by Craig Kaminer / Photos by Carmen Troesser

The allure of wine transcends geographical boundaries, offering a sensory journey that delights connoisseurs and casual enthusiasts alike. While regions like Bordeaux, Napa Valley, and Tuscany have long held the spotlight as the premier destinations to find fine wine, a new wave of emerging regions is making its mark on the global stage. As the world of wine continues to evolve, creating great wine destinations requires a harmonious combination of natural beauty, exceptional wines, and memorable experiences. 

Many of these wineries take generations to create and evolve. Augusta, Missouri, founded in 1836 and designated by the Federal Government as the first American Viticulture Area, has produced wine for nearly 200 years but it’s never reached the status of Bordeaux, Napa Valley, or Tuscany. At least, it never has until now.

Missouri has had its historical highlights as when it saved the French Bordeaux crops from being destroyed in 1870 due to infestation. Less than an hour outside St. Louis, the town of Augusta has always been a great day trip, a pastoral place to go for a good meal and a bottle of wine. Over the years, Augusta also became a weekend getaway with a number of bed & breakfasts and wedding event spaces. Then in 2021, Jerri and David Hoffmann, natives of Washington, Mo., came to Augusta with a vision to build the area into The Napa Valley of the Midwest. 

With the injection of more than $150-million into Augusta and the surrounding area, Augusta is growing and evolving quickly. While a small minority of its 263 residents don’t appreciate the growth or newfound commercialization, it’s hard not to be astounded by the Hoffmanns’ commitment to make Augusta a nationally recognized wine-producing region and tourist destination— and not to be amazed at the speed at which they are doing it.

On the heels of acquiring four of the top wineries in Augusta – Mt. Pleasant Estates, Augusta Winery, Balducci Vineyards, and Montelle Winery, Hoffmann upgraded the production facilities and now employs more than 500 people in Augusta and the surrounding area. Like everything the Hoffmanns do with their hundreds of businesses around the country, they do it with steely determination.

Sophisticated Living first wrote about the Hoffmanns and their plans for Augusta in the Jan/Feb 2022 issue. Recently, I went back to check on their progress. 

David, Jerri, and I met at the White House Café with its impressive art collection mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries that was patterned after the design of the Ralph Lauren store in Chicago. There is an upscale women’s boutique next door, The August Clothing Company, that Jerri opened in April 2022; its traffic streams into the café, which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Jerri is also opening a jewelry store later this summer; her family has been involved in the business for years. Karen Parrish, who is opening up a home and garden center in downtown Augusta next to the White House Café, will oversee the future Hoffmann economic development in downtown Augusta. 

Across the street, the Hoffmanns recently bought Gallery Augusta, an art gallery and Amish furniture store. The shop specializes in handcrafted furniture and at any given time, has 50 desks on order from customers all over the country. 

Underneath The Augusta Clothing Company, there is a nail salon. “The concept is you come over to these shops, get your nails done, have lunch, and then visit the wineries,” David says. “And it’s going exactly that way. You can see the foot traffic's picking up weekly.”

Then below the nail salon, “We finished the restoration of a wine cellar that was covered in about 10 feet of mud” he says. ”Now it’s a place where you can dine or host events. And it's probably the nicest wine cellar in Missouri. It’s called The Lost Cellar because after Prohibition it was filled with mud that we had to dig out. We're putting in 125 French oak barrels so we can host parties and events there.”

The Hoffmanns plan to keep going—and growing.  “We have finished the exterior modifications to the Hoffmann Hostel Hotel on the corner of Water and Public Street just off the Katy Trail Augusta Trailhead, which we're really excited to get open by September or October,” David says. “Sometimes it’s a lot more efficient from a cost point to rip it down and start over. But we never do that. We restore. So, some of these things are taking much longer than we anticipated because we had to rework the whole stone foundation. It only has 12 rooms for bicyclists to rent as a stopover on the Katy Trail and will cost around $60 a night. It's a European concept and designed specifically for bikers.” The Hoffmanns also own a couple of bike shops so it's now convenient to buy or rent bikes.  “We’re also almost done with our 500-seat amphitheater at Balducci Vineyards and will start bringing in talent soon.”

In neighboring Defiance, the Hoffmann’s purchased the Defiance Roadhouse, a popular biker (motorcycle) bar and the local bike shop. They also bought out Don’s Place (formally Terry & Kathy’s Inn) the other restaurant and bar in town. The places are packed on the weekend. While the Roadhouse has historically been a beer bar, they are serving wine too, and making it part of the evolution of the entire area into a wine mecca. 

The Hoffmanns also bought an airplane hangar and 12 acres next to the airport outside of Washington Regional. The hangar was redone making it the starting and ending spot for upcoming helicopter tours coming by Fall, according to David. “This should certainly make Augusta a destination as we can bring people to the area in a matter of minutes.”

In short, the Hoffmanns’ strategy is to build a footprint of industry and commercialization whenever they go into an area. “When we first came, I think we had 30 people employed in the Franklin, Warren, and the St. Charles County area,” David says. “That number today is well over 500. We've bought many businesses, and I would tell you that this time next year, the number of employees will probably be a thousand. It's not all related directly to the wine industry. We bought a company called NOA Medical, which is a medical [bed] manufacturing company in Washington, Missouri. We bought Hillermann Nursery & Florist (now Hoffmann Hillermann Nursery & Florist); we bought Town & Country Nursery; and we bought Ferguson Tree Farm and Nursery (now Hoffmann Ferguson Valley Nurseries).” 

The Hoffmanns are under contract to purchase the Phoenix Center, a 600,000 sq. ft. shopping center in nearby Washington. The deal is scheduled to close at the end of June. To support all of this growth and development, they also bought Ziglin Signs, because as David says, “We use a lot of signs.” They are vertically integrating every part of their business from the recent purchase of a 75,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant to a bus and trolley company to bring people to and from the wineries. Last March, the company announced the purchase of JED Transportation of St. Louis, the largest motor coach company in the state of Missouri.

The acquisitions and developments are all centered around serving the wine industry and bringing people from St. Louis and beyond to Augusta. After the Hoffmanns announced plans for a 5-star resort-style hotel and golf course 18 months ago, they ran into some roadblocks. They changed architects mid-project and discovered that the 12-hole championship golf course could not be excavated on the land they had staked out. They then regrouped, hired a new architectural team, and are quickly progressing.

The new hotel will have 110 rooms, a 225-acre golf course, spa, and pool.  While David is tight-lipped on the hotel brand—and name, he says it will be announced shortly and will be sure to impress. With Sunflower Hill Farm already established nearby for weddings and other large events, the new hotel will be perfectly situated to accommodate destination wedding weekends. “The other big thing that we did that I don't think was in place last time we saw you, we put in Miss Augusta [105-foot three-deck luxury yacht that holds 149 people ],” David says. “We finished the multimillion-dollar dock in Augusta and now the yacht is running out of Augusta for weddings, sightseeing and dinner cruises, and corporate retreats.”  In addition to the hotel and hostel in Augusta, Chateau Hoffmann, an 18-room luxury boutique hotel in nearby Marthasville on the former Emmaus Homes Campus is being renovated and restored.

The Hoffmann approach, David explains, is “We do this all over the country and we don't cut corners. But we move quickly. “

Because of all the work and addition of people, “We're moving our offices and we built new offices,” he says. “We're going to lease space for a craft cocktail bar and cigar bar. It’s always encouraging when other businesses want to open up and be part of the excitement. For us, it's all about selling the wine and getting the wine on the map nationally and eventually globally. I think, two years into it, that vision and dream is going to happen. And we're getting a great response on the quality of the wine, which has been enhanced.”

Some of the brands sell out pretty quickly. “We're very, very pleased with how the wine is selling nationally,” David says. “We have great people that we have retained. We brought in others and we've staffed it significantly higher. We are planting 50 additional acres a year and it takes three years to get that yield, but that's how confident we are in our sales process. We're doing a joint venture with the University of Missouri. We've donated to them a couple of acres for experimental and hybrid grape growing for new varieties in Missouri, which we're really excited about.

“Our company and family donated a wine lab to a Florida Gulf Coast University to work with us on tastings, pairings, and the hospitality sector,” David continues. “It is very rewarding for me as a Missourian to be doing this in Missouri.”

Recently, the Hoffmann’s signed a 16-state distribution agreement with Breakthru Beverage (formerly Major Brands) to distribute wine in and outside Missouri. What they have always envisioned is distributing wine outside of Missouri and putting Missouri wine on the map. “I think this time next year, there'll be more wine distributed outside Missouri than there is in Missouri,” David says.

“One of our best red wines right now is our Cabernet Franc and the other is our Norton Reserve. Both those wines have been selected by some of the best wine restaurants in the state of Missouri. And I'll start with Annie Gunn’s. Annie Gunn’s has our Cabernet Franc and our Norton Reserve on their wine list. And they're a Wine Spectator 100 restaurant. The Cabernet Franc, the Norton Reserve, the Port, and our Chardonel, which competes with Rombauer Chardonnay, are our superstars.

“And we're trying to exploit that through various venues. A lot of country clubs carry Rombauer as their chardonnay of choice. The problem with these higher-end varietals is we have limited production; we produce only 14,000 bottles a year. We sell out in about a month when we produce it, and our Norton Reserve, we sell out in a week and we make about 10,000 bottles. We need additional acreage and we need to continue to develop. We've bought every grape that we can in the state of Missouri, every Norton grape even though we're not growing it, we're monitoring it, managing it, helping maintain it so we can ramp up our production. We bought state-of-the-art grape picking equipment and wine processing equipment so we can ramp up our production to meet our demand right now.”

David goes on to describe Augusta as it was when he arrived. There were two stores and his company bought them. With increased tax revenues, sidewalks are being replaced and other public improvements are being made. “There wasn’t a place to buy gas, so we put in a cool retro gas station,” he says. “What has surprised me most is that it is taking us a year longer than we thought. It was probably 50 percent more expensive and in much worse shape than we anticipated. If we had not come along, I don't know if some of the buildings would still be standing. They were that bad. Many of the buildings were termite infested and we had to rip out all of the woodwork.”

When asked if they have enjoyed the journey or has it been tough to work so closely together on this project, Jerri jokes, “I don't think we've totally disagreed on anything. It's always my way.”  

“We're both from Washington,” David says.  “The support and enthusiasm that we're getting in 99.8% of the situations is invigorating. Now there are a few, and when I say a few, I mean less than a handful of loud voices who don't like what we're doing. You know, that should be expected. It's not the first time we've run into that. I don't know of a time when everybody agrees.” 

“It's something that Dave and I as a couple love to do,” Jerri adds. “We're very lucky. We're both aligned and we both feel the same way about these things. In Chicago, we live in our 1930’s house that we restored. It's been a passion project of ours from day one. We're really good at restoring.”

As we wrapped up our conversation, I asked if there has been interest in people building weekend cottages in Augusta as a result of the transformation brought on by the Hoffmanns. “Our biggest banking relationship said ‘Let us know when and if you're gonna sell lots. We have customers who know we bank you guys. And we have customers who want to buy lots up in Augusta.’”