Days of Wine and Bullets
Idaho's Sawtooth Winery
In early 2008 I wrote a paper about the developing competition between Caldwell and Eagle as each seeks to become the dominant player in the Idaho wine industry following the BATF’s designation of 5.2 million acres along the Snake River Plain as an American Viticultural Area (AVA). I opened the paper recalling a trip to the Bitner Vineyard out on Sunny Slope:
Bitner was anxious to talk about the law as it relates to his business and shared anecdotes as he opened bottles of Bitner Vineyard sourced wines made by award-wining vintner and distiller Greg Koenig whose property is just down the road. In the small world of Idaho Wines, there is still more news to share not least of which is Polo Cove, a new project on which Bitner is consulting. From a back room in his tasting facility he brought forth a three foot by two foot poster board illustrating the new development that will border his property. A hotel, polo grounds, wine makers cooperative, restaurant, bungalows, day spa, truffle fields, orchards, and yes, more grapes will fill some 1600 acres on hill top property looking south towards the Snake River. It is a massively ambitious plan for this area, one that will bring certain change.
A county away in Eagle, retired Apple, Inc. executive Lloyd Mahaffey has a competing vision: his own wine making community starting with four acres of his own plantings. His near-term plan involves development of a forty acre parcel just north of Beacon Light Road, an area some hope will become the next wine producing region in Idaho. Developer Dave Buich plans 150 homes, a restaurant, retail shops and an events center at the Eagle Knoll Winery site, which he purchased late last year. Even Eagle’s Chamber of Commerce is boosting the area as a wine country of the future - even though meaningful commercial production is a decade away. Caldwell and Eagle - two cities with similar but competing visions, different histories, and different cultures and character - both turning an eye toward developing the wine trade. The end goal of all this: envisioning the region as the next great tourist attraction - Idaho Wine Country.
With the downturn in the economy and problems with the original developer, the Polo Cove project is in stasis, but the wine players in Eagle have just scored a major coup. As the Idaho Statesman reported on Sunday July 19, for some Idaho wineries, help is on the way.
The Idaho Department of Commerce awarded a coalition consisting of Boise State University, the College of Western Idaho, and Lloyd Mahaffey’s Vinemakers, LLC a $300,000 grant to build infrastructure which will support construction of a $1.1 million dollar wine production and research facility - in Eagle.
I believe that the Idaho wine industry is going to be the next great industry in the state. The financial implosion in California especially will drive some investors there to look for more affordable opportunities. Idaho’s wine industry has that in spades. This grant award is a great thing to bolster a growing industry - the kind of thing that the state should be investing in. Still, I just can’t help seeing this as Eagle 1, Caldwell 0, but the game is just beginning.
Tags: Wine
Economic Development, Infrastructure | admin July 22, 2009
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By Norris Krueger, July 22, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
It’s not a competition within state as much as it’s a competition with other areas. (Not to mention that Wood River’s malbec vineyard is near Parma…)
p.s. Speaking of Parma, I’d also appoint you to take over the Parma extension center than UI seems so eager to toss..