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GRAPEGROWING INSURANCE FOR WINERIES Great Price, Broad Coverage and Responsive Friendly Service. Wine Team Debra Costa, Brian Stephenson and Liz Bishop. Because You're Different! Jason Gerke is the president of the Missouri Grape Growers Association and agreed about improved canopy management. "High vigor can cause problems when it comes to the wine flavors, and certainly we see better ripening (and) lower acidity in longer season Norton as a result of the balanced canopy." Gerke is also the owner and winemaker at Jowler Creek Winery in Platte City, Mo., located northwest of Kansas City. On the winemaking side, Bomgaars said the Missouri Wine Technical Group has been instrumental in helping winemakers hone their craft. Group meetings consist of several dozen winemakers tasting through each other's wines and offering frank and honest criticism. The quality assessments also include technical discussions of everything from vine spacing and yeast selection to barrel aging. Bomgaars said he's watched the development of wines from bad to marketable and getting better. "Every time we had a meeting there was a jump in quality." The state now has more programs for winemaking and viticulture education such as the VESTA program and the Grape and Wine Institute at the University of Missouri. And at Les Bourgeois, one of the biggest steps to improve quality was the purchase of a Braud harvester. Bomgaars said skilled agricultural labor is even in shorter supply in Missouri. The machine harvester allows winemaking teams to pick exactly when they want—either to get in front of weather or at ideal ripeness. "We really try to take control of that picking as much as possible," he said. Gerke said the lack of mechanization in the state's emerging wine grape industry is one of Missouri's biggest challenges. He said growers struggle to keep their costs down in a market where most consumers rarely buy north of $12 per bottle and where fruit shipped from California or elsewhere is still an affordable option for wineries. "Small growers with very hands-on production methods struggle to make ends meet and must demand higher prices for their fruit, while often delivering smaller volumes," Gerke said. "Economical means of mechanization would aid in increasing efficiency and help both buyer and seller." Focused on urban opportunities Michael Amigoni's winery is located in Kansas City, Mo., and it's not just the location that sets his company, Amigoni Urban Winery, apart from the rest of the state's wine industry. From the start, Amigoni said he's been wholly committed to making wine with just vinifera fruit. He launched his winery 13 years ago and planted 5 acres of vines in a rural area outside of the city. At harvest, Amigoni trucks in his fruit and processes it at a warehouse located near his tasting room. "I want something I like to drink, and also I've found I've been able to carve my own niche," he said. After closely studying the research done in the Finger Lakes region of New York state and Virginia, Amigoni said he felt confident planting vinifera, and he feels his success has validated those efforts. Amigoni Urban Winery is producing about 3,000 cases of wine sold through the tasting room and at 55 on-premise and retail locations in the Kansas City metro area. 101 Second Street #120 Petaluma, CA 94952 707.781.3400 www.heffins.com License #0564249 Grapes are destemmed and transferred from the crush pad with a pump during the 2013 harvest at Les Bourgeois Vineyards. 92 W in es & V i ne s january 20 14