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| Steve
Jennings Bio >
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Steve
Jennings is a native Kansan. Born in Winfield, he lived in
over twenty communities in western Kansas before starting school in
Garden City. He attended high school in Leavenworth and
college at the University of Kansas. He came to Salina in 1956
upon his graduation from K.U. with a degree in civil/structural
engineering. He worked as a structural engineer for Bucher,
Willis & Ratliff designing among other things, the Salina
Bicentennial Center.
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Steve met
his wife Hannelore, or Hanne as she is known, in 1961, and they were
married in October of 1962. They have two grown children, Norm
in Salina, and Stephanie in Missouri, and five grandchildren.
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In 1970, he
attended Purdue University and received his Master's Degree in
Environmental Engineering. Upon his return to Bucher, Willis
& Ratliff, he served as head of the environmental engineering
division, manager of the Salina office and as chairman of the board
of directors.
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After
retiring from the firm in 1995, he opened the Smoky Hill Vineyards
and Winery. Inspired by Hanne's love of wine (Hanne is from
the Rhine & Mossell region of Germany), the winery was Steve's
dream of a retirement hobby. Steve currently serves as
President and more importantly, wine maker. The winery has
grown from an initial production of less than two hundred gallons to
80,000 bottles. Many wines have received awards from around
the world.
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Wine
Making Philosophy
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Kansas
weather and soils are really the key to producing quality wines from
Kansas. Some grapes grow naturally here, while others require
special techniques such as winter protection, heat protection, crop
size control and many other variables.
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We are
fortunate in that we can grow many different varieties. For
those few that we cannot grow, we purchase the fruit from other
quality growers around the country. I have found that while we
may not be able to produce the best wine possible from any one
grape, our grapes have the ability to blend well with other grapes
so that a blend can be made which is better than any of the wines
made from a single variety.
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Blending is
both a science and a skill. Due to the large variety of grapes
we can grow and to the variety of ways we can ferment each variety,
the possible combinations are virtually endless. It is kind of
like the skill a chef develops in tasting, seasoning, re-tasting and
adjusting the mix. the differences in fruit character between
say a cool and hot year or between a rainy or dry year also have
profound effect on the fruit character. There just aren't any
scientific formulae which can be used to predict the effect of
different combinations. Experience is certainly the best
teacher, but intuition sometimes overshadows all logic and produces
the best overall taste.
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One
important element in winemaking is patience. Flavors develop
and fade during the aging process. Sometimes it is better to
wait until making the blend while at other times the blend must be
made as quickly as possible. Sometimes, as in our port, we
make the blend over a number of years. One of the things that
is very important to making the best wine is an old axiom which says
the less you do to a wine during its fermentation time, the better
it will be. I have found this to be almost a universal
truth. Some phrase it as great wines are made in the
vineyard. Also a truism. good stewardship is really the
key to this important step. If all has been done well in the
vineyard, just providing the proper environment for the yeast and
other micro-organisms to do their job is all that is needed.
If something goes wrong, however, serious intervention must be made
and this is where the winemaker really develops a relationship with
his wine.
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While all
of these techniques and skills sometime make it seem almost
impossible to produce good wine from as particular vintage, just the
opposite is true, and with patience, understanding, daring and on
occasion just good luck, outstanding wines can be made utilizing
Kansas grapes.
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