Ackerman Winery in the Amana Colonies

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

All across America there are towns that were formed by religious separatists who in their zeal to serve the Lord left their homelands to end up in places like Iowa to live in communal bliss until the dawning of the 20th century when Nietzsche and crass commercialism killed God and turned their towns into kitschy havens for people to go antique-ing or stay in a cute bed & breakfast.

Most of the time, the organization that created the community has gone the way of all flesh. This is not the case of the Amana Colonies. The settlers of the seven Amana village moved to America in 1842 settling outside of Buffalo (an area that was no stranger to new religious movements. The Mormons, 7th Day Adventists, Lily Dale Spiritualism and Shakers were active or founded in the area). They moved to Iowa in 1854 where they established six villages: Amana, High Amana, South Amana, East Amana, North Amana and Middle Amana (Amana means remain true). The seventh village, Homestead was established later as a transportation hub.

While the members of the community no longer live as communally as they used to, they still exist and the much of the land is still owned by the Amana Society, Inc. and at the church men and women still enter the pews from different sides of the central aisle.

That being said, they are cute shops, antiques and B&Bs in the area. And wineries.

In fact, wine has existed in the colonies since they were established. Each village had a winery when only some of them had a brewery (ok, most….still…). So, while driving through Iowa and entering the Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area I decided to make a stop. Currently, there are six wineries in the colonies, all in the Village of Amana. So, I decided to stop at one, the Ackerman Winery.

The Ackerman’s began selling wine in 1954.  Because the communities’ vineyards which had been established with cuttings brought from Germany, were destroyed in 1919 because of Prohibition, the wines were fruit or country wines.  Specifically, they began with rhubarb and strawberry wines.  They have since expanded to apples, apricot, blackberry, black raspberry (called Razzy), cherry, crimson cranberry, gooseberry, mango, peach, plum crazy, pomegranate, red raspberry, a series of cranberry blends and some grape varietals Concord, Catawba, Niagara, Riesling, Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Shiraz and White Zinfandel.

Of the country wines, I found that the rhubarb, cherry and pomegranate were the best.  The rhubarb and strawberries are still grown locally while the remaining fruit including the grapes are bought in juice.  In general, I found the country wines to have fuller flavors, on the other hand they have been the specialty of this winery longer.

The winery building was a simple wooden structure, typical of the Amana Colonies.  The tasting room dominates the largest part in the front with wine taste being available from old fashion glass dispensers and the assorted tchotchkes that is usually associated with a wine tasting room.  The building also contains a museum of the wine making and the Ackerman Family.  This was a pleasant addition to a stop on my trip back home.

Ackerman Winery
4406 220th Trail
Amana, Iowa 52203
319.622.3379
Hours: Mon-Sat, 9-5 Sun, 10-5

Ackerman Winery Heritage Wine & Cheese Haus
4402 220th Trail
Amana, Iowa 52203
319.622.3564
Hours: Mon-Sat, 9-5 Sun, 10-5

Other wineries can be found at the Amana Colonies at:

Little Amana Winery
I-80, Exit 225
Little Amana, IA 52203
319.668.9664
9-8 Mon.-Sat., 10-5 Sun

Ehrle Brothers Winery
4105 V Street
Homestead, IA 52236
319.622.3241

Sandstone Winery
4505 220th Trail
Amana, IA 52203
Phone: 319-622-3081
sandwine@netins.net
Apr.-Dec.: 9-5 Mon.-Sat., 10-5 Sun

Village Vintner
4313 220th Trail
Amana, IA 52203
319.622.3181

Village Winery
752 48th Avenue
Amana, IA 52203
Phone: 319.622.3448
vwinery@southslope.net
www.thevillagewinery.com
10-5 Mon.-Sat., 11-5 Sun.

This entry was posted on September 18, 2009 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Country Wine, Iowa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.