BlueStem Winery is a family business owned by Vern and Bonnie Holm.

 

Vern graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with graduate work done at Arizona State University.  Bonnie also is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and has a Master's Degree from Viterbo University located in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.  Vern runs the business on a day-to-day basis and Bonnie teaches both Health and Family & Consumer Science at Aplington-Parkersburg High School.

 

BlueStem Winery was a business born out of chance.  Making wine had been a hobby during the mid 1970s and in the fall of 2003 Vern again made some wine from locally grown wild grapes.  Vern had left a very unsatisfying job as a commercial banker (an unsatisfying job in a less than satisfactory bank) and was deciding between job hunting and early retirement.  Wine making in the fall of 2003 led to thoughts of opening our own winery as opposed to the drudgery of working for someone else.

 

The search for a building began and we quickly found our home in downtown Parkersburg, just three blocks north of our home.  We spent the late fall and winter of 2003-2004 remodeling the building and opened the doors in June 2004 not as a winery but as a retail store featuring wine related items, antiques, gourmet foods, rare books and an art gallery.  The store also featured wines from several Iowa wineries with the thought that these would be carried until we could produce and market our own wines.

 

The production of our own wines was delayed when we decided to use a large part of our store to the sale of home brewing supplies, wine making supplies and WinExpert wine ingredient kits.  We later added our second line of ingredient kits from Cellar Craft.  We originally stocked Brewer's Best beer brewing ingredients kits.  Because of resupply problems and concerns about product freshness, we started putting together our own line of brewing ingredients kits known as BlueStem's Best of which many are clones of the Brewer's Best kits.

 

After spending a substantial amount of time building our own website for the marketing of winemaking ingredients, beer brewing supplies and both WinExpert and Cellar Craft ingredient kits, we finally started producing our own label wines in 2006 with our first wine, Once in a Blue Moon, being sold for the first time in May of 2007.  Our second and third wines, Red Crescent and Dark Side, became available for sale in early 2008.  Four more wines will be on the shelves by the end of 2008 with one more scheduled for early 2009.

Making wine is what we are about but in addition to the craft of wine making we also operate a retail and web based business marketing homebrewing supplies, brewing ingredients, home brewing equipment along with all the supplies, ingredients and equipment necessary for home wine making. .

Through our website BlueStem has marketed winemaking and beer brewing supplies worldwide with clients from Greece, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Malta, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Spain, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Israel and Mexico to date and with many clients from Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Nevada, Nebraska, New Mexico, New Jersey, North Dakota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, West Virginia, Washington, Puerto Rico and of course, Iowa.

We carry the WinExpert ingredient kits and a large inventory of Cellar Craft wine ingredient kits.

We offer knowledgeable and friendly service and when an order is received it is shipped promptly. We are a phone call or an e-mail away and we will address any problems or concerns you have right away. When you call the shop you will not get a recording asking you to push this number and that number but instead you will most likely be talking to the boss, the janitor, the maintenance person and the wine maker (all named Vern). We are looking forward to serving you!