The Keltoi Vineyard

Driving down dusty County Road 260 between Joplin and Pittsburg doesn’t have a whole lot in common with a cruise in European countryside—except for one thing: The Keltoi Vineyard.

Keltoi Vineyard started out as a hobby for Erv and LeeAnn Langan when they put in their first vines in 1998.  Erv said with a laugh that his wife calls it a hobby that ‘quickly got out of hand.’

Today Keltoi—which is Gaelic for Celtic—consists of 46 acres and includes “The Cottage” for tastings and retail, camp grounds, and an extensive production building.  In addition to grapes, the Langans have come to grow various fruits and pecans on their property.   They have been selling wine since 2005. 

The Norton wine, their driest full-bodied red, is made from the Norton grape, a Missouri state grape.  Their Irish Moondrops, a dry, floral white, is made from Catawba grapes which are also native to the Midwest.  The rest of the wines on Keltoi’s list are made from French-American hybrids.

“They’ve been bred by universities, mainly by Cornell in New York State,” said head wine maker Andrew Pennington. “I actually put in 650 vines myself this spring, and they all just come in a UPS box.”

Pennington, a Missouri Southern State University graduate, does the majority of wine production himself, from the picking to the barreling to the bottling.  He even has a laboratory to test pH, flavors and more.

The most extraordinary thing about Pennington’s job is the amount of time, patience, and diligence that goes into making wine.  He planted his first vines at Keltoi when he was 23 and is looking forward to tasting the finished product when he turns 28 next year.

Erv and LeeAnn are Southern graduates as well.  Erv began attending Southern after serving in Vietnam.  He was inspired to start making wine while stationed in Germany visiting wineries.  He graduated with a degree in business in 1977.  LeeAnn finished up at Southern in 1985 with a degree in Computer Science.  Erv went on to teach ROTC at Southern from 1983-1986 and 1991-1994.

The Langans are now retired, but their work is never done.   

“We get people who reserve wine that we won’t have for months on end,” said Pennington.

Their sparkling wines are the most popular, namely Irish Raindrops. “We cannot keep it on the shelves,” said Langan.

Any college students looking for an affordable night out should consider Keltoi.  All wines are under $15 and a full tasting is only $5 per person.

Making wine is an intricate process, and makers are at the mercy of the climate, but Erv Langan has a motto that keeps things positive if the going gets tough: “If we can’t sell the grapes, we’re going to make wine, and if we can’t sell the wine, we’ll just drink it!”


[This post was originally written for my school newspaper The Chart ]  

http://keltoivineyard.com/