Dan Hopper and his wife, Renee, have opened Twain's Vineyard Micro Winery and Lodge in Washington County. They make the wines out of fruits that are native to the Ozarks area, some of which grow on their property.
Dan Hopper and his wife, Renee, designed and built the winery, seen in the background.
The label on a bottle of Twain's Vineyard wine reads, "It is our goal to produce flavorful sweet wines from fruit types indigenous to our local hills and valleys ... Come experience the taste and tradition of the Ozarks."
Dan Hopper's designs for the winery now hang on the tasting room's wall.
Dan Hopper, who owns the newly-opened Twain’s Vineyard Micro Winery and Lodge in Belgrade, gave up on grapes.
In about 2009, he bought about $6,000 worth of French hybrid vines to plant on a portion of the 13 acres that he and his wife, Renee, own in Washington County.
But at that time he was still working full time in Sikeston.
“Grapes are so hard to take care of to start with and I was only able to work on it one weekend a month because I hadn’t retired yet,” Hopper said.
On top of tending to the vines, he was mowing and starting to build on the property.
Then one day, he had an epiphany while mowing through all of the persimmon seedlings, blackberry brambles, and elderberry bushes.
“I'm packing down this stuff, and I'm over there working my tail off, trying to get these grapes to grow,” Hopper explained. “And I thought, ‘What a dummy!’ This stuff grows out here. This is its home.”
So he turned his attention to fruits that are native to the Ozarks. Unlike grapes, they don’t require constant pruning and protection from fungus.
“And I’m mowing them down with the mower,” he added. “So I said, ‘Heck with the grapes!’”
So he started mowing around some of the seedlings.
“Pretty soon, I've got a yard full of persimmons out here,” Hopper explained. “I've got blackberries that grow along this timber here. I've got elderberries that grow out here.”
He drew inspiration from his upbringing in the southwestern part of the Ozarks, where people often made wine from the fruits on their farms.
“They were good,” he said. “They were really fruity. They had great flavor. People enjoy sipping on them. So I thought, well, if people come to the Ozarks, why wouldn’t they want a piece of Ozarks history.”
So he started using the persimmons, blackberries, and elderberries that he and his wife harvest from their property and pears from an old orchard nearby. He tries to use as much locally-sourced fruit as possible.
They’ve made 38 varieties, although they aren’t all available at one time, such as spiced pear, honey plum, huckleberry, and even chocolate-covered strawberry for Valentine’s Day.
Most of the wines are sweet, but Hopper has started lowering the sugar content in some for those who prefer their wine more traditional and dry.
“There are people with more sophisticated tastes than us hillbillies,” he joked.
One area couple stumbled upon the winery on a recent Saturday after seeing the winery’s signs posted around the Belgrade and Caledonia area, which is how most customers have found out about the place.
The woman, a fan of dry wine, left with a bottle of the pear wine after being skeptical about trying it.
“It’s very good,” she added.
But he might not be done with those grapes he gave up on after all.
“I’m going back now because we are getting more sophisticated tastes coming into the place,” he added, “people that want those fine wines, like these folks right here.”
Hopper just got his liquor license for the place in June. But it’s been over nine years in the making.
They started building on the property in 2012 and they’ve built it all – wine bar, tasting room, their apartment, the lodging rooms, and the observation tower – from scratch and all from his designs.
They did have help with the foundation and the framing.
“I took over after that and Renee and I have done every single, solitary thing,” he said. “There's just nothing you point at that (she and I) didn't do in those nine years.”
Some parts are still a work in progress. The two lodging rooms and adjoining bathroom still need a few finishing touches like paint, but they are fully functional and available to rent for half the price right now.
The observation tower isn’t open yet, but Hopper has plans for tables and chairs up there for people to sip their wine and enjoy a view of the Ozark hills.
The same hills that inspired the wine.
For more information on the winery, visit their Facebook page. They are located at 10280 Slaughterhouse Road in Belgrade. During the winter, they are open Thursday through Sunday from 1 to 7 p.m.
Nikki Overfelt-Chifalu is a reporter for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at noverfelt@dailyjournalonline.com.
January 28, 2021 at 10:03PM
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Ozarks-inspired winery opens in Belgrade - Daily Journal Online
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