Regent Wine Grapes
June 3, 2026
Frontenac Wine Grapes
June 3, 2026
Itasca Wine Grapes
A modern cold-climate white bred for crisp, high-acid wine. The largest single block in our lineup, with 25 tons available for 2026.
Why buy from our farm
- A modern, cold-hardy, disease-resistant white at the front edge of its commercial life.
- Purpose-bred for crisp, high-acid wine, the style this region does best.
- 25 tons available for 2026, the largest single block in the lineup, room to build a real program.
- Own-rooted, dry-farmed, IPM, low input by design.
- Bill will set the pick to your target as the block matures.
- Multi-year contracts on the table, pickup at the vineyard, with help sorting logistics.
Pricing available on request.
The grape
Itasca is one of the most promising cold-climate whites to come out of American grape breeding. Released by the University of Minnesota in 2017, it was bred to do what older cold-hardy hybrids could not: deliver clean, crisp, high-acid white wine without the harsh acidity or foxy character that held earlier hybrids back. It survives hard winters, resists disease, and ripens to good sugar while holding freshness. Because it is new, very few Eastern winemakers have worked with it yet. That is the opportunity. This is a grape at the front edge of its commercial life, and the growers and wineries who learn it early will define what it becomes in this region.
Where it grows
The block sits on Hammond Road, about a mile off Lake Erie. The lake buffers the winter and stretches the season, and for a cold-hardy variety that means the vines get a long, even ripening window with very little winter risk. Rows run east to west, the block is dry-farmed, and it is on an IPM spray program. For a disease-resistant white, that combination keeps inputs low and lets the variety do what it was bred to do.
How Bill grows it
Three acres planted in two waves, one acre in 2018 and two acres in 2021, so these are young, vigorous vines coming into their stride. Own-rooted rather than grafted, which suits a hardy variety and lets the vine grow on its own roots. 4-cane trellis, dry-farmed start to finish. The spray program is IPM. Harvest is flexible, and Bill will set the pick to a winemaker’s target as the block matures.
Why winemakers want it
Two reasons, and they are honest ones. First, the fruit. Itasca is built for exactly the style cool-climate whites do best: crisp, aromatic, high in natural acid, clean on the palate. For a winery looking to make a bright, modern white or add freshness to a blend, it is purpose-built. Second, the position. There is very little Itasca planted anywhere, so a winery that secures fruit now is getting in early on a grape with real momentum and almost no competition for supply. At 25 tons, this is the largest single block available across the whole lineup, which makes it a rare chance to build a program around a new variety at real scale rather than a trial row.
