Iowans have been growing grapes since the mid-1800s. While Prohibition had an impact on the state’s wine-making industry, today there are more than 100 commercial wineries, most run by everyday Iowans like John Barber and Barb Hokel.

When the pair went on their first date, they both enjoyed a night out at The Wine Experience, sampling the various flavors. Barber, a civil engineer, and Hokel, a commercial realtor, decided to learn more about making wine.

“We began discussing the wine business in 2009 when the Leopold Center at Iowa State University for Sustainable Agriculture was doing outreach for diversity in agriculture,” Barber said.

“My wife is city-born and raised, and although I was born in Detroit, Michigan, I spent around 10 years on a 160-acre hobby farm in the mid ’80s to ’90s that had a small amount of row crops, hay and a 30-head cow-calf herd. It’s where I personally fell in love with Iowa agriculture.”

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The Cellar Winery is suitable for hosting a wide variety of events, including weddings and music events.

After they built their home outside Elkhart, the couple pondered what they could do together using the ground they owned.

“My wife and I were in our 50s and lived on an acreage. We were looking for something we could do and have our acreage pay back a bit of a dividend. We loved working outdoors, we had the ability, we had the property, we loved wine and after a trip to Herman, Missouri, we decided if they could do it there, we could do it here. We also felt there was support from the state through Midwest Wine and Grape Industry Institute at ISU and the Iowa Wine Growers Association,” Barber said.

Their first vineyard, called Ottawa Vineyards, was established in 2012 with the planting of 103 Marquette vines in their backyard. In 2013, they produced 10 gallons of wine from those very grapes. In 2014, their vines were in full production and they harvested 1.5 tons of grapes, pressing 150 gallons of wine from that bounty.

By 2015, they were focused solely on The Cellar Winery at White Oak to ensure they grew enough grapes to satisfy the demand for the wine they bottle. It took more than a year to get the grape production revitalized and transitioned into wine, but the wines have been bottled and in retail distribution since May 2016.

The Cellar Winery’s chief winemaker, Josh Ellenberg, uses hybrid-cold climate grapes. He has been a commercial winemaker since 2015 and started with The Cellar Winery.

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The Cellar Winery is suitable for hosting a wide variety of events, including weddings and music events.

“The original location we found was in White Oak just south of Cambridge, just west of Elkhart only miles from our home and the original vineyard. It had closed in 2012 and was sitting empty.

Friends of ours purchased it and were in the wedding/event business, but had no one to run the winery. We approached them and on March 1, 2015, The Cellar Winery was born,” Barber said.

“We made wines and did the winery thing the best we could, but COVID gave us the opportunity to look at the business with some history and education from running the winery. We decided that we had to expand our abilities to include more events like weddings, music and broaden our customer base, but the current winery facility where we are at was not ready to sell.”

So they ended up closing their White Oak location in February 2023. It wasn’t long before they were contacted by the people who owned Snus Hill Winery east of Madrid. They were wanting to retire and were looking for someone as passionate about wine making as they were to take over.

“Snus Hill winery was only 15 miles west of our then current location and was perfect for us and our customers, which had a lot of crossover between the wineries,” Barber said. “On May 1, 2023, we moved and opened The Cellar Winery for the second time with the help of an excellent customer and now a good friend Bryan Jansen, who is still an excellent customer.”

Not only do they produce nine kinds of wine, they also host countless special events and activities on their property. That includes wedding receptions, birthday parties, live music and more, indicative of how an agriculture business can diversify in order to grow.

“The amount of grapes we have grown over the years has gone from a quarter of an acre to seven acres to back to a quarter of an acre, but now our winery has 9.5 acres of vineyard operated by Paula Davis of PMD AG, LLC, and she’s one of the best around. Last year was the first year we didn’t prune a vine, spray, hedge or harvest a grape since 2012. We just purchase the grapes from her and Cindy Brunner of Tin Roof Vineyards in Baxter,” Barber said. “As the Iowa grape and wine industry has grown, so has the quality of the product. They say that you can make bad wine from good grapes, but you can’t make good wine from bad grapes and it’s true.”

Almost every Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m., live music performances happen at The Cellar Winery and Firepit Fridays run May through October. The winery also features a tasting room for guests and a whole host of parties, too. The menu includes pizza, charcuterie, egg rolls and more.

“We are gearing up to do weddings and becoming an Airbnb. We have an excellent suite available. Any bicyclist traveling through the area looking for an adventure on the High Trestle Trail and all the other trails around central Iowa, could spend a week here and we will be able to facilitate their journey soon. We are a winery — that’s our primary business, but that includes growing grapes, making wine, entertaining customers — a very diversified business approach … and we love it.”