A Gift to the World of Wine: The rich history of Missouri’s vines

By Diane Euston

When people from other states think about Missouri, they likely don’t reference award-winning wines and viticulture. In truth, Missouri has a rich history of wine production that, in the 1880s, ranked as the second-largest wine-producing state in the nation.

The history of Missouri wineries and its early origins in the Missouri Rhineland have a fascinating past that is worth exploring past a pour in a glass. And, at the heart of this industry is the town of Hermann.

The Land of Milk and Honey

To understand the complex history of winemaking in Missouri, we have to follow the trail of immigration of Germans to the state. The influx of German immigrants originates with the writings of a man named Gottfried Duden (1789-1856).

Duden visited the area along the Missouri River from St. Louis to current-day Hermann in the 1820s and purchased land in current-day Warren Co., which is about 50 miles from St. Louis. In 1829, his book, titled “Report of a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Multi-year Sojourn in the Years 1824 through 1827,” was published and became one of the most widely-popular books on United States emigration. He wrote of Missouri’s “great fertility of the soil, its immense area, the mild climate [and] the splendid river connections.” The description of the land, especially the cheap prices, had the Germans jumping on boats to head to Missouri in the early 1830s.

Building Communities in the New Rhineland

The earliest Germans to follow Duden’s writing came in 1832 and established the town of Dutzow (about 32 miles east of Hermann) in Warren Co. where they sold lots at cheap prices with excellent terms for Germans. If a German purchased a lot, it was one price. If a lot was purchased by anyone else, the price was double. Like so many German settlements, the primary goal was to keep a hold of German customs.

In 1836, the German Settlement Society of Philadelphia decided to create their own town where they could preserve their language, heritage and customs; those who joined had, for the most part, immigrated years earlier. This melting pot from different regions of their Fatherland joined together to pool their resources and advertised in 13 German newspapers published in the largest cities; however, a location for this settlement still had not been chosen. These men just wanted to ensure that the land purchased was on a major river and included fertile land.

By 1837, 823 shares of this settlement, still without a location, had been sold to German immigrants living in Philadelphia, Pittsburg, St. Louis, New Orleans, Baltimore, Cincinnati and New York. The Society looked in Michigan, Illinois and Missouri for land, their most important requirement being that the land be located on a river. One year later, Society representative George Bayer purchased 11,300 [1] [2] acres in Gasconade County, Missouri, and named the new settlement Hermann after a German war hero from the 4th century.

Historian William Bek wrote, “In their minds’ eye, Hermann was a rival of St. Louis. In reality its proposed site was a howling wilderness.”

The Uphill Battle for Hermann

Early Hermann had a rocky start.

With no knowledge of the landscape, the Society platted Hermann’s streets and lots while they were still comfortably residing in Philadelphia. They didn’t consider the hilly terrain, and they certainly were unaware of how rocky the soil would be. Also, these German-born families also were apparently unaware of the harshness of Missouri winters.

On December 6, 1837, a total of 17 people – eight of them children – took the last steamboat of the season from St. Louis to the future site of Hermann completely unaware of the hardships they were about to face.

Upon arrival, these immigrants realized how hilly and tree-covered the land was. They also had no clue what the boundaries were for the land purchased, so constructing homes was next to impossible.

Another major problem was that Society representative George Bayer was the only one who could legally assign land, and he was unable to take the trip with the first wave of immigrants due to failing health. When the settlers arrived, things were looking dismal.

Luckily, Willis Hensley, Stephen Atkins and Polly Phillips were living in the area and took pity on these unprepared people. Polly Phillips, a widow living below Frene Creek, allowed several families to stay inside her log cabin and nearby chicken coop.

Even with all these early setbacks, the town was able to continue to attract Germans to the settlement.

By Spring 1838, 230 people had arrived in Hermann, and the following year the town boasted a population of 450. In May 1839, a German newspaper based in Philadelphia called the “Alte und Neu Welt” (Old and New World) published a letter written by three early Hermann settlers that indicated there were  “90 houses, five stores, two hotels and a post office.” Even with all of this hope, the condition of the land people had planned to farm was less than ideal.

Grape Fever

While exploring the land around Hermann, the new arrivals noticed something interesting within the forests in the area. There were wild grapes growing abundantly. Friedrich Muench (1799-1881), who led Germans to the Dutzow area wrote, “In all the rich lowlands are to be found vines of gigantic growth, often as thick as a man’s body, and reaching over the tops of the highest trees.” In the fall, after a hard frost naturally sweetened these wild grapes, people would go into the woods and gather fruit to press for their juice. They used it to make vinegar and, to no surprise, wine. Unfortunately, these wild grapes didn’t offer much juice and were often sour, so people began searching for grapes that would grow well in the Missouri climate and produce great-tasting wines.

In 1843, the first cultivated vine – called Isabella – was planted on an arbor in town by Jacob Fugger. In that same year, Hans W.D. Widersprecher, a leading businessman and town trustee, obtained a clipping of the Virginia Seedling (also known as Norton) from “the father of American grape culture,” Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, Ohio. Longworth reluctantly sent those Norton vines to Missouri, convinced they wouldn’t do well in the environment. He was wrong.

The town of Hermann and the surrounding area saw the possibilities of this newfound business opportunity. In 1844, the town offered “wine lots” on an interest-free basis and set off to fill 600 lots at $50 each. The plan worked.

By 1846, thousands of vine cuttings were sent by Nicholas Longworth to Hermann. In 1873, roughly 30 years later, a Norton wine from Stone Hill Winery won gold at the Vienna World Exposition.

Missouri’s Oldest Winery is Established and Money is Made

The first wine ever made in Hermann, allegedly of good quality, was a sweet wine and is credited to Michael Poeschel (1810-1893)  and George Riefenstahl, two of the earliest settlers of the town. It was produced in 1846. At the time, the most common grapes being grown were the Catawba and Isabella, both red hybrids that were hardy in Missouri’s harsh climate.

German immigrant Michael Poeschel (1810-1893) started what would become Stone Hill Winery. Poeschel began making wine for himself, but by 1848, he was leading the local wine industry. Multiple newspapers in November 1848 stated, “Farms in the neighborhood of Hermann, Mo., have risen very much as of late, in consequence of the vine. A Mr. Poeschel, who has a vineyard of not quite one acre, which was planted with Catawba grape in the Spring of 1846, made from it this year 1000 gallons of wine, and the value of the whole product of the vineyard was $1700.” He was described as “a magnificent specimen of German character who makes indifferent work at speaking English” and “a clever and hospitable gentleman.”

Poeschel established his winery in 1847 under his own name. He later partnered with William Scherer and the company became known as Poeschel and Scherer. By the 1870s, Poeschel and Scherer were winning international winemaking awards and shipping 1,250,000 gallons of wine per year. The price range in 1870 was anywhere from $1.30 to $4.00 a gallon (with a 10% discount for orders of 40 gallons). The firm later became known as Stone Hill Wine Company after it was sold, and many of their historic buildings still stand today. At one time, Stone Hill was the second largest winery in the nation and the third largest in the world.

Also in 1847, German-born Carl Gottlieb “Charles” Teubner (1808-1851) arrived in Hermann and brought 8,000 trees and vines from Cincinnati in order to establish a 200 acre farm and nursery just east of Hermann. He built an impressive two-story brick home which today is the centerpiece of Hermann Farm Museum.

Another man hard at work in the early history of Missouri wine was George Husmann (1827-1902). Born in Germany, Husmann came with his family to America when he was nine and settled in Hermann in 1839. Self-taught in school and in winemaking, Husmann created hybrids from cultivated wild grapes that could stand the Missouri winter. He established his first vineyard on his father’s land, and within a few decades, his practices became the model for Missouri wineries.[3] 

Finding the right grapes to produce wine in the region was Husmann’s specialty. The Virginia Seedling (commonly called Norton) was first planted in 1843 and quickly became a favorite of the region. The editor of the Lawrence Journal visited Hermann in 1870 and stated this wine was unlike anything he had tasted; it was “rich, black and heavy” and “a most excellent drink for summer diseases.”

Hermann became known as “The Wine City of America.” By the 1860s, Hermann ranked with Cincinnati and New York state as one of the biggest wine-producing cities in the country.

Saving the French Grapes

In the 1860s, a 13-acre plot of grapevines in the lower Rhône area of France withered and died. The disease – then an unknown scourge – quickly spread, devastating vineyards throughout the region. French botanist Jules Emile Planchon believed the problem to be phylloxera, an aphid that fed on the roots of grapevines, eventually destroying the plant. He thought he had found the problem, but he didn’t have a way to solve it.

In 1871, European rootstocks were sent to America for study and Missouri’s state entomologist Charles V. Riley began to examine them in St. Louis. Interestingly, phylloxera is native to America; native grape vines had tougher roots and could resist the pest, something that European grapevines lacked. Grafting European vines onto roots grown from American cuttings was thought by Riley to be the best method for overcoming the disease – and he was right.

Because of Riley’s findings, French wineries asked for a huge amount of these Missouri-grown phylloxera-resistant rootstocks. By this time, self-taught George Husmann was running a successful nursery in Sedalia, Mo. He, along with two other Missouri grape growers, shipped thousands of their rootstocks to Europe. As a result, the French were able to save their vineyards from further devastation.

To memorialize the impact of this cross-continental partnership, a statue was erected in Montpellier, France, featuring a young woman cradling an older woman, representative of the New World (Missouri) taking care of the Old World (France).

Missouri Practices Move West

After helping to save the French vineyards from phylloxera, George Husmann moved to Columbia and became professor of pomology and forestry at the University of Missouri. By 1881, he found a calling further to the west and left for California to “study the wine interests” there. He soon found himself in the heart of what would become California’s coveted viticulture area: Napa.

Among other works, Husmann was the author of “Cultivation of the Native Grape, And Manufacture of American Wines,” published in 1866, and, beginning in 1869, The Grape Culturist, a monthly journal that was dedicated to grape cultivation and winemaking. In 1880, his book “American Grape Growing and Wine Making” was published, with books on California viticulture to follow once he settled into his new home in Napa Valley. His talent for winemaking was cultivated in Hermann and culminated in California. Described as “unmistakably German, with sparkling eyes full of humor,” Husmann is considered the father of viticulture in Missouri as well as the father of Napa Valley’s wine industry. He died in 1902 and is buried there along with his wife, Louise, memorialized by a plaque covered in curling vines and grape clusters.

Prohibition and Revitalization

The railroad made California wines accessible, and even when California grew to be the top producer of wine in the nation, Missouri held a strong second before the 18th Amendment was passed in 1919, annually producing over three million gallons in the early 1900s. 

After Prohibition passed, vines were chopped down or burned and barrels were smashed to pieces. Commercial wine production in Missouri and across the nation ceased to exist, although individuals could still make wine at home for personal consumption thanks to the Volstead Act. While most wineries simply closed, some former winemaking operations were sold and used for other purposes – Stone Hill Winery’s cellars were used for mushroom growing before the Held family purchased the property in the 1965 and reestablished it as a winery. Hermannhof Winery is in the heart of historic Hermann, opening in 1974 inside a painstakingly restored circa-1850 building that once housed a brewery. Adam Puchta Winery, two miles west of Hermann, was established in 1855 and was still in operation when Prohibition hit. The family barely survived by converting their vineyard into farmland. Today it’s a thriving destination for wine lovers and is actually the oldest continuously owned family-farm winery in the country.

Today, approximately 130 wineries are scattered across Missouri. Slowly but surely, the wine industry in Missouri bounced back, but it hasn’t quite reached pre-Prohibition levels, when over 100 wineries shipped product across the nation. Towns such as Hermann still ooze historic charm and German heritage, drawing visitors to experience the history of the region as well as the region’s world-class wines.

The history of Missouri wine and its place in the nation’s – and the world’s – wine industry shouldn’t be ignored. The Missouri wine story is one that matches the tenacity of the German immigrant, who saw promise and cultivated hope on rocky soil.