The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Young owners enter pivotal year
Planting finally begins at Vermilion Valley Vineyards
Just like other wine grape growers and winemakers in north-central Ohio, Joseph and Kristi Juniper have their eyes on the present and future.
With a long, cold winter having finally given way to spring, they are tending the vines at Vermilion Valley Vineyards in Henrietta Township and The Winerie in Perkins Township, businesses they operate in partnership with the Wikel family of Sandusky.
The aforementioned winter may have set back slightly work schedules in the vineyards, but the lingering cold also delayed bud break on the vines and improves the chance of avoiding fruit loss because of a late freeze.
If all goes according to plan, this will be a pivotal year for two of the youngest winery owners in the state. Joseph Juniper is 26 and his wife, Kristi, is 25.
In weeks to come, they’ll plant another 5 acres of wine grapes in Henrietta Township, upping to 16 the number of acres under cultivation at Vermilion Valley Vineyards.
At Winerie, formerly Hermes Winery, the Junipers last year planted 5 acres of wine grapes. They’ll plant an additional 11 acres of wine grapes this year at the winery where Joseph got his start in the business at the age of 13 as a field hand.
The partnership with the Wikels has enabled the purchases of land in Berlin Heights and Sandusky that will result in 110 acres given over to wine-grape production by 2025.
The Wikel holdings include Erie Group of Companies, Pegasus Vans & Trailers, Inc, Pegasus Arabians & Sandspur Ranch.
“When we got into business with the Wikels, the agreement was we were going to do this right,” Joseph said. “Where we were, at 11 to 15 acres, is almost the worst place to be. We were too big to be doing everything by hand, as we’ve been doing, and too small to afford labor and fancy equipment. At right around 110 ares, we’ll bring in the best equipment in the world, including harvesters from the south of France.”
The Junipers also are planning to greatly expand the serving area in their in the tasting room at Vermilion Valley Vineyards.
This spate of planned growth is the next step in a process that began with a youthful Joseph Fowler trying to find a job that matched his love for plants. Joseph and Kristi changed their last names to Juniper when they were married three years ago.
“I wanted to work with plants, but there weren’t that many opportunities for a young person to do that in Sandusky,” Joseph said..
At 13, he landed a job at Hermes Winery.
“I started working in the fields with immigrant workers from Mexico, trying to earn a day’s wage, picking grapes, pruning grape vines, doing field work,” Joseph said.
The job at Hermes was an ideal fit for Joseph. He was there for four years, graduating from field work to working in the wine cellar and learning the ins and outs of winemaking.
By then, he and Kristi had begun dating at Sandusky High School. They both took jobs at the Henrietta Township farm then producing corn and soybeans that soon would be converted to Vermilion Valley Vineyards. Joseph said as the farm became a vineyard, he came under the wing of David H. Benzing, a renowned botanist at Oberlin College who was hired by the vineyard’s original owners to oversee the planting of wine grapes.
“I wanted to know everything he knew,” Joseph said.
When the original owners decided to retire in late 2013, they helped finance the purchase of Vermilion Vineyards by Joseph and Kristi.
“We were riding high, being the youngest winery owners in the state, and two months later, the polar vortex freeze came in January 2014 and we were the owners of a bunch of dead twigs,” Joseph said.
The Junipers labored mightily to nurture the root stocks and grafts unions that survived the 2014 freeze. History repeated itself in 2015, with another freeze hitting their vineyards.
“We got set back two years,” Joseph said.
In 2017, the Wikels purchased the then-defunct Hermes Winery. The wine grape vines all were dead, and the Wikels went searching for someone to re-plant the vineyard and revive the business. That search led them to Joseph and Kristi Juniper.
“It was a perfect fit,” Joseph said. “They wanted to do it right, and our business plan is to grow Ohio grapes,and use them to make Ohio wine.”
Kristi Juniper has been at her husband’s side every step of the way.
“This place does not function without her,” Joseph said.
The division of labor has Kristi taking more of a managerial role as their business expands, but Joseph said “she has a better palate than me” and still is involved with the making of wine.
“We’ve been doing this together since we were 16,” Kristi said. “There is a lot of communication. You separate business life from personal life. That is so important.”