Grape Expectations: Wyldewood’s Journey from Ranch to Winery

What do you do if you’re tasked with enhancing your family’s ranch operation? If you’re the Brewer family, you start a winery.

In 1994, brother and sister team — Dr. John Brewer and Merry Bauman — embarked on a joint venture and adventure: to become vintners in Kansas.

“We started the winery to make the family ranch profitable, and because we wanted to work for ourselves,” Merry said. “When we started the business together, my brother used to say, ‘When you are in business for yourself, you only have to work half-days. But you get to choose which 12 hours every day you want to work!’”

Merry and John grew up on their family’s quarter horse and cattle ranch in the Flint Hills. They raised just about everything they ate and developed an appreciation and deep knowledge of agriculture. John was working as a scientist in Pennsylvania and Merry had been laid off from Boeing when they began Wyldewood Cellars in an old turn-of-the-century building in downtown Mulvane. They made jellies, syrups, and even homemade breads to sell before the wines were ready. The original building was burned to the ground in 1999, and the current winery — next to the turnpike exit at Mulvane — opened that same year at Thanksgiving.

“We have spent most of our lives involved with ag, or ag-related businesses,” Merry said. “We work really hard and do it every day. Farmers, ranchers and all ag-related businesses are big on working together and helping each other in times of need. Ag businesses are what hold this country together — in my humble opinion — and feed us all.”

When they decided to build something new for themselves, several family passions intertwined to form the foundation for Wyldewood Cellars Winery.

Laying the Groundwork

Merry and John’s mother, Margaret, discovered she had 50 acres of elderberry bushes growing wild on her ranch.

“Over the years she became the nation's leading authority on the propagation of elderberries. She is immortalized in varieties she founded being sold now all over the country. One is even named ‘Marge’ for her. It’s the first European-American Elderberry Cross and has the best properties of each,” Merry said. “Wyldewood is a variety you will see in seed catalogs now too, selling as plants. It is also one of the varieties she began. She crossed the wild and the tame varieties of elderberries to get the hardiest plant for the area with the most juice.”

Studies have shown elderberries possess antiviral, antibacterial and antidiabetic properties. When the family was looking for ways to enhance their operation, Merry was experiencing several health issues.

“We began making the elderberry concentrate in 1994 because I had been given ‘maybe two years to live’,” Merry said. “Making and tasting the wines, jellies, syrups, etc. we made from elderberry turned my health completely around, and I got off all the medications and the daily breathing treatments. It has kept me going for 29 years, this month. I use a couple of tablespoons morning and night.”

(Wyldewood Cellaras can't make claims about the medicinal value of their wines wines or elderberry concentrate, but Merry has personally found value in them.)

John, who earned a doctorate in physics and spent years working in high-tech industries, also enjoyed making wine as a hobby. He befriended Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu, an Israeli virologist, who had found promising antiviral results while researching elderberry extract. Together, they both presented at an International Symposium on Elderberry.

Marge’s expertise in growing elderberries, Merry’s well-being, and John’s scientific curiosity and love of viniculture made elderberry concentrate and wine a natural fit for Wyldewood.

A Passion for Elderberries

Although the family has branched out to make a variety of grape and fruit wines, elderberries remain at the heart of what they do.

Elderberries are rich in anthocyanins, quercetin, rutin, polyphenols, and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Ensuring the fruit retains those nutrients throughout processing is important to preserve its healing properties. Wyldewood uses a special vacuum process to concentrate the juice then freezes it, which retains more of the beneficial parts of the berry than dehydration or high-heat methods.

“John formulated our concentrate to avoid the dehydration process that takes out all the waterborne properties, and to flash pasteurize it so that it had a two-year shelf life without adding anything else to it,” Merry said. “We make the only concentrate of elderberry I know of that has no sweeteners, no artificial sugars, no other juices, no additives or preservatives.”

Here are some fun facts about Wyldewood’s elderberry concentrate:

A 12.5-fluid-ounce bottle takes 3.6 pounds of elderberries to make.
One teaspoon contains less than one gram of sugar. (Elderberries are naturally low in sugar, and Wyldewood doesn’t add any sugars during its treatment process.)
Elderberry concentrate has a very tart flavor.

Growing Together

A true family operation, John and Merry (now in their 70s) are joined by John’s wife, Beth; his daughters, Tracie and Ashley; son, Brenton; and Merry’s son, Shawn, who is the winemaker, IT guy and production manager. Their aunt Pearl handles accounting and cousin Patti makes the jellies and caters meals. Merry’s grown grandsons worked here as teens too.

“John was the state's first Professional International Wine Judge, and now my son Shawn Ramos has also been one for about 15 years,” Merry said. “They get paid to go to international competitions and judge wines. Rough job!”

Margaret also worked at the winery, almost up to the day she died.

“Until our mom passed away at 94 — two years ago — there were up to four generations of the family working at the main winery on any day. There are still at least two generations working our wineries and stores,” Merry said.

Wyldewood now produces more than 40 different kinds of elderberry, fruit and traditional grape wines. They make mead and sangria, plus a variety of non-alcoholic offerings such as elderberry concentrate, jellies, syrups and more.

“We have won over 700 national and international awards and titles with our wines in international wine competitions all over the country through the years,” Merry said. “In 2002, our spiced elderberry wine was the official wine chosen for the Olympic Village at the Olympics. It also won multiple gold medals in competitions and was awarded a trophy as the Best Non-Grape Wine in North and Latin America. Our mead has also won Best Mead of the Year.”

The winery has two vineyards — one in Peck, about 30 minutes south of Wichita, and another in Illinois. John’s daughter, Tracie, oversees the Illinois vineyard. They also have two tasting rooms in Wichita and Paxico, about 30 minutes east of Topeka.

“As you can imagine, we have lots of stories about this place and growing the business through the decades,” Merry said. “We went to Topeka and fought for the wine laws in the state to change, so farm wineries could directly distribute, do tastings and sell at events and remote locations. We went there to fight for road signs for us too — as an attraction. So much of what has happened in the Kansas wine industry has come from the early years of Wyldewood Cellars and what we did to try and help grow the industry. We also turned elderberries — previously considered a noxious weed in Kansas — into an alternative cash crop that has profited many of the farmers and ranchers in the state.”