Food & Wine
Eating in Iowa: Prairie Moon Winery
By Jeremy Schweitzer
Prairie Moon Winery
By Jeremy Schweitzer
Back in 2000, when Steve Nissen first planted a few grape vines, I wonder if he knew that those vines would become the basis for a family business. Nissen's son, Matt, is a graduate of Iowa State University's Hotel and Restaurant Management program. Matt Nissen stayed in Ames after graduation and is the current manager and winemaker for the family business, Prairie Moon Winery. While Iowa has an active and growing wine industry it isn't the type of place that you usually think of when discussing French style wines, but that's exactly what the Nissens set out to do when they started making wine.
For several years the winery has been trying to get Cabernet Franc, a red variety commonly mixed with Cabernet Sauvignon to create Bordeaux-style wines, to produce in Iowa, but Iowa's extreme low temperatures during winter cold snaps have damaged the vines repeatedly. This year the winery decided to take those vines out to make room for more successful varieties. Their workhorse dry red grape has been Marchael Foch and the winery produces a varietal reserve that currently exhibits strong oak notes, but those should mellow over the next couple of years into a very nice glass of wine. During the last several years the winery has shifted styles moving closer to the sweet side of the wine spectrum in response to local preferences. This includes using more Concord and Niagara grapes. Some of these sweeter wines are even include a small amount of honey, such as the Honey Moon Red. Prairie Moon is also unique in that they produce an ice wine - Winter Moon Ice Wine - using Vidal grapes. While my personal preferences tend towards drier wines, their ice wine is probably my favorite of their current lineup. The wine has enough structure and acidity to carry the sweetness without becoming cloying.
Prairie Moon Winery has taken a local-focus approach to winemaking. They age the wine in Iowa oak barrels - from a cooperage in northern Missouri - and grow their grapes using organic practices. The grapes are planted on about 18 acres split between two plots that are just down the road from each other. They ferment about 5-6000 gallons of juice a year and usually only buy about 25% of that from other grape growers. They also grow a few eating grapes which they sell through a local co-op. Part of being a successful winery in Iowa means experimenting with grape varieties - trying to determine exactly which grapes will grow best and produce the kind of wines a winery is trying to create. After several years of hard winters, the Nissens will be replanting about 5 acres of vines this coming spring - mostly with new varieties, such as Marquette and La Crosse (hybrids developed in Wisconsin and Minnesota).
During the summer months the winery offers live music, wine, and food on Sundays - a schedule is posted on their website. Currently you can buy their wines in central and eastern Iowa, but they are expanding each year, so check a local grocery or liquor store, or, if you're passing through Ames, stop at the winery itself. The tasting room is open Wednesday through Sundays, where you can try their wines and buy a few bottles for later. The winery also has space available for both indoor and outdoor events.
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Jeremy Schweitzer has been eating since birth and writing the blog, Roasting Rambler, since 2007. He's a Project Coordinator for the Child Welfare Project at Iowa State University and is working on a master’s degree in communication. You can read his blog at: http://www.roastingrambler.com
