—by Matt Milkovich
To maintain a successful estate winery in north-central Ohio, start with hard work and a love of local grapes, stir in helpful mentors and resourceful partners, and add a dash of luck.
That recipe has worked for Joe and Kristi Juniper, co-owners of Vermilion Valley Vineyards. They grew their business, located several miles south of Lake Erie’s southern shore near Vermilion, Ohio, from 12 acres to 120 acres within the past few years. It’s now one of the largest vineyards in the state.
Operating as an estate winery — serving only wine made from its own grapes — almost cost them dearly when Ohio was hit by polar vortexes twice in a row, Joe Juniper said.
“We are 100 percent estate grown. I always say we will live and die by that model, and we damn near did,” he said.
To manage the inherent risks of running an estate winery in an unpredictable climate, the Junipers expanded their vineyard acreage to give themselves enough fruit to survive further losses, building partnerships to make that possible, all before the age of 30.
Juniper, now 33, is president of the Ohio Wine Producers Association, a passionate promoter of Ohio-grown grapes and a tireless proponent of the state’s wine industry. His “energy, youth and enthusiasm” also set a great example for young people getting into the wine business, said Donniella Winchell, the association’s executive director.
Like his wife, Juniper grew up in Sandusky — “without a dollar in my pocket,” he said, and not much support at home. He always loved tending plants, so at 13 he found a vineyard within bicycle range that was willing to hire him. There he learned to pick, prune, weed and “turn on the pumps.” After a few years learning the ins and outs of grape growing, Joe and Kristi, who were high-school sweethearts, found work at a new winery.
Vermilion Valley Vineyards, which started as a dozen acres of grapes and a tasting room built on an old cornfield, opened its doors in 2009. One of the founding partners, David Benzing, a botanist and longtime biology professor at Oberlin College, mentored Joe and taught him how to keep grapevines healthy and productive in the long run.
By 2013, Benzing and the other partners had decided to step away from the vineyard, so the Junipers offered to become operating partners. They were both 22. Their first year running the vineyard started on a hopeful note. Their vines yielded a bumper crop, about three times greater than normal.
“We thought, ‘We’re going to be in every store from here to Columbus, in every restaurant from here to Cleveland. We’re going to blow this place up,’” Juniper said.
A couple of months later, the first polar vortex hit. Deep winter freezes killed all their buds in early 2014, and then again in 2015. Ohio vineyards lost about 500 acres of vines in those years. The Junipers lost all their grapes, but thanks to an investment in risk mitigation — also known as hilling — their vines survived.
Most Ohio vineyards had by then abandoned the laborious and expensive practice of mounding soil around graft unions. The Junipers were headed in the same direction before the polar vortexes.
“Had I gone another five years without incident, I might have abandoned the practice too, which would have put us straight to bankruptcy with our business model,” he said.
Luckily, in 2013 they harvested a big crop and eked out that vintage until the 2016 season, which yielded another bumper crop.
“We got incredibly conservative with our inventory,” Juniper said. “We did not send anything out the back door. We did not go to any tasting events.”
Not long after, they found a new partner and mentor when Dean Wikel, owner of Erie Group of Companies, one of the largest road construction firms in Ohio, bought a Sandusky winery at auction. It happened to be the winery that had first hired Juniper, and its vines were long neglected.
Juniper approached Wikel and offered to replant the 16-acre vineyard, manage the new vines and process the fruit at his winemaking facility, if Wikel could find somebody to manage the tasting room. Wikel agreed. The new partnership brought a lot to the table, including human resources, accounting and legal departments, plus mechanical know-how, he said.
“I get to wake up in the morning now and not fight and struggle to repair a tractor,” Juniper said. “I can simply make a phone call, and a mechanic shows up within 45 minutes.”
Wikel taught the Junipers a lot about running a business. His partnership also helped them expand their acreage tenfold between 2018 and 2023. They now grow 120 acres of grapevines, most of them planted on old corn and bean ground. Such fast growth was a “big chunk to chew,” Juniper said, but it allowed them to buy equipment that would fit the larger scale immediately, instead of “constantly having to upscale.” They’re probably done expanding for now, he said.
Most of their field workers are from the H-2A program, which is becoming more and more expensive, Juniper said.
Their vines now spread across four properties located about 2 to 8 miles south of Lake Erie, mostly flat land dotted with cornfields. The big lake helps protect his grapes, mostly Vitis vinifera varieties, from temperature extremes. Herbicide drift from neighboring fields sometimes damages his vines. Dispersion across four properties is a “logistical nightmare,” Joe said, but adds complexity to the grapes’ flavor and limits hail damage.
The Junipers harvested another bumper crop in 2024. The winery is building a new production facility to accommodate all the new grapes.
The larger scale should help ensure that Vermilion Valley Vineyards is always able to sell wine made from its own grapes. That’s important to Juniper, as a fruit grower and a business owner.
“Eighty percent of the quality in your glass comes from the vine,” he said. “If you don’t have a vine in your backyard, you can’t manipulate quality to the same degree.” •
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