4 Elements That Are Key In Making ‘Best of Ohio’ White Wine
September 11, 2023 
Connie and Kent Eichenauer proudly showing their LaCrescent Curves wine, which won the 2023 Best of Ohio White Wine.
Photo by Gary Gao
I had the great honor of interviewing Connie and Kent Eichenauer of Dragonfly Vineyards & Wine Cellar in Urbana, OH, recently about their grapes and award-winning wines. Connie is the vineyard manager while Kent is the winemaker.
One of their wines, LaCrescent Curves, a semi-sweet wine made from their own ‘La Crescent’ grapes, won the “Best of Ohio White Wine” and double gold in the 2023 Ohio Wine Competition. This wine also won the Ohio Department of Agriculture Director of Choice Award in 2022.
Editor’s Note: A white grape varietal developed by the University of Minnesota’s cold hardy grape breeding program, ‘La Crescent’ has been planted since its release to the market in 2002 in numerous states across the Northern U.S. from Oregon to New Hampshire.
The “Best of Ohio” designation is awarded to the “Best of Show” wines made from a minimum of 90% Ohio-grown Vitis Labrusca, Vitis Vinifera, and hybrid grape varieties, and have received the Ohio Quality Wine seal designation.
THE WINNING INGREDIENTS
NO. 1: PASSION
Connie has always enjoyed wine. She took a few wine tours and sampled a lot of wines. Kent did not necessarily like wine and simply tagged along. Connie and kent bought a farm more than 12 years ago. Their initial thought was to grow an acre of grapes for sale to a winery in Ohio. Connie retired as an assistant principal and teacher from one of the springfield city schools. She thought growing grapes would be wonderful therapy during her retirement.
She quickly found her passion and loves spending every minute working in her vineyard. Connie and Kent planted ‘Vidal Blanc’, ‘Chambourcin’, ‘Cabernet Franc’, ‘Frontenac’, ‘La Crescent’, and ‘Marquette’. Their vineyard quickly expanded to 4 acres. Connie told me she treats every vine in her vineyard like a person and gives them “pep talks” when she works in the vineyards. During our interview, Connie proudly told her ‘LaCrescent’ vines, “You are the state champs!”
NO. 2: DEDICATION
Connie says, “We just try to keep working hard to produce the best grapes to make the best wine that we can.” Since ‘La Crescent’ breaks buds early and can be susceptible to spring freezes, Connie always prunes these vines last. She takes great pride in keeping her vines neat. She does cluster thinning and shoot positioning in a timely manner.
Kent sprays the vines to keep insects and diseases under control in addition to being a winemaker. Their vineyards look so neat that a group of ladies holds yoga classes in their vineyards on a regular basis.
NO. 3: ARTISTRY
Kent, more properly addressed as Dr. Eichenauer, is a psychologist. He quickly grasped the art and science of winemaking through taking online and in-person classes. More specifically, he has a flair for the artistry of winemaking. By working closely with Connie, they have produced many award-winning wines.
NO. 4: TEAMWORK
Starting a vineyard was a joint decision. Connie grew up on a farm, and the vineyard is like a sanctuary to her. Kent quickly fell in love with grape growing. He had an old tractor and thought it would be great to put it to work.
Grape growing was a lot of fun for them until they heard the real money is in winemaking, not in grape growing. Connie asked Kent about starting a winery a few years ago. In fact, Connie told Kent, “We should start a winery!” Kent agreed.
The couple opened Dragonfly Vineyards & Wine Cellar in 2019. As we all remember, COVID-19 emerged in China that year. Connie and Kent are very appreciative of the overwhelming support for their business from their community since day one.
“This is just an honor, and I have to say it feels really good to see our wine listed in these ‘Best of Class’ awards with other Ohio wineries that are well established and very respected in our industry,” Kent says.
It is so heartwarming for me to know the “dragonfly” in their business name is a tribute to their late son Brock who died in a tragic accident in 2004. While we were talking on the winery’s patio, we saw a dragonfly flying around us as if Brock were listening to our conversation from heaven.
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