‘The juice is in the tanks’: Grafton Winery celebrates harvest

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By Cory Davenport

Despite lacking the Mediterranean climate favored by the majority of wine grapes, the vineyards of Grafton Winery produce around 3,000 gallons of juice each year.

A celebration of that harvest was held on Sunday, Oct. 8, at the Grafton Winery location adjacent to Eckhert’s at 21028 Eckhert Orchard Road in Grafton. Co-owner of the winery, Mike Nikonovich, who runs it with his wife, Lori, said this year’s harvest was already processed, saying proudly “the juice is in the tanks.” That juice will ferment into the wines for which they are known.

That wine is made of hybrid grapes, which are carefully grafted and bred by brilliant agricultural engineers to grow quality wine grapes in the soil of Illinois. Specifically, a patch of land once used to grow several acres of pumpkins. This year’s harvest included: Vidal blanc, which is similar to Sauvignon blanc, Chardonel, which is similar to Chardonnay, and Vignoles which is a sweet wine, which can also be made as a dry wine. All of these varieties are white wines. Nikonovich said they grow what their customer base enjoys the most.

However, 3,000 gallons of grape juice does not equate to the 14-15 thousand cases shipped by Grafton Winery to individuals in 40 states. In fact, Nikonovich said only around 10% of the grape juice processed there is grown on site. He said they receive grape juice year-round and ferment as many as 55,000 gallons a year.

“The St. Louis Business Journal listed us as the largest regional winery,” he said Sunday. “That’s even compared to places like Defiance and Imperial in Missouri.”

Nikonovich showed the bottling facilities to the Jersey County Journal, including an automated bottling machine. He said two people working can use it to bottle 80 cases a day. He also displayed six large glass containers, which he said sometimes hold experimental wines.

“When we come up with something new, we put it in here and try it,” he said. “If it makes it past that, then we let a few more sample it. If it’s good, it goes to production, if it’s not, it goes down these drains never to be heard from again.”

Outside of wine, Nikonovich said the winery’s Downtown Grafton facility, located at 300 W. Main St., offers beer, and has since 2009, a year after they moved to Grafton from Edwardsville. They are also aging some wine in oak barrels at Old Herald Distillery in Collinsville. Nikonovich said the aging process has just crossed the two year mark to legally call it brandy, but added he’s in no hurry to bottle it yet.

“It’s really pulling all the flavors from that barrel aging process,” he said.

Another, more contemporary, product currently being crafted by Grafton Winery is seltzer. Infused with raspberry and peach, Nikonovich said they should be revealed on tap at the brewhaus in the near future. While not personally a fan of seltzers, he said he is excited to see the public’s reaction to the new product.

“We’re always playing around with something new,” he said.

Atop its own production lines, Grafton Winery also bottles its neighbor’s products. He said it was just another part of the great relationship shared between Grafton Winery and Eckhert’s Orchard.