University of Iowa graduate and undergraduate students are helping develop the state’s budding winemaking industry, connecting grape growers with winemakers throughout Iowa.
Story
Tom Snee
Photography
Justin Torner
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Kristy Walker, a member of the business analytics faculty in the Tippie College of Business, and Matt Bare, one of her students in the Tippie College’s part-time Master in Business Analytics program, enjoy a sunny day at Walker Homestead just outside of Iowa City.

Winemaking is not yet a major Iowan enterprise, the Hawkeye State’s slice of the industry comprising mostly small-scale producers and hobbyists—but they are dreaming big and hope to someday make vineyards and wineries an important part of Iowa’s economy.

Now a project from a group of University of Iowa students is helping these wine pioneers take a crucial step in the development of their industry: The Iowa team built an online map that connects the state’s grape growers and winemakers.

Kristy Walker, a member of the business analytics faculty in the Tippie College of Business, is a vintner and winemaker, too, and also a member of the Iowa Wine Growers Association (IWGA) board of directors. She says the wine industry in Iowa is small—100 licensed wineries produced 335,000 gallons of wine from 1,300 acres of vineyards in 2018. She says that one challenge for Iowa winemakers is connecting the winemaker with the grower in a timely manner so that the grapes can get to the press when they’re at their peak.

“The website delivers good value for all growers and wineries across Iowa. We’re glad that the university has resources like this that can be shared with businesses in the state.”

Kristy Walker
Tippie College of Business faculty member

Sometimes, she says, grapes will be wasted unsold because the grower couldn’t find a winemaker to take them before they started turning to raisins.

“Right now, there’s really not a good way to connect anyone,” says Walker. “It’s mostly word of mouth. And since it’s time sensitive, we need something more timely.”

Last fall, she suggested to one of her students in the Tippie College’s part-time Master in Business Analytics program that he design an online tool as his capstone project that instantly connects the two crucial parties. Though Matt Bare says he doesn’t know the difference between a Brianna grape and an Edelweiss, the idea of helping winemakers appealed to him because he has family in the business.

After talking with vintners around Iowa, Bare designed a tool that allows growers to enter the type of grape they have available and how much of it they have, while winemakers enter the kind of grape they want to buy and how much. The tool matches the parties, and the transaction is quickly made.

“A lot of people have told me they’re excited to have something like this and are looking forward to using it,” says Bare, who now works full-time as a data analyst at ACT Inc. in Iowa City (and whose favorite wine is a Sangiovese).

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Bare then handed the project off to three undergraduate students who built the site and incorporated it into the IWGA website during the spring semester. A.J. Finn, Adam Helf, and Yafei Guo are students in Walker’s undergraduate Information Systems capstone class and finished the project while working from their homes following the move to all-online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The map currently includes about 60% of all grape growers in the state, but it’s designed to be scalable, so more can be added easily.

“The website delivers good value for all growers and wineries across Iowa,” says Walker, whose own favorite wine is Grounded, a dry, earthy red made at the Walker Homestead winery she co-owns with her husband, Bob, and chef Chris Grebner. “We’re glad that the university has resources like this that can be shared with businesses in the state.”