A toast to the Kansas Republican Party for coming up with a positive response to Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ embarrassing wine gaffe: House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, and a dozen other lawmakers have a tour planned for today of Wyldewood Cellars in Mulvane. “He sees this as an opportunity to highlight and show his support for the Kansas wine industry,†said Sherriene Jones-Sontag, the speaker’s spokeswoman.
After having said at a Washington state fundraiser this month, “If you ever see Kansas wine, don’t drink it,†Sebelius could make it up to the state’s 15 wineries by working to pass a law allowing them to sell directly by mail to in-state customers, including through wine clubs. And the GOP should help.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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29 Comments
Oh no! The religious right republicans (Neufeld) can’t actually promote the drinking of wine. Sell it, sure. But no drinking, might lead to dancing or…well you know.
Thinkfirst:
and people say conservatives are narrow minded?
“Sebelius could make it up to the state’s 15 wineries by working to pass a law allowing them to sell directly by mail to in-state customers, including through wine clubs.”
Wonderful, wine delivered to your doorstep like bottles of milk…
Very intelligent move on their part. And I definitely agree that they should be able to deliver – it might also open up additional markets. Assuming the wines are as good as I am told what better gifts to send my out-of-state relatives!
Ben, I was listening to Saturday morning radio once, forgot what station….
Anyway they were discussing Kansas wines and the stores that sold the wines often had taste tests open to the public. That was over a year ago, I assume their strategy worked.
I’m not much of a wine drinker, so my tastes wouldn’t count. :)
kansas – I know my wife has gotten some of the Wildwood wines and she likes them. They did have some at the state fair but I don’t think they had tasting. If I understood correctly it was part of our law situation – although they did sell beer elsewhere on the grounds.
I think KS arcane laws hobble the local industry which is too bad. While I, like you, am not a customer myself (nothing against KS wines – just wine in general) I WOULD like to see this product be successful and available not only here but to be sent elsewhere.
Think about having tasting available in shopping areas with the ability to ship from there. Lets see now … my brothers back east … sister in California(!) … in-laws (also in California!) …
I especially like the idea of sending wine to California!
With all the unresolved conflict in the Kansas GOP, the picture of Neufeld and Co. hittin’ the wineries has CF2K thinking “Sideways.”
http://imdb.com/title/tt0375063/
CHORTLE, CF!
The image of Neufeld tipping up the spit-can in a desperate effort to get drunk is truly heartening . . .
Our guv made a bigtime gaffe. When she said, “If you ever see Kansas wine, don’t drink it,” she should have said, “Kansas grapes will be growing part of our biofuel initiative.”
Grape-growing for good-quality wines requires certain climates. These exist in Western Europe and the Mediterranean Sea-bordering countries. From these regions, which have grown grapes and produced wines for thousands of years, viticulturists have looked and found similar marine and marine-influenced climate regions in the Pacific states of North America, South Africa, western South America, Australia and New Zealand.
If we look at tropical regions, some high-elevation, cool-winter, warm-summer areas have potential.
But you can’t grow good-quality wine grapes in any place. Even in California, whose coastal counties can grow grapes that produce world-renowned to good-quality table wines, the inland hot-hot-summer Central Valley is only useful for “Two-Buck Chuck”. Lot of sugar in the grapes, with dreck taste. Good for a buzz. Not something you would ever pair with cheese-tasting or a fine meal. This is what Kansas can produce.
Was the governor drunk? Actually, she was trying to perform on the national stage, kind of when you say something bad about your spouse to impress your new friends at a party. The governor is disgusting.
“Two-Buck Chuck”.
I remember “Red Mountain” wine – bought by the gallon. When you got a good bottle of that you would say “ah, a good week”
Aged in tanker trucks on the freeway – pray for a traffic jam for more aging.
As I said before, there is nothing better than watching the sunset over a Kansas vineyard, listening to jazz, and sipping a glass of Kansa wine!
The Gov. should visit on a Friday Jazz night – and end the archaic laws which are hurting these small family businesses.
http://holyfieldwinery.com/events.htm
Kind of a silly question eagle Beak – how far is that from Wichita?
http://holyfieldwinery.com/murder_mystery.htm
That guy looks like me before coffee!
Found it – 200 miles. Near KC.
Looks like fun!
It IS a lot of fun!
We bring our lawn chairs, crackers, cheese, and suasages (she packs chocolate for her).
You buy a bottle of their wine, after taste testing of course, and sit back and enjoy the music from anywhere on the property!
There is a smoker going and you can buy if you don’t pack your own food and blanket.
Six miles from NASCAR and all the attractions and hotels.
And all spent in Kansas supporting Kansas business.
I think Wildwood has something similar down in Mulvane. It would be a bit closer for us.
My Uncle is from Sicily.
He now lives close to Denver.
He has produced his own wine for years, though not as much as he used to produce.
According to him, the Eurpean stock of grape vines was largely knocked out by either bad weather or bad bugs or some sort of event.
Many European vineyards, according to Doc Bob, were either grafted or totally replanted with American vines.—–Prior to prohibition, Kansas was a leader in wine grape production, I believe.—–Also, the first public Miracle of Jesus, on Earth, was to change water in to wine at the Wedding at Canna.One of the last public Miracles of Jesus was to turn wine into His own Blood, at the Last Supper.
As I once asked the Rev. Richard Taylor:
Would Jesus be welcome in Kansas?—–Having said that, I do admire those who fight against alcoholism and drunk driving.
I have no problem with a tax on alcohol if used for rehab for the poor and restitution for drunk driving victims.
Paul – I too had heard about the re-stocking of many European vineyards from the US. And also that KS had been a fairly large producer before prohibition.
I don’t know enough about viticulture to judge KS wines but any product we can make and sell makes a lot of sense to me.
Oh Geez, Econ, turn a Kansas wine post into vinegar why don’t you?
Tax em to death! Tax EVERYthing.
I think Missouri had more wine production before prohibition.
But you are correct, with global warming, European wines will be used for raisins as American wine becomes finer!
Didn’t some flood in N.E. Kansas pretty much ruin that region for wine growing? From what I remember reading about it, the soil was totally screwed up from the transferred soils by the flood and made it unsuitable for growing grapes.
Why yes Kansas that would be true. It was during the Mesozoic Era, during the Jurassic period and also when the earth heated up again during the Riphean or Hadean Era during early Imbrain.
But during modern times, the rolling hills of post glacerial NE Kansas has been free of hydrocarbons, but blessed with rich soil.
heh EB, no I think it was more recent than that. :)
Obviously, there has been a recovery, but there was a great flood that pretty much “ate” the soil of N.E. Kansas during the 20th century at one point.
Here it is :)
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/top/events/flood93.php
Flood of 93 did a lot of damage all over the place.
What happened with European wines was some eastern American grape plants were exported to Europe. These carried the Phylloxera louse (an insect) in their roots. American grape species tolerated these parasites. European species had no evolutionary tolerance and were wiped out. To restore European viticulture, American rootstock was imported and grafted to not-yet-infected European branch stock (vines), creating chimeras. (not to be confused with hybrids consisting or whole new plants with pollen (”fathers”) of American grape plants with ova (”mothers”) of Old World plants, or vice versa).
Since vines branch repeatedly for decades, it is possible to cut new branches off and attach them to American rootstock, thus preserving Old World grapes production indefinitely.
MPSThanksI was about to call my uncle and ask him about his European grape story.You saved me the trouble.
Hey Kansas,
I live in NE Kansas. We have two wineries in NE Kansas. One in Leavenworth one in Basehor. Both were in existence prior to 93 and both are still producing wines.
I was also present during the floods of 93 and in fact did some local sandbagging.
Although the floods were swift and record in height – agricultural life is pretty much what it was before the flood.
Same farms, same grains. Not much change at all because of the flood. The flood was restricted to river areas.
Both wineries are far from rivers.
Come on up and visit some time – don’t believe everything you read.
Here it is :)
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/top/events/flood93.php
Posted by: Kansas
Huh, Kansas, your link fails to support any of your previous post information. As you said, it must be your memory.