Old Vines, New Wines

The art of fermenting grapes into wine has been perfected over thousands of years, from prehistory to the present. Today, most wine lovers are familiar with European varietals such as Cabernet, Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Riesling, or Pinot Noir but these wines come from only one of the world’s many grape species. With its climatic diversity, North America is home to a large number of indigenous grape species whose winemaking potential is untapped.

This remarkable diversity is cause for celebration. At TerraVox, we are dedicated to raising awareness and the promise of North America’s Native grapes. Discover with us which of these Native grapes form the best expression as wine in our vineyard in Kansas City, Missouri.
 

Our Quest

While Missouri is gaining a reputation as a wine producing state, few people realize that it is well-suited for growing grapes. By the 1860’s Missouri was the second largest wine producing state in the country only after Ohio. At the 1873 Vienna World Exposition a wine from Missouri won the ‘Best of Show’. A noted wine critic of the time said that native Norton’s from Missouri would one day rival the great wines of Europe in quality—he may still be proven right.

Our proprietor and founder, Jerry Eisterhold, grew up a Missouri farm boy surrounded by wild grapes in the lush Gasconade River Valley upstream from Hermann, Missouri. Jerry’s early education in agronomy at the University of Missouri in 1969 brought with it a connoisseurship of soils.

In 1996, combining his love of wine and great dirt, Jerry chartered a plane over Kansas City to find the right soil for establishing a vineyard. Determined to discover and become an expert in the unique flavors that Native North American grapes bring to wine, Jerry began a journey to create wine that would complement the land.

Today we are working through the materiality of an initial curiosity about the diversity & history of Native grapes and the wine they produce. Our project has all been prompted by a serendipitous reading of Thomas Volney Munson’s book, Foundations of American Grape Culture. Our vineyard could not exist without the work of Thomas Volney Munson (or T.V. for short). T.V. Munson was an American viticulturist working around the turn of the 20th century. He is credited with saving the European wine industry from utter destruction by phylloxera, an epidemic facing grapes during the late 1800’s. 

In addition to saving European wine, Munson was also an avid grape breeder and the leading expert in North American grape species. This is the foundation of TerraVox, where we are continuing Munson’s—and now Jerry’s—quest to discover and become experts in the unique flavors that Native North American grapes bring to wine. 

We hope that others might find this history as interesting as we have and explore the notion of getting this message out to a broader public, through whatever means—be it live exhibition or media—and we welcome your thoughts.

The Team

Jean-Louis Horvilleur
Winemaker & Vineyard Manager

Ben Gaeddert
Viticulturalist

The Grapes

All great wines start in the vineyard. That’s why at TerraVox, 100% of the grapes that go into producing our award-winning wines are estate-grown. We never purchase fruit or juice from offsite.

Below you'll find a selection of our grapes with some information about their parentage. All photos are from our vineyard.