Handcrafted wines and spirits surrounded by Iowa’s natural beauty
By: Gerald Dlubala
TYCOGA Winery & Distillery owners Ben and Carey Arndt had a unique start to their award-winning winemaking journey in DeWitt, Iowa. They owned an industrial water tower tank painting business, and Ben was doing his job while overlooking the vineyards of Holy-Field Winery in Kansas. It was quite the view, as you would imagine, and Ben appreciated the vineyard’s unique look and pleasant vibes.
“Ben became friends with the owners of the winery, frequently talking and visiting with them,” said Carey. “It was after that job that he came home and talked about wanting to plant some grapevines, so we did, starting around 2010 with just 50 concord grapevines. Well, those vines took off so well that we planted another 5000. By 2013, we had about 15000 vines in the ground, and TYCOGA Vineyard was on its way. We currently have about 32 acres in all, with some bare patches available for additional plantings as needed. But our initial intention was to be able to grow quality grapes and sell them as a crop.”
A Chance Encounter Fuels a Change in Direction
Ben and Carey’s son, Tyler, was out in the field tending to the vines one day when a chance encounter with another winemaker changed and perhaps sped up the direction of the vineyard. John Burns, then owner of Barrelhead Winery in Dubuque, stopped by to talk with Tyler, showing him better ways to do some things around the vineyard and offering to help teach them how to make their vineyard more efficient and productive.
“John and his wife Karen were a big help to us from the start,” said Carey. “They just wanted to help us choose better ways to go about our work by drawing on their experience. John’s experience and mentorship were invaluable to us. And then it was he and his wife who suggested that we make our own wines since our grapes were so good. We had no experience or idea how to go about that, so John offered to help us with that as well. He taught and nurtured us with his experience, guiding us along the way and making us into winemakers. He taught us everything we know about winemaking. We would often visit them at their winery to enjoy their wines, but also to sit, relax, listen, and learn. We owe him a lot for sure. He’s retired now, but in honor of all that he did for us, we named a dry red wine after him, our Old JB Red Wine, and it’s one of our top sellers. But that’s indicative of our Iowa wineries. Everyone around is so helpful and really wants everyone else to succeed. Eric White, the President and Winemaker at Galena Cellars, was invaluable as well. As winery owners, we all benefit from each other’s success.”
Carey tells The Grapevine Magazine that over 85% of their wines are estate-grown and produced, packaged on the property. TYCOGA offers over 28 varieties of wine. Varietals grown on the property include Brianna, Edelweiss, Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, and La Crescent, along with Marquette, Petite Pearl, St Croix, and more. TYCOGA brings in fruit, including berries, cranberries, peaches, and rhubarb, for their fruity wines. Carey says guests can also enjoy their popular wine slushies and sparkling options on site.
TYCOGA wines started winning awards even before they were officially open.
“We actually submitted our wines to competition before we were officially opened,” said Carey. “We’ve been successful and have been winning awards ever since. Every year, we enter the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. We’ve won multiple awards, including Double Gold on our Serenity Wine and Best in Fruit Class with our Just Peachy Wine.”
Rustic Vibes and Award-Winning Wines Draw Visitors
“We get visitors from all over,” said Carey. “They sign our guestbook when they come in, and I’m constantly amazed at how far some of them have travelled. Once you come in, you can head up to the bar and talk with our knowledgeable staff, who will guide your tastings based on your likes and dislikes. Tastings are usually done at the bar before making your way to one of our indoor or outdoor seating areas to enjoy the choices you made. If you prefer flights, we have wine flights and wine slushie flights to enjoy, along with some of our available snack items, cheesecake bites, or on-site wood-fired pizza made to order.”
Carey says their property is known for its rustic, relaxing atmosphere, offering beautiful landscaping, pleasant vineyard views, breathtaking streams and waterfalls, and an unmatched Serenity pond to unwind and free your mind while enjoying an award-winning glass of Iowa grown, harvested and packaged wine.
“Guests can choose where to sit and enjoy their stay,” said Carey. “It really is a gorgeous place to sit and unwind or relax. In the colder months, from mid-November through March, we offer heated igloos overlooking our vineyard so our guests can continue enjoying the outdoor scenery while remaining comfortable. The igloos are warm, lighted, and reservable through our website.”
TYCOGA’s vineyards are walkable, and the winery loves hosting all sizes of events, birthdays, showers, corporate events, weddings, and more in their event space or outdoors on their property. They can accommodate up to 35 in their barrel room for a great atmosphere, up to 250 guests in their ample event space, and outdoor gatherings when the weather permits.
New Ideas Bring New Offerings and New Customers
“We also started a distillery in 2021,” said Carey. “Ben is a bourbon collector and enjoys sipping on a good bourbon, so he decided that he wanted to try his hand at making spirits. He’s the idea guy between us, and I absolutely love and enjoy the people side of the business, so it works out beautifully. As with our wines, all spirits are distilled, produced, and packaged on site. We have a 250-gallon pot still for our grain-neutral spirits in addition to a 100-gallon gin still. We acquired a 12-spout Gai bottling line capable of bottling up to 1800 bottles per hour. It’s really something. It can clean, fill, and cork bottles, and then put on the top caps and labels all in one run.”
The distillery-end of the business offers bourbon, gin, vodka, whiskey, and whiskey slushes, along with TYCOGA’s unique and wildly popular Dirty Almond Moonshine.
“We sell anywhere from 12000-20000 bottles of wine per year, depending on many different variables, and we’d love our distillery to grow towards those levels as well,” said Carey. “But growth like that takes time. We know our distillery is still fairly young right now.”
Advice For Future Winemakers
“I tell people to research, research, and research, and then research a little more,” said Carey. “Look for and seek out help from others in the business who are successful, because especially here in Iowa, everyone seems to want to help in some way, even if it’s just a bit of advice. If you can get hands-on experience, that’s ideal because you learn so much in a shorter time. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or reach out for help. For example, our guys here are always eager to help and mentor another winemaker or winery owner because we want to return the favor of those people who took the time to help us when we needed it. Mentoring others is extremely rewarding, and having other successful wineries helps all of us. We’re like one big family here in Iowa.”
Carey tells The Grapevine Magazine that their goal is to grow and keep the business thriving so their children can take over when she and Ben are ready to retire. But she adds that retirement isn’t even on her mind right now.
“We are having so much fun,” said Carey. “Personally, I absolutely love the people side of the business, but I would encourage winery hopefuls to embrace the technology as well. We used to pick all our grapes by hand. But about five years ago, we bought our first harvester that changed everything. We went from long hours and days handpicking our grapes to harvesting a row of grapevines in about five minutes with no loss of quality. It was a welcome change.”
The name TYCOGA comes from their three children’s names, Tyler, Courtney, and Gabe.
For more information or to contact TYCOGA Winery & Distillery:
TYCOGA Winery & Distillery
2585 195th Street
DeWitt, IA 52742
(563) 659-1443
