Contest celebrates Illinois wine

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Swirling and sipping, a dozen judges sampled their way through the best wines Illinois has to offer. Finally Friday, they settled on the champion -- a dry red wine from a brand-new winery. But despite all the good wines, there was a sour flavor to the contest.

Illinois' young wine industry faces tough times, supporters say, because the state has cut funding for expert advice to the farmers growing grapes and the vintners making and selling wine.

"It would be a tragedy, a huge tragedy, if the state couldn't fund the industry," said one judge, Irene Huffman of Milan. "Neighboring states have found a way to do it. It's kind of embarrassing."

The state has been helping with grants to the Illinois Grape and Wine Resources Council, which was created in 1997. The council employs an expert on growing grapes and an expert on producing wine, who provide technical help to wineries. The council's executive director promotes the industry and helps wineries with marketing.

It has been getting $500,000 a year, but Gov. Rod Blagojevich called for eliminating that aid to help close a $5 billion hole in the state budget. Lawmakers agreed. Now the council may have to shut down. Already its grape expert has found a new job at Ohio State University.

"Without future leadership from the state, we will have missed a fantastic opportunity for developing a new, sustainable alternative agricultural enterprise," said another judge, Brad Taylor, who teaches a wine course at Southern Illinois University and serves on the wine council.

Blagojevich's administration sees it as a simple question of priorities. Some programs, even ones valuable to the state, had to be cut so there would be money for education, health care and public safety.

"Decisions had to be made on what the state could afford," said spokesman Tom Schafer.

The state's wine industry has been growing dramatically.

Illinois had seven wineries in 1997, when the council was created. Now it has 38, with more scheduled to open this summer, said Karen Binder, the council's executive director.

Wineries and vineyards employ about 275 people and directly generate $20 million for the economy, the council says. They have an even bigger effect when you consider the related tourism activity -- people spending money at hotels, restaurants and gas stations as they take day trips or long weekends to visit wineries.

The quality of Illinois wine has been growing, too.

The judges in Friday's contest, which picked a winner for the State Fair, said the best Illinois wines would be contenders in contests anywhere in the country -- and, in fact, win their share of prizes.

"People used to sneer when I said I was going to judge Illinois wines," Huffman said. "It's nothing to sneer at anymore."

Friday's best of show was produced by Mackinaw Valley Vineyard, located between Peoria and Bloomington. The wine was a blend of three grapes unfamiliar to most people: foch, baco and frontenac.

Because of Illinois' climate, few vineyards here produce the merlots or chardonnays that many wine drinkers know. Tricky weather and unusual kinds of grapes are two reasons that technical help is so important to new wineries, which compete against national companies, Taylor said.

"I think the citizens of Illinois have to make a choice," he said. "Do we want to improve our connection to our roots in agriculture or do we want to let outside corporations dominate?"