• A vine life

  History alumnus Roger Louer content with his life "on the farm."
  

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  The last place many of Roger Louer's college buddies would expect him to be is in a farm field.
  
  "There was no way I was going to be a farmer," Louer says.
  
  The Chicago area native came to Iowa State initially to major in agriculture but it took just one animal husbandry course for him to realize that this wasn't the life for him.
  
  Instead Louer finished with a degree in history. He did complete a minor in agriculture but he just knew farming wasn't for him.
  
  So why is Louer now the proud owner of a vineyard in the Napa Valley in California?
  
  "I found out that what I like about farming is permanent crops," he says. "I didn't have any interest in the traditional row crops that the Midwest is famous for."
  
  Now, much to the surprise of his college buddies, Louer can be found most days in his vineyard. In recent years, his business has expanded into the Calistoga Cellars winery.
  
  The business even includes a wine tasting room just like the movie "Sideways."
  
  And Calistoga Cellars, in just six years, has produced six award-winning wines.
  
  Louer seems embarrassed by his success as a winemaker. He keeps a framed article highlighting his success with the new business in a closet at the winery.
  
  Ribbons recognizing the wines' successes are prominent in the tasting room but Louer is anxious to get back to what he loves – his vineyard.
  
  "Every morning I can't wait to get out into the vineyard," he says while pouring a sample of his port wine. "It's what I think I was born to do."
  
  Prior to going into the wine business, Louer owned a wine distriborship in Oakland, Calif., and owned an apple and cherry orchard in Wisconsin.
  
  Louer and his family have owned their vineyard since 1986. The grapes harvested from his vineyard now produce Calistoga Cellars' Cabernet Sauvignon wine.
  
  After years of growing grapes for other wineries, Louer got together with 45 other partners (including two in Iowa) and established Calistoga Cellars in Calistoga, Calif., in 1996. Louer serves as the managing partner of the business.
  
  In addition to Louer's personal vineyard, Calistoga Cellars has 24 acres at the winery site and a guesthouse on the grounds. The guesthouse was featured in the Julianne Moore/Hugh Grant movie "9 Months."
  
  The first vintage came out of the winery in 2000 and in just two years, the Cabernet Sauvignon won a Double Gold Medal from the San Francisco Chronicle.
  
  The winery (the wine is made elsewhere under the supervision of the group's own winemaker) and tasting room were built in 2003. Now Calistoga Cellars produces more than 10,000 cases of wine a year.
  
  The firm's six wines – Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet and Cabernet Sauvignon – are sold in 26 states including Iowa. Louer hopes to expand Calistoga Cellar's production to 25,000 cases a year and increase its distribution to more than 35 states.
  
  "We've had a very good response to our wines," he said. "I happen to think all are good and we've held the prices down under $30 a bottle.
  
  "For Napa Valley wines that's pretty cheap."
  
  While Louer can talk all day about his wine, it's his vines that he most likes to talk about. Hardly a day goes by without him venturing into the vineyards adjacent to his home.
  
  Pruning, irrigation, spraying, planting new vines – you name it and Roger Louer does it. Even when he's at the winery he has his pruning shears with him.
  
  "I walk the rows every day," he says. "I could be out here all day.
  
  "It took me 20 years to find out what I loved doing was farming."
  
  Something that would shock his college buddies to this day.

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