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Riverton Vineyard Produces Variety
of Wines
JODIE FOWLER, Rocket-Miner
Published: 01:13 p.m., Wednesday, January 27, 2010 |
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| RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — When walking into the Irvin
Cellar brewing warehouse, one cannot help but notice
an odd smell. |
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| A barrel in the middle of the room contains vineyard
owner Kathy Irvin's latest wine project: chopped
pumpkin. |
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| If you put your ear close to the barrel, you can hear
the sounds of simmering and bubbling. The barrel of diced
pumpkin will be eventually be siphoned, brewed, tested
and waited on, all for the purpose of making just the
right taste for Irvin's pumpkin wine. |
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| A Wyoming native, Irvin said she has winemaking
in her blood. |
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| "I think wine has a culture of its own," she said. |
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| Both her grandmother and mother used to make it. Irvin
worked as a cook for many years before obtaining her license
in 2006 and opening a winery in 2008 with husband Terry. |
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| The Irvin Cellar specializes in locally-made
wines with ingredients that come from Fremont County and
surrounding areas. With the exception of two wines with
ingredients that are not grown locally, Kathy Irvin
said everything else is native. |
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| This includes the honey, sugar, peaches, apricots, pumpkins,
raspberries and grapes. |
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| Irvin said her winery is the only one in the country
she knows of to sell jalapeno and pumpkin wines. |
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| She said drinking jalapeno wine with a steak is like
having it marinated or flavored with jalapeno peppers. |
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| Some of the favorite flavors among buyers include the
jalapeno, chokecherry rhubarb, raspberry honey and pumpkin
wines. |
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| In reviewing the winery's guestbook, one can find the
names of people from Washington State, New York, Florida,
California and everywhere in between who have visited
Irvin Cellar. |
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| For example, Irvin said people have come from
Napa Valley, Calif., to buy cases of wine and sometimes
reroute their road trips just to visit the winery. |
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| There is much more to maintaining a winery than sampling
and providing opportunities for the public to test unique
creations. Long before sampling, the preparation begins.
Grape plants must be planted five years before they will
begin to produce. |
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| Irvin Cellar maintains 300 grape plants. |
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| Irvin said she begins work out in the field on
Memorial Day weekend. During the summer, she said she
works from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. Grapes are harvested around
Sept. 10. |
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| For fruit wines, the process starts by scaling out 120
to 150 pounds of fruit. The fruit is crushed and transferred
to barrels, where the pulpy mash stays for seven to 10
days. The resulting liquid is siphoned off and placed
in air lock containers. |
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| These containers are specially designed to allow gasses
to escape and prevent air from entering. After two months,
the fruit that has settled is cleaned out and the liquid
is returned to storage for another two months. |
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| Irvin emphasized that everything is natural and
takes its time. |
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| After leaving the brewing warehouse, the tasting room
offers a sense of outdoor serenity. Housed in a log cabin,
it includes a crackling fireplace and rows of wines on
display. |
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| Irvin took a position behind the bar with an
array of wine bottles and sparkling glasses, eager to
share her work and passion with a taster. The most popular
wine flavors are available for tasting along with crackers
and specialty cheese for cleansing the palette. |
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| Irvin said just as there is an art to creating
wine, there is also an art to tasting it. |
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| She goes through each wine, talking about the effort
that goes into making it just right. She swirls the glass,
talking of the "legs" that are left behind as it settles
to the bottom of the glass, indicating it is just the
right taste. |
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| "I want them to experience the old. There's more out
there than just grape wines," she said. |
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| The vineyard boasts many ribbons and awards, which indicate
the growing popularity of the cellar's creations. The
wine offered is not only unique, it is created one container,
one mixture at a time. |
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| The little warehouse and country cabin nestled in the
valley of Fremont County may not initially be viewed
as the ideal place for a winery, however upon closer inspection,
it is not the view that counts, it is the taste. |
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| As it turns out, the nation has a taste for wine from
Wyoming. |
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| Information from: Rock Springs Rocket-Miner, http://www.rocketminer.com |
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The article above was published by the Rocket Miner
on January 27, 2010.
Copyright permission granted by publisher Holly, on February
17,2010. |
