August 13th, 2007
St. James, Missouri – Braving 100 degree temperatures, over 125 invited guests, dignitaries, and politicians attended the official ribbon cutting ceremony commemorating the opening of the new tasting room and gift pavilion at St. James Winery August 1st.
Despite the tragic set back this spring with the catastropical freeze devastating much of Missouri’s grape crop for the year, the management and staff of St. James Winery made the conscious decision to go forth with their scheduled expansion plans for 2007.
Construction of a new front tasting room, expansion of the gift pavilion, and renovation of the existing structure were completed just prior to the ceremony.
St. James Winery is committed not only to the industry, but to the betterment of the grape and agricultural program in the state of Missouri.
The new dual sided oak tasting bar measures over 40 feet long per side with a separate tasting bar for juices. The facility now boasts four oak check out stands complete with cork inlaid tops in keeping with a total wine theme.
Ceramic merlot colored tile floors compliment the earth tone color scheme throughout. With the expansion and renovation of the present facility, the tasting room and gift pavilion now boast almost 10,000 square feet of retail space awaiting visitors.
Rodney Lough, President of St. James Winery stated “The entire staff of St. James Winery is proud of our new facility and happy we are able to provide our visitors with such a modern and relaxing environment when visiting our winery.”
After brief speeches were made by Patricia Hofherr, COB and original founder of St James Winery, followed by son Andrew, COO and Andrew Meggitt, Vice President of Product Development, the ribbon was officially cut by Patricia and Andrew Hofherr and Dennis Wilson, Mayor of St. James, MO.
Guests were then treated to New Orleans style jazz band, fabulous fireworks display, and a buffet luncheon catered by Matt’s Steakhouse of Rolla, MO, and of course, a variety of wines to please everyone’s pallet.
Tasting room hours are from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday through Saturday and from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm on Sundays.
With over 2,000+ awards to date, St James Winery is ranked seventh in number of Gold medals awarded nationally in 2006 in the top 21 prestigious wine competitions in the nation and also named by Wine Business Monthly Magazine, February 2006, as the Number 4 Hottest Small Brand of 2005.
In 2006 alone, St. James Winery was awarded over 325 medals to include 47 Gold, 129 Silver, and 109 Bronze plus Best of Class, Chairman’s, Double Gold’s, and Critic’ Choice Awards. St. James Winery has surpassed all other wineries, not only in Missouri, but in the entire 12 state Midwest Region in terms of case volume and is one of the top ten most awarded wineries in the United States.
St. James Winery is owned and operated by the Hofherr Family since 1970, conveniently located on Interstate 44, on Old Historic Route 66, only 90 miles southwest of St. Louis, Missouri in St. James, Missouri.
With over 700 miles of vines in Missouri, Arkansas, and Michigan, no other winery in the Eastern United States utilizes such state of the art technology from the vineyards to the bottling room as St. James Winery bringing you consistent, quality, vintages for your enjoyment.
St. James Winery, “Award-Winning Wines from America’s Midwest Winery” with over 2,000+ medals awarded to date is distributed in nine states presently and available on-line at www.StJamesWinery.com.