A delightful bed & breakfast adds a winery

Pages in this Story:

• Grant money helps

Grant money helps

The Engelbrechts transformed one end of a livestock barn into a gift shop where they host wine-tasting sessions. The newest addition is an event room that is adjacent to the wine showroom. It holds up to 60 people for parties and meetings.

To help answer questions like what type of wine visitors enjoy most, how far people will travel to purchase their favorite bottle, and what type of business structure will best serve their family, the Engelbrechts applied for a special grant through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development office. Grants are available to farmers, ranchers, and others for planning new ventures and also for providing working capital for processing and marketing value-added agricultural products.

"Adding value to an agricultural product can be done by differentiating production or marketing, such as providing an organically grown or identity-preserved product, or by changing the physical state, such as from grapes to wine," says Jeff Jobe, USDA Rural Development office in Iowa.

Staying on small farms

Helping develop rural entrepreneurs like the Engelbrechts is important, according to Jobe. "By keeping families living on small farms and able to make a living, they can support schools and retail businesses in rural areas and small towns."

In October 2005, the USDA awarded the Engelbrechts $26,500 -- an amount the family must match with their own money or in-kind contributions -- to conduct a feasibility study and develop business plans for the proposed winery and also a brewery.

They will also investigate starting make-your-own wine and beer businesses, which would allow visitors to come to the farm and process and label their own bottles.

"This could tie in well with the bed-and-breakfast," says Loren.

The Engelbrechts are working with the University of Northern Iowa's Sustainable Tourism and Environment Program to help collect demographic, tourism, and marketing data and to provide information for business decision-making. Grant funding will be used to pay a stipend to the university and also for outside consultants such as a lawyer and accountant.

Time spent by the Engelbrecht family for items like interviewing other wineries and computer research is billed toward their side of the match.

Continued on page 4: Joining the business