Faber's hobby wine earns high rank

(Sentinel photo by Magdalene Landegent) Wayne Faber, of Le Mars, earned first place in an Iowa hobby wine competition with a dry red wine he produced from grapes grown in his backyard. [Click to enlarge]

A Le Mars man's wine, made from grapes grown in his backyard and fermented in his basement, was picked champion in its class last weekend.

Wayne Faber entered his dry red wine in the Schleswig Wine and Bier Contest last weekend, an annual event for Schleswig, 45 miles south of Cherokee.

Expert judges awarded points based on factors like the wine's aroma, clarity, flavor and finish.

To Faber's surprise, judges gave his dry red wine 44 out of a possible 45 points, placing him first among entries in the Best Dry Red category.

"This was my first year in the contest," Faber said.

But this isn't Faber's first year making wine.

He started brewing it in his basement after 1996 with special vines he tended in his backyard.

This story, like many, starts with a young woman.

A radio repair man from Remsen, the late Harry Johnson, who worked on radios in Faber's vehicles, married a young French woman after being posted in France during military service, Faber explained.

Along with the young lady, Johnson also brought some French vines home to Remsen.

Johnson and Faber became good friends, and Johnson gave a few vines to Faber, who planted them in his backyard.

"They do really well around here," Faber said of the vines, a variety he called Du Shonac. "I had more grapes than I could use."

Then he met a Merrill man named Norman Rossow.

"He's an accomplished winemaker," Faber said. "He's won several competitions with his wine."

Rossow took Faber under his wing in terms of hobby winemaking.

"He mentored me a bit," Faber said. "The result is this rather fine wine from 2008 grapes."

To make wine, Faber harvests grapes from his vines, cleans them, crushes them with a food processor, adds in yeast and sugar to the juice, and lets it rest for five to seven days.

Then he strains, or "racks" the wine, and pours it into a 6-gallon bottle to age.

Sometimes when he's making a batch of wine, Faber adds toasted French oak chips.

"It gives it that oak keg flavor," he said. "But I don't think I ever do it the same way twice."

Even with a championship ribbon, Faber plans to keep his winemaking low-key, just a hobby.

But he does have a label for his wine: Happy Valley Vine-Yard.

"I don't have a vineyard," he explained with a chuckle. "I have a vine-in-yard."