Kansas vintners are now tasting the fruits of their labor

Winter is a slow time at David and Natalie Sollo’s Grace Hill Winery near Whitewater, Kan., but the work never completely stops. Wines are aging in a cellar at the vineyard, which sold its first wines earlier this year.

Before Dave and Natalie Sollo went to a land auction in 2003, “Dave told me he just wanted some property in the country that he could mess around on.”

Until the Wichita couple were driving away from the 160 acres they had just bought, he didn’t mention that for years he had wanted to start a vineyard.

That vineyard has grown into Grace Hill Winery, and with their first wine sales earlier this year, the two physicians — Dave Sollo is an anesthesiologist; Natalie Sollo is a pediatrician — now are commercial vintners as well. They planted their first vines the year after they bought the land, which is about 2 1/2 miles west of Whitewater.

“Those plants grow really well. Too well,” Dave said.

The land had been a dairy farm for decades, and the well-fertilized ground made the vines — though not the grapes — thrive. That was the first of many lessons.

The Sollos have been oenophiles more than 25 years and have visited wineries in the United States, Italy and France. But there is a big difference between consuming wine and making it, Natalie Sollo said.

They took online courses, visited more wineries, read books and quizzed other members of the Kansas Grape Growers and Winemakers Association.

Both were chemistry majors before they started medical school. That, plus the exacting nature of medicine, gave them a head start in wine-making, they think.

They have added vines every year. A final 700 plants will go in this spring, which will give them more than 3,500 plants spread over seven acres.

The rural setting, the big yellow plastic bins that are filled with grapes in summer, the pictorial history on the walls, and the stainless steel tanks and oak casks in the cellar all make it hard to remember that the Sollos are anything other than vintners. Until a beeper goes off.

“That’s you,” Natalie Sollo said as they both looked down at the pagers on their waistbands.

The Sollos have planted eight varietals. Several of the grapes bear names unfamiliar to wine novices.

“We grow the stuff that will survive here,” Natalie Sollo said, which means there aren’t many cabernet sauvignon plants. They fell victim to the weather.

Grapes also are threatened by disease and by pests. Dave Sollo pointed to the tracks of what he called “hooved locusts” — the deer that wander through the vineyard. Turkeys and other birds also like grapes.

The Sollos practice medicine full time, but even in winter they never really get away from the wine business.

In February, they will bottle. In March, they will prune. In April, they will plant. Summer’s duties will hit like a tidal wave before harvest, in August and September. It takes three to five years to get a crop from the vines. The Sollos made their first wines, for their own use, in 2006.

Until all the required state and federal licensing is in place, growers can’t ferment commercially. The Sollos got their liquor licenses late last year. They bottled their first commercial wines — the whites — around Memorial Day. The reds were done in late summer and the Cabernet Sauvignon about a month ago. The wines age in the bottles for at least a month before the Sollos consider them ready to drink.

Nearly everything at the vineyard is done by hand, such as putting the plants in protective “grow tubes,” training the vines and harvesting. When something needs to get done, “we invite our friends over,” Natalie said.

Their long hours in medicine have allowed them to pursue the winery.

“You have to be passionate about this, or you’d never do it,” Dave Sollo said. That’s the first requirement.

The second is capital.

“I don’t think there’s anything about it that’s not expensive,” he said, from the grapes to the equipment to the legalities.

“And then you have to have a strong back” for the planting and harvesting.

They see their new endeavor as a perfect blend with their medical careers. “Our vision is to make the best wine that we can,” Natalie Sollo said.

“We really think that wine is part of a healthy lifestyle, especially when you consume it in moderation together with part of a meal.

“We think that there’s excellent health benefits, and that really fits in with what we’re into in medicine, in trying to help people live the most healthful and productive lives they can.”