August Hill Winery has had a successful summer at three wine competitions. The La Salle County winery earned eight medals in the 2007 Illinois State Fair commercial wine competition, including a gold medal for its Niagara, also named the best white wine in Illinois.
Competing against 339 entries from 37 Illinois wineries, August Hill also won a silver medal for its Okoye and bronze medals for its Chambourcin, Chardonel, Sweet Catawba, Traminette, Trapolino and Vignoles.
August Hill earned gold medals for its Ginocchino and Augies' Blackberry wines at the 2007 Indy Internation Wine Competition. This is one of the largest wine competitions in the United States, with nearly 3,300 wines from 17 countries. The Ginocchio was in competition with wines from France, Australia, Spain and California. The Chardonel also won a silver medal at this competition.
August Hill WInery received a gold medal in the Wine Label Series competition, silver medals for its Ginocchio, Muscato and Traminette, and bronze medals for its Chardonel, Chambourcin, Okoye, Sweet William and Trapolino at the 2007 Mid-American Wine Competition.
August Hill's three-acre vineyard stands stop a bluff overlooking the Illinois River in Peru. The first grape vines were planted in 2003, with each hole dug by hand and each vine hand-planted.
The vineyard includes a wide variety of grapes and a large experimental section. This year will be the first year August Hill will be harvesting its grapes, as workers have been busy netting grapes to protect them from birds and preparing them for harvesting and crushing.
The August Hill Winery is adjacent to the vineyard and was built in 2004. All phases of wine-making from harvesting, crushing and fermentation to barrel aging and bottling are monitored by the winemaker, Mark Wenzel. Wenzel holds an engineering degree from the University of Florida and has developed his winemaking experience by taking viticulture and winemaking courses and working closely with people in the wine industry.
The August Hill Winery Tasting Room is in Utica. In addition to the handcrafted wines, the Tasting Room offers artwork by Tara Ginocchio and other artists, gourmet chocolates, artisan cheeses and more.
For more information, call the August Hill Winery at 815-667-5211 or visit www.augusthillwinery.com .
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