Ardon Creek Vineyard & Winery has 2.1 acres of grapes. These cold-climate varieties tolerate our Iowa winters and still thrive to produce delicious flavors. Our grapes are Concord, Noiret, Chancellor, Petite Pearl, Marquette, and Frontenac.
Every wine has a story—and ours can be found on the back label of each bottle. Many of our wines are inspired by the personality of a beloved relative or by the history of Ardon and the 76 Township.
Harvest usually takes place between August and October. Our Concord grapes are mechanically harvested with the help of a nearby vineyards mechanical harvester. The rest of our varietals are picked by hand. Our employees and many volunteers (known as villagers) work together to make a wonderful agricultural product.
The grapes are taken to the crusher and de-stemmer to remove the stems. They are fermented and the skins are removed. The juice is stored in tanks of various sizes at our winery to keep as little headspace near the wine as is possible.
Our wine maker and cellar crew work in the winery to ferment, stabilize, and polish the wines in preparation for bottling. There is an amazing amount of chemistry and biology involved in the wine-making process. We diligently check our wines to ensure microbial stability and adjust any preservatives as necessary. Before bottling our wine, we stabilize for proteins, potassium tartrates, pectin, and various microorganisms. The wines are then sterile filtered and gravity fed into brand new bottles.
Bottling is also done by our village of volunteers, neighbors, and workers.
Once the wine is bottled, we distribute it to many local retail stores. We also offer our wines online, at many area farmers’ markets, and the Ardon Creek Tasting Room. We offer tastings at many different locations to give people the opportunity to discover which wines they like best.