Our visit to Mt. Pleasant
Winery in Augusta, Missouri - July 2002
(From
our September, 2002 Newsletter)
Our Mt. Pleasant Winery Pictorial
The Missouri Wine
Country (A short history of the area)
Experience Mount Pleasant Winery
Augusta is America's first designated wine district. Augusta
was awarded this honor three years before Napa Valley (Napa Valley is
number two). In order to label a wine as Augusta wine, 85% of the grapes
used for production must have been grown within the boundaries of the
Augusta wine district. Today, Mount Pleasant is the dominant grower
of grapes in the Augusta Appellation with over 51,000 vines. Approximately
4,800 of these are vinifera–chardonnay and the bordeaux varieties
of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc.
| M o u n t P l e a s a n t W i n e r y 5 6 3 4 H i g h S t r e e t A u g u s t a , M i s s o u r i 6 3 3 3 2 8 0 0 • 4 6 7 • W I N E |
m a i l t o @ M o u n t P l e a s a n t . c o
m w w w . M o u n t P l e a s a n t . c o m |
Click on small picture for wine list 
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My beautiful wife, Pat,
entering Mt. Pleasant Winery |
Large presses and processing tanks.
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The Mule Barn - left and upper center
Original Cellar and Homestead - right and lower center |
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Water tower
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Brick oven
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The Missouri Wine Country
The glacier-dust soil following the Missouri River, together with a favorable climate, makes it possible to grow remarkable wine grapes. And from these grapes come remarkable wines. Indeed, the wines are so unique that, in 1979, this region was certified as America's very first Viticultural Area.
This area, about 60 minutes west of St. Louis has been known as "Duden Country." Many German settlers emigrated to this area where Gottfried Duden, the German researcher/explorer, lived from 1824 to 1827. The region was earlier referred to as the "Duden Settlement."
Not many of the German immigrants were vintners or had specialized experience with grape growing. Most of them turned to grape-growing as a sideline to farming. They had to experiment for many years to find domestic grape varieties that would grow well in Missouri's climate and make good wine. But they persvered and a Missouri Wine Industry was born.
Most of the grapes grown during the 1860 - 1900 were Catawba, Concord, Virginia Seedling, Elvira, Nortons' Virginia, and Herbemont.
In the 1920's the long-feared prohibition of production and sale of alcoholic beverages became fact, and the 19th Amendment ended wine-making in Duden Country for half a century.
Then in the 1960's the wine industry was re-established, and they got Augusta, Missouri recognised as the nation's first wine district. There are now more than 40 wineries in the Area.
* A good part of the research for this article was from the book "Wine-Making in Duden Country" by Ralph Gregory and Anit Mallinckrodt.
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