This semi-sweet wine is dedicated to the small unincorporated town of Cranston, Iowa – 1 mile south and 2 miles west of Ardon Creek winery.

My most significant memory of this town was the general store. It had a single wooden floor aisle with shelves clear to the ceiling. There were wooden & glass display cases, a post office window and a pop cooler. The proprietor had to use a long extension pole with a gripper to reach the tall shelves.

As adolescents, we would ride our bikes to the store and charge items to our parent’s account like candy, matches and popsicles! However there were times when the monthly bill exceeded our parent’s expectations! Here’s to the carefree joys of childhood!

Please enjoy this semi-sweet grape wine with natural cranberry flavorings

The gravel roads in 76 township are groomed and maintained, as they are in most Iowa townships, by the person referred to as the “Maintainer Man”. Assuredly, this job has many challenges to it, ie: navigating traffic, dealing with dust from the gravel and the hot summer sun, etc.

Decades ago, as the story goes, one industrious “Maintainer Man” found a way to address at least the hot summer sun. An artesian well was located just a few yards off of one of the gravel roads he maintained. This is a well bored perpendicularly into an underground stream causing a constant flow of cool water through the pipe.

Allegedly, this gentleman would insert a six pack of beer one at a time into the artesian well pipe, capping it off with a brick. This afforded him a cool beer to pop up each time he removed the brick. Here’s to American ingenuity!!

Slightly effervescent white wine crafted from Seyval Blanc grapes.

On October 20th during the drought of 1952, a Milwaukee line freight train steamed through “76” township toward the town of Ardon, setting the countryside ablaze by spewing sparks from its locomotive. Area farmers with hitched plows crashed through their closed gates to head off the firewall. With the help of several surrounding area fire departments, they put out the fire, limiting damage to hearth and home. Red 52 is offered to commemorate the brave efforts of the area farmers and fire departments. It truly does take a village!

As a youth, my father pointed out to me a depression along 260th road which was made by the stagecoaches as they traversed through “76” Twp. during the mid to late 1800’s. One intersects with this stagecoach trail one mile south of the Ardon Creek Winery. Go left or angle right and you will experience the curves and undulations of the trail.

Even modern day road engineering has not extinguished this stagecoach route which typically followed American Indian and buffalo trails, along the ridges of hills, and across the prairies. (No one mile square road sections in that area!)

The route was a leg which connected Muscatine, Letts, Columbus City, Washington, and finally Des Moines. Stagecoach lines suffered bandit robberies, Indian attacks, prairie fires, mires in mud and the occasional turnover. – Yes in Iowa!

Jonnycakes were a treat that was sold to stagecoach riders as they passed through town.

Old Brick Red wine is offered to commemorate the original St. Malachy’s red brick church, built in 1854. Once a month, a priest from Washington, Iowa would stay overnight with one of the parish families and say mass on Sunday at St. Malachy’s.

The site of this building was 50 yards south of the current Ardon Creek Winery. The bricks were fired from clay taken from the west side of Independence Avenue, 1/4 of a mile north from our winery. In 1902, the current St. Malachy’s Church was constructed 1 mile east of the original red brick structure. The original building was razed in 1981.

A Toast to Love, Hope & Family!

In 1847, John Furlong left Ireland and the devastation of the “Great Potato Famine” for a new life in America. Arriving a starving immigrant in New York, he worked at both a tannery and a dairy.

Johanna Cosgrove also immigrated from Ireland as a young woman, travelling on a difficult journey with the support of her two married in 1852.

Looking for adventure and more opportunity, the couple moved west with their invalid son, Johnnie, settling in the small Iowa 76 township where Ardon Creek is located today.

John and Johanna were my great grandparents. With this wine we celebrate their simple love story, their optimism and their sense of adventure that allows their legacy to continue.

On October 20th during the drought of 1952, a Milwaukee line freight train steamed through “76” township toward the town of Ardon, setting the countryside ablaze by spewing sparks from its locomotive. Area farmers with hitched plows crashed through their closed gates to head off the firewall. With the help of several surrounding area fire departments, they put out the fire, limiting damage to hearth and home. Red 52 is offered to commemorate the brave efforts of the area farmers and fire departments. It truly does take a village!