BY LARRY SOBCZAK
EDITOR
A Ray Township vintner is feeling the impact of the partial U.S. government shutdown in Washington D.C.
Youngblood Vineyard submitted applications this fall to the U.S. Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco and Trade Bureau (TTB) so it could sell its first bottles of wine this spring.
Unfortunately, the workers in charge of approving the Youngbloods’ new wine labels are on furlough while members of Congress hammer out a budget deal that would fund the TTB.
“We are 100 percent dependent on the grapes we grow on our family farm,” Jessica Youngblood said. “We are farmers. We need the government to open so we can run our business.”
She said it is part of the business plan to start selling wine this year and that the income is crucial to expanding the business and hiring employees.
“We need to bottle the wine when it’s ready,” she said. “We need to make room for this year’s crop.”
In 2016, the Youngbloods decided to trade in soybean, corn and Christmas tree farming and planted wine grapes on their 46 acre family farm.
The vineyard is now home to 25 acres of cold climate grapevines of which there are three white varieties and three red varieties. The varieties are Marquette, Itasca, Frontenac, Frontenac Blanc, Prairie Star, and Petite Pearl.
After three seasons of careful planting, pruning and tending the vines by the Youngbloods, the vineyard produced enough mature grapes this fall that were suitable for bottling into wine.
More than 60 volunteers helped the Youngbloods in September with the first harvest of nine acres which netted 19 tons of grapes.
The grapes are now fermenting into wine which will be sold beginning this Memorial Day weekend barring any government delay in approving the labels.
The Youngbloods contacted both Democrats and Republicans in Congress about their labeling dilemma and U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., addressed her colleagues last week on the Senate floor about the impact it was having on the small family farm.
“This shutdown is also hard on Michigan’s farmers including Jessica Youngblood who I want to take a few minutes to talk about. For three years, they have poured all their time and all their money into their wine grapes…Unfortunately the government shutdown has thrown a huge roadblock in front of this homegrown Michigan business,” Stabenow said. “Jessica needs to bottle her wine in March but that can’t happen without the labels approved and printed,” Stabenow said.
Jessica Youngblood said that her family, as business owners, does not publicly take any political sides in the ongoing argument in Washington D.C. and welcomes Republican lawmakers to highlight her vineyard’s plight if it helps end the shutdown.
“I want to be very clear we will sell wine to anyone,” she said. “We just want people to know how it’s affecting us and other farmers.”
As of press time, the political parties in Congress had not formally met to discuss an end to the government shutdown.
