Top 100 wines of Illinois
Discover the top 100 best wines of Illinois as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the wines that are popular of Illinois and the best vintages to taste in this region.
Discovering the wine region of Illinois
Illinois is a U. S. state located South of the Great Lakes region and bordered by Missouri to the west and Indiana to the east. The state is one of the fastest-growing wine producers in the United States; the number of wineries doubled in the late 1990s and now stands at over 100.
Illinois covers 150,000 square kilometers (58,000 square miles) between latitudes 36°N and 42°N, similar to northern California. However, the unpredictable and often Harsh winters of the Midwest mean that viticulture is not as widespread as in the key Californian regions of Napa Valley and Sonoma County. Most Illinois vineyards are located in the south, where they can take advantage of slightly warmer temperatures and increased exposure to sunlight. Illinois has a Long and successful wine-growing history dating back to the mid-19th century, when settlers planted grapes along the banks of the Mississippi River to make wine.
By the turn of the century, Illinois was the fourth largest wine-producing state in the United States. Like many states, this thriving wine industry was devastated by the advent of Prohibition in 1920, when most of Illinois' vineyards were uprooted in favor of grain crops.
News from the vineyard of Illinois
Redbreast Dream Cask
The fifth of Redbreast’s Dream Cask offerings, released to mark World Whisky Day tomorrow (Saturday 21st May), is a 30-year-old single pot still whiskey produced by Irish Distillers at its Midleton Distillery in Co Cork. Unlike previous single-cask releases, this year’s Dream Cask combines two casks chosen as their favourites from Midleton’s vast inventory by master blender Billy Leighton and blender Dave McCabe. Leighton’s cask is a first-fill Oloroso Sherry butt filled in May 1990, while McCab ...
The Mâcon plus appellation investigated through its geology and geography
The Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) invites you to enjoy this video in which Jean-Pierre Renard, Expert Instructor at the Ecole des Vins de Bourgogne, explains the topographical and geological characteristics of the appellation Mâcon plus geographical denomination . The tectonics and the very different nature of the rocks that make up the subsoil of this region explain the great variety of soils found in this part fo Bourgogne. It also explains why each wine offers a different personnality. This vid ...
Big plans for Bolney as Wine GB welcomes acquisition
Freixenet Copestick has revealed a host of plans for its newly acquired English winery, Bolney Wine Estates in Sussex, as it embarks on its first English wine venture. With the ink barely dry on the deal, which was signed late last Friday (14 January), Freixenet Copestick MD Robin Copestick is not short of ideas when it comes to improving the already successful English winery. Describing Bolney as ‘the perfect match’ for Freixenet Copestick, he said: ‘When we arrived at Bolney in early September ...