Owners pop the cork on Diamond S
By RYAN CHRISTNER
RUSSELL - One could say Glenn Schmidtberger always had wine in his veins.
With grandparents and other extended family who would make the popular alcoholic beverage for their personal consumption, the Victoria native can be considered the latest in a long line of winemakers.
Employing those old family recipes, Schmidtberger and his wife, Elsa, have brought their collection of sweet, dry and semi-dry wines to the public with their new business, Diamond S Vineyard and Winery, which celebrated its grand opening Friday and Saturday by holding free wine tastings.
By all accounts, the first days of business were tremendously successful, the owners said.
"We were just busy all afternoon," Elsa Schmidtberger said of Friday's event, the couple's quaint tasting room packed for several hours as Russell and Ellis County residents -- and some from as far away as Lyons -- swarmed upon their home.
Of course, the Schmidtberger wouldn't have had it any other way.
After toiling on their own land by hand for nearly five years, the weekend's festivities finally allowed a chance to see the fruits of their labor.
"When you sit down and have a good glass of wine, that's when it pays off," Elsa said.
A longtime lover of the libation, Glenn often made small quantities of wine for his own use, but said he was strongly encouraged by friends who tasted his creations to start his own business.
That was about 10 years ago, and the Schmidtbergers took their time, perfecting recipes and winemaking techniques and testing the finished products on friends and family, before beginning their first serious attempt.
Diamond S has approximately 2,000 grape plants spread out over five acres of land next to their Russell home, 502 South Main.
In order for the grapes to reach a suitable level of maturity for winemaking, the plants must be tended to over a period of about three years, said Elsa, who is responsible for the care of the vineyard.
The wine itself then ferments from anywhere between six and 16 months, depending on the type being produced, before it's ready to drink.
"We don't want to sell it before its time," Glenn said.
But it almost didn't turn out this way.
Glenn said his wife almost swore off wine entirely after a glass of very dry wine in California, where they lived prior to moving back to Kansas in 1999.
Luckily, the Schmidtbergers' take pride in the fact that their wines have a smooth flavor, without the sharp bite present in most other alcoholic beverages.
And they aren't the only ones who think so.
"I think I prefer this," Russell resident Kay Homewood said as she sampled one of the Schmidtbergers' 36 varieties of wine.
Homewood, who also works for the Russell County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she believed the new business could bring a great deal of traffic to the community.
If every day turns out to be as prosperous as the first few for Diamond S, that's likely to be true.
Elsa Schmidtberger estimated that over 1,000 bottles were sold Friday. At $12.50 a bottle, that's no small haul for these local entrepreneurs.
Through Glenn's other occupation, as a globetrotting engineer, he said he's already lined up orders for customers in several other states.
Glenn said he already has ideas for expansion.
The winery's current stock of fruit wines, which includes blueberry, strawberry, apple-strawberry and peach, could see blackberry and pear wines added as soon as next year.
A line of beers might not be too far along either, he hinted.
For the time being, Diamond S wine only can be purchased from the Schmidtberger's home headquarters Wednesday through Saturday, from 5 to 9 p.m., although off-hours appointments also can be made by calling (785) 445-3850.