The Last Best Vine

Wine and Western Montana are not words people put together.  High altitude and freezing winters hinder growing the grapes found in the traditional wines of Napa and Columbia Valley. But with ingenuity and local ingredients, three Montana vintners have successfully shunned tradition to make bottles of unique wines that reflect the natural bounty of the treasure state.  

The people standing in line at the tasting room of Missoula’s Ten Spoon Winery could care less that they are miles away from California wine country as they flock here to savor delicious wine made in the heart of the Rattlesnake Valley. The tasting room is cozy and welcoming, but step outside and you will see what really matters.  Seven acres of French-American Hybrid grapevines line the property and provide the entire crop of grapes needed to make two of Ten Spoon’s most popular wines, Range Rider and Saint Pepin, proving that you really can grow grapes in Montana. 

At first glance, Andy Sponseller’s and Connie Poten’s Ten Spoon may seem like a traditional winery producing the names any novice would recognize such as Pinot Noir and Zinfandel, but look closer and you will find something quite different. They insist on only using organic fruit and grapes and they refuse to add sulfites to their wines.  “Not adding sulfites makes the process harder but makes the wine taste fresher,” Sponseller says.   “We think that organic food is largely better. It tastes better without a doubt.”

Connie and Andy have refused to let their winemaking success pull them away from a deep love of their community and the ability to reflect on what success really is.  Sponseller sums up this philosophy, “We do everything just about the hardest way that you can do it. We buy expensive fruit, we pay our people a decent wage, we’re organic, and we haven’t chopped our property up for development. It’s not the shortest route to profit but we think what we’ve established here is something that’s good for the long term.”

Beekeepers from Arlee to Hamilton and Darby to Dillon supply Schultz with the massive amounts of honey he needs. Even though he doesn’t have a hand in the honey production, his respect for these hard workers shows through the minute the subject is broached. “Those people are as busy as their bees,” he is quick to say. 

Along with the more traditional meads, Hidden Legend also makes a wide variety of fruit meads using chokecherry, elderberry, huckleberry, and others including a dandelion wine. The taste of honey and the specific fruit shines through each glass without being overpowering or too sweet. 

Schultz is passionate about getting his honey and all his fruits from Montana producers and growers. “If we were going to be a winery we wanted it to be a Montana winery.  We didn’t want to make wine out of someone else’s grapes.”  He appreciates the fact that people are satisfied with his product and that he can generate wealth for the local economy.  “It’s beginning to look like we’re on our way to being a national brand but we’ll always be local.”  

Want to see the idea of using local products taken to the extreme?  Visit Paddy Fleming’s Flathead Lake Winery in Columbia Falls, the only winery in Montana to use 100% Montana grown fruit. This pledge that Fleming has made creates a constant struggle for him to try to not only find, but keep fruit growers in a state not known for its fruit.  

Talk to Fleming about his huckleberry wine and watch his face light up. Fleming goes through 400 gallons of huckleberries each year and puts two pounds of huckleberries in every bottle.  Every Montanan is familiar with that fake huckleberry flavoring that is added to a plethora of products from chocolates to coffee.  Fleming is having none of that.  He takes great pride in the fact that real huckleberries purchased from local pickers from Hungry Horse to Polebridge go into every bottle.