For the last 10 years, Madison County Winery has been everything you would expect from an industry that trades in agri-tourism.

Five acres of grapevines snake their way up a hillside to a grove of oak and hickory trees. The views are of lush rolling hills and river bottoms. Cattle graze in nearby pastures.

It had everything to beckon wine enthusiasts to the countryside, with one exception. There was no tasting room in which to sample the wine and no facility to host banquets, business meetings and weddings – two prime marketing staples of the industry.

Doug and Cheryl Bakker, who launched the business in 2001, will open a 2,600-square-foot tasting room and banquet facility today (April 15) at the winery, located about four miles west of St. Charles on Madison County Highway G-50.

“We followed a different marketing plan than some others in the business,” Doug Bakker said on a recent Saturday when he had invited family and friends to a preview of the facility.

Madison County Winery was one of the first in the state to market its products through wholesale distribution. In addition, Bakker is a fixture at the Downtown Farmers Market, where shoppers wanting to piece together a special dinner composed of locally grown food like to include a native Iowa wine.

Bakker hasn’t been shy about inviting those customers to a tour of the vineyard.

He designed the logo and labels for Des Moines Area Community College’s annual Swine Festival, where local chefs feature Iowa pork and wine.

In addition, Bakker does promotions that focus on breast cancer awareness and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

The result has been steady and cautious business growth.

Bakker, who returned to Iowa in 1997 after operating a design and marketing studio in Chicago, also drafted plans and a financial template for a destination winery that would feature caves dug into his Madison County hillside.

“I just couldn’t take the gamble that we could cash flow it,” he said.

Those plans might work in the future, but for now Bakker is focused on a tasting room that is decorated with his artwork and features tabletops and a portable bar made of concrete and crushed Madison County Winery wine bottles.

A large fireplace occupies a spot on a patio that rests at the foot of stone and grass terraces.

The winery grounds are also home to Twisted Vine Brewery, which was launched last year after passage of a state law that allowed the production of beers with alcohol content of more than 5 percent. The law opened the door for small-batch craft breweries.

“As soon as the law passed, Doug started bugging us to open a microbrewery,” said Brian Sabus, one of three owners.

Sabus and Bakker’s brother, Eric, were roommates at Iowa State University. Unable to afford beer at the time, Sabus made his own.

“We called our first beer gooseberry wheat,” Sabus recalled. “It was horrible, but it had alcohol in it.”Sabus and partners Steve Breman and Steve Becker are awaiting for approval of their federal and state liquor licenses before going into commercial production.

They will sell about six varieties of beer in kegs to taverns, but their biggest customer will be Madison County Winery. Much of the beer will be brewed from locally grown hops.