineries, have enjoyed phenomenal success over the past few years.

In the summer 1999 issue of the Illinois Labor Market Review, the Illinois wine industry was identified as a “growth industry”. At that time, Illinois only had fourteen active wineries, and one hundred eighty-one acres planted with grapes. An additional four wineries were projected to open by first quarter 2000. The Illinois Grape and Wine Resources Council also released an optimistic projection of twenty-five wineries in production by 2002. ¹

Well, here we are in the Fall of 2002 and all of the projections made in that article have been surpassed. The latest tally of active wineries in Illinois is thirty as of early 2003. The industry has doubled the number of wineries since 1999 and has increased six fold since 1990. In addition, there are five more wineries than the twenty-five the Illinois Grape and Wine Resources Council projected in 2002...an unexpected growth of almost 20%!

On the vineyard side of the coin, the number of acres planted with grapes has also grown tremendously. In 1998, only one hundred eighty-one acres were planted with grapes. That number increased to two hundred acres in 1999 and to three hundred eighty-two acres in 2000. Estimates of one hundred fourteen new acres to be planted in 2001 will bring the state total to almost five hundred acres of grapes by 2002. Estimates are as high as a 1,000 acres of grapes in 2003 in Illinois! While only 40% of these acres are currently producing grapes, that amounts to 262 tons of grapes or a 280% increase in production from 1998 and a 75% increase from 1999. White varieties of grapes account for 65% of the production and red varieties make up 35%.

It is interesting that most of the growth in wineries and vineyards has been in the southern third of the state. Twenty-three of the current thirty wineries are south of Springfield and seventy percent of the total vineyard acreage is located in the four southern USDA crop-reporting districts. Sixty-three percent of the new acres estimated to beplanted in 2001 are slated to be in southernIllinois.

While employment in these two industries is not large (estimated to be less than 500 statewide), they do generate sales tax and property tax revenue for state and local governmental units. With the tourism industry promoting the scenic beauty and outdoor recreation facilities of southern Illinois, the growing wine industry complements that effort perfectly, and adds another leisure destination for visitors to this region.

Travelers can find everything they need to know about the wineries, location, hours of operation and even “wine specialties” of the wineries by contacting the IGWRC, SIUC, College of Agriculture MC4416, Carbondale, IL 62901; phone number 618-536-4972 or on the World Wide Web. See also the Internet resources listed below. SALUTE!

¹ Illinois Grape and Wine Resources Council 2000 Vineyard Survey