COURTESY OF VOLCANO WINERY The vineyard at Volcano Winery on the Big Island is located on the slopes of Kilauea.

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Big Isle, Maui produce
Hawaii’s wine

Both wineries have faced challenges
but have won awards

VOLCANO, Hawaii >> Serious wine connoisseurs might devote entire vacations to tasting tours of the Napa Valley vineyards or European enclaves, but wine tasting in Hawaii is as laid back as a day at the beach.

If you go ... Volcano Winery is located on the Big Island near the entrance to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It is open 365 days a year from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with free wine tasting. Information at www.volcanowinery.com or call 808-967-7772. Tedeschi Vineyards is located about an hour's drive from the resort areas of Wailea and Kaanapali. The Kalakaua Cottage Tasting Room is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except for major holidays. Free tours of the grounds and winery operation are given at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Information at www.mauiwine.com or call 877-878-6058.

It's not exactly a tour, but visitors to Maui and the Big Island who are looking to tickle their palates have the option of stopping by the state's two wineries.

One is dubbed the southernmost winery in the United States and just wants people to feel welcome. The other features a 130-year-old cottage once used by a Hawaiian king. Both have overcome challenges to produce award-winning wines.

"A lot of people don't have any expectations. We can offer suggestions, but we don't want people to feel they have to know anything about wine. We want them to relax and have a good time," said Suzy Stout, marketing manager for Volcano Winery on the Big Island. "We really want our visitors to feel welcome and take home the aloha."

Volcano Winery, the youngest and smallest in the state, is adjacent to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and surrounded by the Volcano Golf Course.

The cluster of wood buildings sits at the 4,000-foot level on the slopes of the active Kilauea volcano.

Fifteen years ago, Lynn "Doc" McKinney gave up his Oahu veterinary practice and started the winery as a retirement hobby.

In the late 1990s, Del Bothof of Atlanta bought the business, which is now run by his son, Scott, and daughter, Suzy.

McKinney's daughter, Laura Dee, continues to work at the winery, along with nearly two dozen others.

"She really is the heart of the winery," Stout said.

The main building, which looks out over the vines and onto the golf course, houses the gift shop and tasting counters.

Paintings, jewelry, hand-carved koa wood pieces and Kona coffee are offered as well as a chance to taste the wines.

Four of the six have won awards. The Symphony Mele, a sweet white wine, beat out 3,000 others for the gold medal at the 2004 Finger Lakes International Wine Competition last year in New York.

More than 40,000 visit the winery each year, and many tell Stout they are repeat visitors or have been told by friends not to pass up the chance.

Keeping it small and friendly is the key, Stout said. "That's part of the appeal. It's very yin-yang around here. This is something that couldn't happen on the mainland."

Among the employees is Tim Kenny, a New Jersey native with a chemistry degree who learned his trade alongside McKinney.

In the cold, barnlike vat room, Kenny produces more than 70,000 bottles of wine, or 6,000 cases, each year. Much of the work is done by hand, from adding the ingredients to transferring the wines between the 500-gallon stainless-steel vats.

The most high-tech piece of equipment is the labeling machine, which can take only six bottles at a time.

"Nothing is automated," Kenny said. "It keeps us really close to the product, and it makes it most satisfying when I hear good comments."

COURTESY OF TEDESCHI VINEYARD Tedeschi Vineyard produces three sparkling and six still wines, including blends that use Maui-grown pineapples. The tasting room allows visitors to sample the products.

The winery is situated in Ulupalakua, at the base of Haleakala Volcano, on land previously used for growing sugar and later raising cattle.

The Kalakaua Cottage, built in 1874 for King Kalakaua, is now used as the tasting room and features an 18-foot-long bar crafted from a single mango tree.

Despite its idyllic surrounding, President Paula Hegele said the wine-making business presents challenges in Hawaii.

"It isn't an easy industry here, but it gives us a chance to do some diversification and put our product in a bottle," she said. "It's certainly a lot more complicated."

For example, she said costs are higher for land, water, shipping and supplies. Also, few agriculture workers are experienced in caring for vineyards.

"It's like we're lone rangers out here," Hegele said. "We really are trailblazers. There's no history (of winemaking) here."

The process is almost backward, she said, starting with an idea for a wine and backtracking to find what works best with the Hawaii weather, insects and diseases.

Through experimentation, both wineries have refined their products and continue to develop new ones.

Tedeschi's 23 acres are planted mostly with Carnelian grapes, although Hegele said other varieties have been introduced in the last six years.

On the Big Island, McKinney tried passion fruit, starfruit, honey and even the lehua blossom but eventually settled on the Symphony grape, a cross of Grenache Gris and Muscat of Alexandria named for its harmonic overtones.

It is grown on several of the vineyard's 14 acres, although the winery imports a Symphony concentrate from California to supplement its own harvest.

"It's been very challenging, of course," Stout said.

Among Volcano's six wines are two all-grape versions and three fruit blends. The guava and jaboticaba, or Brazilian grape, are grown locally. For the mac nut honey wine, bees introduce the macadamia nut flavor from the orchards into the honey produced in the hives.

"Using local island fruits gives us a real different twist," Stout said.

Some 3,000 wineries are scattered across the country, and just 50 produce the majority of wine. Hawaii's two vineyards, however, don't feel the need to tackle the national marketplace.

"People don't come here for the greatest wine they have ever tasted. It's just unique," Stout said. "So we don't need to compete with Napa Valley."