Top 100 wines of Iowa

Discover the top 100 best wines of Iowa as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the wines that are popular of Iowa and the best vintages to taste in this region.

Discovering the wine region of Iowa

Iowa is a Midwestern state bordered by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The continental Climate and unpredictable weather here - as in many Midwestern states - make viticulture extremely challenging, but Iowa's ever-growing wine industry is finding its feet throughout the state. HybridGrape varieties specifically designed for cold climates make up the majority of plantings, with the best wines coming from Marechal Foch, Frontenac and La Crescent. Iowa covers 146,000 square kilometers, between latitudes 40 and 43°N.

Iowa is on par with other states in the European Union. This puts Iowa on the same level as the South of France, although the Terroir is very different. While the vineyards of Provence are influenced by the proximity of the Mediterranean Sea, Iowa has a strongly continental climate, with hot, humid summers and Harsh winters. This presents a challenge for the state's winemakers, which they overcome by using native grape varieties and seeking out more temperate mesoclimates.

News from the vineyard of Iowa

Vinexposium/IWSR report: Moderation and convenience on the road to recovery

While preparing to resume its calendar of trade fairs, Vinexposium, the company behind 10 of the world’s biggest alcoholic beverage trade events, partnered with market research agency IWSR and its consumer behaviour child company, Wine Intelligence, to issue a report charting the drinks sector’s road to recovery. For Rodolphe Lameyse, CEO of Vinexposium, ‘the last couple of years have been a game changer for the drinks industry’, with structural transformations in logistics, packaging, product d ...

Walls: Tasting Hermitage 2001 20 years on

In 2001, George W. Bush was sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States. Meanwhile in the UK, Tony Blair led the Labour Party to its second landslide victory. A lot can change over the course of 20 years. According to many Rhône winemakers and wine collectors, this is how long a bottle of Hermitage should lay undisturbed until you open it. Is it really worth the wait? I recently tasted 11 Hermitage 2001s – seven red, two white, two sweet – to test the 20 year hypothesis and see how these ...

Fine wine demand slows as recession fears mount, says Liv-ex

Rampant inflation, the global fuel crisis, recession fears and fiscal tightening from central banks have caused equities and bonds to tank over the past few months. Fine wine has significantly outperformed global equities and most commodities, but market momentum has been ‘much more subdued’ in the second quarter of 2022, said Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade. The Liv-ex 1000 – which tracks the performance of 1,000 leading fine wines – increased by 3.6% year-on-year in ster ...

The best wines of Iowa in other styles