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| Florida winery bottles ripe fruit into tropical varieties |
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By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Homestead is one of the last jumping-off places before arriving at the bridges which travel to the Florida Keys from the mainland. In this tropical climate, fruits such as mangos, passion fruit, lychee, guava and others grow and thrive.
For Peter Schnebly and his wife, Denisse, who are produce farmers, creating a winery was the solution for what to do with ripening fruit that could not be shipped and sold. At Schnebly Redland Winery, they offer seven varieties of tropical fruit wines.
The first blend is Islamorada, which is made from Carambola fruit – better known as star fruit – aged in French oak barrels. There is also a Carambola label similar to a Pinot Grigio. There are a Mango label and Lychee wine, from a hard-shell fruit of which Peter said, “It is the king of fruits in China.
“We are the biggest growers of Lychees down here.”
The Guava label is a rosé and the Passion Fruit, he described as “sweet, tangy and tart, and is our best seller.” The Category 3 Hurricane Wine is named for the hurricanes that hit this area on a regular basis.
“This is our newest addition to the family. It’s an exotic blend of tropical fruit with a refreshing citrus nose,” Schnebly said.
They decided to have a bit of fun with the wine label, which was created by Denisse’s nephew, Javi Gutierrez. “The label has a flying cow,” Schnebly said. “All our new wines have critters; no one has ever seen a flying cow.”
He tells a story about his wife and her first foray into winemaking. What could have been a disaster turned into a unique blend they call Boo-Boo Wine.
“We call it Boo-Boo because it was made by complete mistake by my wife, and it happens to be the very last wine she ever made before giving up the job of winemaker,” Schnebly said. “The wine has been forgotten for the past two-and-a-half years, except when I treated a few friends and critics to a tasting of this delicious wine.
“Reminiscent of Canada’s famed Ice Wines without the struggles of the harvest at four degrees in the dead of winter,” was how he described it. “This is truly one of a kind.”
The Schneblys did not start out to be winemakers. “We grow 100 acres of tropical fruit,” he said. “We employ 70 employees and seasonally, this doubles to 200 people.”
This transplanted New Yorker used to work for Jewel foods as a produce buyer and said he seasonally gravitated with the fruits and enjoyed the deep southern climate. He met Denisse in 1999 when she was selling fruit for Fresh King. The two married and decided to become tropical fruit and produce farmers.
While they were selling well, with the price of the land and cost of production, Schnebly said, “We were not making money. We bought land higher than the people that grew up here.“
The first to suggest they use fruit to make wine was Bill Wagner. “Bill Wagner had one of the first wineries in New York,” Schnebly said. “Bill recently turned 80. I’ve known him since the (19)70s. Bill came down and stayed three days.“
The Schneblys wanted to bring agritourism to the area and Wagner suggested they start a winery.
“This is unique; we have tropical fruit that only grows right here. Florida is known for its citrus, but there is only one other winery making tropical fruit wine,” Schnebly said.
Although the idea seemed good, Denisse and Peter didn’t jump on it right away.
“About six months later, Nelson MonJovi, the director of marketing for agriculture in Tallahassee, was talking about agritourism and said, ‘Have you ever thought about having a winery?’” he added.
With fewer than 20 wineries in the state of Florida, the idea took root and this time, it stuck. “I would like to thank Bill Wagoner and Nelson,” Schnebly said.
Working with experienced winemaker Doug Knapp, soon Peter and Denisse were learning how to make wine in their garage.
“I was floored, there is such a learning process,” Peter said. “I realized there was an enormous potential. We threw away the best fruit, we didn’t market one-third of the crop. The process for each fruit has a certain way they have to be processed.”
The Schneblys found that some fruit makes good wine and others do not. They are now in the process of distilling some wine, including a new avocado variety.
While the Schneblys have been in the winery business for four years, only recently did they decide to build a winery where visitors can taste the unique varieties, in the 15,000 square-foot tasting building or walking outside and enjoying the tropical atmosphere.
“Denisse and I said we need something pretty, scenery, waterfalls. The rock for our waterfall came from the ground here. It took two years to build; it has a Key’s Polynesian feel with tiki huts,” Peter said.
Although the winery is new, the Schneblys wanted it to have a plantation-feel, as though it had been around for the past 100 years or so.
The winery is part of the Historic Redland Tropical Trail and visitors love to come and sit and sip. It is open seven days a week from 1-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from Noon-5 p.m. on Sunday. Tours are available daily and cost $5.
Check out www.SchneblyWinery.com for more information or log onto www.RedlandTrail.com to find out about other sites to visit in the area.
This farm news was published in the April 9, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 4/9/2008 |
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