Banking on KC – Amigoni Urban Winery
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Michael and Kerry Amigoni, the owners of Amigoni Urban Winery. Welcome.
Kerry Amigoni:
Thank you.
Michael Amigoni:
Thank you.
Kelly Scanlon:
You started out as a hobbyist, Michael. You were making wine in your home. What turned it from a wine making hobby into an entrepreneurial venture? Just kind of walk us through that leap.
Michael Amigoni:
It was a long process. One day, I came home from one of the home brew shops locally with one of these kits that help you make wine. And Kerry said, "What are you doing?" And I go, "I'm going to make wine." And she goes, "You are?" And I go, "Yeah." So I started making wine just from one of the kits. And then the natural progression is that you want to go from this concentrate to actually having real grapes. I like to grow things. And so it was a natural for me to plant some grape vines in our backyard in old Leawood and start from there. So we planted like 40 Cabernet Franc vines in our backyard. Was probably five years, we were tending this vineyard in the backyard in Leawood and then making some wine in our basement.
And I wanted to get better and better, so I took some classes in wine chemistry and we decided let's just buy 10 acres of land. So we bought 10 acres of land in a little town called Centerview, Missouri, which is between Lone Jack and Warrensburg, right east of Lee Summit. And I said, well, :I'm just going to plant one acre of Cabernet Franc at the time, and sell it to some of my friends in some of these amateur clubs that I was in." And that worked out fine. And then eventually, sold some grapes to a winery close to Columbia for a couple years. And on the return trip the following year, they gave me a bottle of wine that they had made with our grapes. And I thought, it's really good and I should be doing this. And so I told them at the time, "This is the last year that you're going to get grapes from me because I'm going to take it and make wine myself." And so that was somewhere around 2005. And we then, within a year or so, started the winery in 2006.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, I remember that. You were down in a very, very small space in the old Livestock Exchange Building. I attended an event in that small space years ago.
Kerry Amigoni:
Right. We had 800 square feet, we had four barrels. We would bring grapes from the vineyard into town, crush and destem in the parking lot, pump it through the windows because it was an office building. And then from '06 to '07, that barrels are aging and smelling good and everything. And all the people in the building were asking, "When do we get to drink?" And we're like, "Well, we're still making it." And then we were still licensing because we were the first urban winery in the city. So we had to go through city council, regulated industries and get all these approvals. So then we were able to open officially in October of '07.
Kelly Scanlon:
What made you interested in doing this and in getting that initial wine kit? Did you just drink a lot of wine, you wanted to see if you were any good at making as a logical next step, or were you in the food and beverage industry? What was your background?
Michael Amigoni:
Yeah, it's real confusing to me. Exactly. What kind of motivated me? Like I said, I like to grow and create things, and I wanted a hobby that, and then the hobby became out of control. And Kerry and I did like drinking wine and we went to the West Coast, to Napa and so forth, and we thought, "Well, okay, let's just make some of our own wine." And we kept going from there.
And I don't really know what motivated me. I did have a grandfather on my Italian side that had made wine in Central Illinois, and he was from Milan area. So I thought, well, I'm kind of carrying on a little bit of a legacy. I mean, that was kind of minor in my whole calculus here. But I just thought it was fun learning. And I didn't have any chemistry all the way through my master's degree in business. And I thought, "Oh my God, I'm taking chemistry classes." And I fell in love with it because it's kind of a lot of math. And I was in kind of the finance area with my grad degree. And so it kind of fit very well. The shoe fit.
Kelly Scanlon:
Sure. You're still working with numbers just in a different way, different kinds of formulas. And I think you bring up a good point though. I don't think a lot of people realize, yes, wine making is an art, but it's also very much a science. You've got to have some base things going before you can start doing some of the experimenting. You talked about an urban winery. What is an urban winery?
Kerry Amigoni:
Well, in our mind, we were like, we want to be very accessible. We want to be in the city. We had actually been out to California and some other areas and seeing these wineries who were in the city, Oakland, Alameda, we read about the Brooklyn Winery at the time. And we had a Vineyard in Centerview and we're like, "Who's going to come out here?" Especially back in '06, '07? So we decided to bring the wine to the people, basically.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you can go down to the old stockyard area, and there you are. You have a very nice place there. It's a boutique winery. So you produce small lots, small production. What's your focus? You mentioned the Cabernet Franc grapes earlier. Do you build around that or have you expanded out into some other varietals?
Michael Amigoni:
Yeah. We have probably too many varietals, but that's another story. But Kerry and I were both interested in not necessarily being Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay fans all the time, although we like those wines. We thought, oh my gosh, because we ran into at the Urban Winery, a Tannat in Alameda. And I go, "Oh my gosh, here's this grape that makes this wine called Tannat, and I've never heard of it." But it was delicious. And then we ran into other types of grapes that were Spanish grapes that we really liked, and some of them, we started growing in Centerview. And we decided that what we would have the most fun with was bringing all these different styles of wine to the people.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you don't concentrate on any one particular thing. You look at grapes that, first of all, they had a good year, vintage I assume, and then that you can have some fun with and educate people about.
Kerry Amigoni:
Yeah, we really want the wine to be approachable, and that's what's fun for us. I was even telling, we get a lot of bachelorettes now these days, which is great. But I said, these are people of the age that they'll look at a wine menu and be petrified, and we want people to look at a wine grape or a list and go, "Oh, I've had that. Oh, I like that. It's Binet or it's Sangiovese," or whatever it is, they've heard of it, they like it or they don't, they're comfortable. And because we want everybody to feel comfortable with wine.
Kelly Scanlon:
Do you have a popular wine?
Kerry Amigoni:
Yeah, I would say definitely. Well, first our Cab Franc, because that's our signature.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah.
Kerry Amigoni:
Then our Urban Drover, the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot Blend. So when we moved to the Daily Drover Telegram building, Michael had made that blend, but it didn't have a name. So that was fun. Yes. So we were able to incorporate the new wine with our move. So it's now our anniversary wine or one of them. And then our other probably biggest SKU is now this Sparkling Pinot Grigio.
Kelly Scanlon:
A few years back or so, you vertically integrated your operations. So what does that mean and how did it allow you to expand and become more flexible, give you more control?
Michael Amigoni:
So we continued from the 2000 to approximately 2019 with the vineyard in Centerview. And as we moved to the Drover Telegram building, because we had an event space and everything, we were really building our brand. And we had a lot more people that were drinking our wine, so we needed more production. And our little vineyard out in Centerview wasn't going to cut it. So we then started buying grapes from regions in California. We picked Lodi, California, which is near Sacramento because it has 130 varietals of grapes there. If you look at Napa, they have like five varietals. But in Lodi, since all the immigrant Italians especially went through, the Mondavis and the Sebastianis and so forth, they wanted to grow some of these other varieties that were maybe Italian varietals and Spanish varietals and so forth. And they have all these different varietals. So we loved it.
So we were experimenting with buying different grapes, like Viognier. Nobody's ever heard of Viognier. And then we fell in love with it. And then as you start falling in love with a particular wine, it really expands your horizon.
We were buying grapes from Lodi and sourcing grapes from our vineyard, and it ended up at the same spot. It ended up in the city, and it would be processed souped to nuts. I don't let anybody make our wine because I have my own formula. And then eventually, as we grew and grew and grew, we sold our vineyard in 2019 we had our wine making offsite for a while in a warehouse real close to the Daily Drover Telegram Building. There was an art gallery that started there, and then we took over the space of the art gallery. We moved all of our production and all of our barrels and all of our machinery and everything there.
Kelly Scanlon:
Let's talk a little bit about the Midwest wine scene. I think a lot of people might be surprised to learn that some of the German immigrants back in the early 1800s started bringing their clippings to the new world and planting them in Missouri, and kind of started giving rise to the wine scene here in Missouri, which you continue. So tell us about what, what's going on now? How would you characterize it?
Kerry Amigoni:
It's grown, dramatically. When we first started, so say '06, there were maybe 40 Missouri wineries. They're now over 140. Of course, Stone Hill, Hermann, they have a really great tradition and really great following, being one of the first in the state. We feel like in Kansas City area, there's a good Kansas City wine trail. There's of course the Missouri Wine Trail, which has all of them listed. So I think people are gravitating to tour wineries. Everybody has their niche. We have our own no vineyard to walk through, but certainly a beautiful historic space. And I just feel like, as we've talked about, all boats float and Kansas City proper, I think there's three urban wineries right now, and then the periphery has just a huge number.
Kelly Scanlon:
You're not only in the wine business, you're also in the event space business, and you have some wonderful events. I've held events at your space, always one of my favorite spots. So tell us about why you decided to start using your space in that way and how it actually compliments the wine business.
Kerry Amigoni:
As we were moving from our little 800 square feet into then 5,000 square feet, you're kind of struck with, "Oh my gosh, what do I do with this?" And we had done our own private events at the small winery and knew that event space could certainly supplement us. And it's beautiful if I do say so myself. So we just thought, well, that would be great supplemental income, especially as we're trying to grow with this big move. And so started focusing on small corporate events, happy hours, things like that. And then got into the wedding business a little bit, smaller weddings, medium-sized receptions. And then the other thing, which has been really fun for us is putting experiences together for especially corporate. He's got one tonight. We do sensory classes, we do blending experiences. We do just basic cellar tours, but they get a tour in tasting and just feel like every time we bring these people in, most of them have never heard of us. It's surprising. But in a good way because now they're fans. So it's been very beneficial for us.
Kelly Scanlon:
It's not only you just created a great ambiance there, but on a nice day, you've got a nice little patio in the back too. And you got an upstairs is where your barrel room is, you can go up there. And then you've got your general space and you've got a space way up top, the mezzanine, which is so cool to then look down on everything. So tell us about that building. The building itself is a very neat building, and it has its own history, as you alluded to earlier, Michael. So tell us about the building and how you've incorporated some of the features of it and some of its history into your wine.
Kerry Amigoni:
It was originally called, Well, it's still the Daily Drover Telegram Newspaper. It was built in 1909 as a livestock newspaper. So you're in the stockyards. These people collect information from Joplin, St. Joe, Chicago, different areas, and put this livestock newspaper together. Think it lasted through the late '60s, early '70s in that space, and then relocated. Then it became a warehouse.
The interesting history about it is Jay Neff, who was an editor, he wanted to start this newspaper and built the building. He, then I think just prior to that, had been mayor of Kansas City briefly. And then passed not that long after all of this started. His family, I don't know if anybody's from Columbia and went to journalism school, but Neff Hall is named after him. So we have a great history with Mizzou. We have a lot of Mizzou events too, because they see the connection.
When we got in, it was 2011, and it had become a dump. It was a warehouse. No windows, everything had been concrete blocked in. So one of our dear friends, who was a demolition guy, found the original floor plan. And he came in, he goes, "That ceiling needs to go. It says rotunda." So that was the first thing we did was tore out the ceiling in the front room, and it was beautiful. And then all we did, we put the railing back, we put in a beautiful chandelier, put the windows back and added a bar.
Michael Amigoni:
Barrels make everybody feel really good. It still makes me feel really good.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, yeah.
Michael Amigoni:
At one point we had four barrels, and I thought, "Oh my gosh, we have four barrels. We got so much." And now I've got 300. They had their separate names now. They're part of the flock.
Kerry Amigoni:
Yes, absolutely. So yeah, the barrel room, which he's referring to, had a big hole in the floor where the printing press used to sit, and we figured the footings were in the basement to keep the building from probably vibrating as well as protecting it from flooding, which that was known for at the time. And so yeah, we were able to fill the hole, had to fill the hole, do the supports to put our barrels in there. And at the time, those 40 barrels were all we had 11 years ago. So we were pretty proud of that room.
Kelly Scanlon:
Of course. Don't you have a wine now named after the press, though?
Kerry Amigoni:
Urban Press. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Scanlon:
Urban Press, yes. I thought so.
Michael Amigoni:
We have four wines that are named after the building. One is the Urban Rover, and then Urban Press, the Telegram and the Ink Well. Ink Well is a Bordeaux blend. The Press is a blend of petite, petite, which is Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot. Petite, petite.
And the Ink Well's a bordeaux. And then Telegram's really fun. Telegram is really a fun wine for us, because at the end of the time when you're pumping barrels, nothing comes out exactly right on volume.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, I'm sure.
Michael Amigoni:
So you have a tank that you pressed and you let the tank sit for four or five days and kind of get a little bit of sludge out of it. And then you're going to pump barrels. Well, all of a sudden, you pumped six and a half barrels. Well, you can't leave a barrel half full. So the half gets put aside with a masking tape that says, one half, let's just name something, Barbera. And then you do another pressing and maybe another have a quarter left. So the quarter goes in there, so it becomes one half Barbera, one quarter Cab Franc.
And then that kind of keeps going. And every year, we put out a different blend of what we call the harvest blend. Sometimes in California they call it the scraps. I don't think it's the scraps, it's the good stuff. And we put it in a barrel so it gets actually blended in a barrel because you generally don't blend in a barrel. If you're going to blend equal parts of like the Drover is equal parts of Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot. You keep those barrels separate and then you do some testing before you put everything together at the end. And so we put out a Telegram. And I think our last one out, which is the Telegram 10, we call it the T10. The T10 has got four different grapes in it.
Kelly Scanlon:
You've had a lot of success for what started as a hobby. Where do you go from here?
Michael Amigoni:
Well, I think that there's some good things coming down the path here that everyone will know about very soon. But I see a little bit bigger picture for Amigoni as we move into maybe some bigger venues, supporting bigger venues in the city for their particular brands.
Kelly Scanlon:
Okay. Some well-known venues, but you can't talk about it just yet I take it. You are in the new airport too.
Michael Amigoni:
Right, right.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you're going to be introducing your wines to people outside of Kansas City perhaps too. Yeah.
Michael Amigoni:
We were the first wine that they drank on the first flight in.
Kelly Scanlon:
Really?
Michael Amigoni:
Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
Congratulations on that.
Michael Amigoni:
It was fun.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, that is fun. That's a big deal.
Michael Amigoni:
It was an early day.
Kelly Scanlon:
Day drinking, yeah.
Michael Amigoni:
Day drinking. They told us originally that we wanted to serve it at the 5:00 AM flight going out. We go, "Okay." So we get up at 3:00 AM and get all of our various people together, and our son Joe also attended. And we get there and they go, "Oh, we're sorry. But it was the first flight in, not the first flight out." And so that was not till 7:30.
Kelly Scanlon:
Right. It was a couple hours later. I know people who actually flew up to Chicago, spent the night in the airport, because it was just a few hours, and then flew back to Kansas City.
Michael Amigoni:
Yeah, they had like T-shirts on.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah.
Michael Amigoni:
It was kind of cool.
Kelly Scanlon:
How fun.
Michael Amigoni:
We have a big wine club, well big for us. It's close to 800 people. And we saw some people that were in our club and on the flight back in and like you said, Kelly, they were on the flight that went out and then they, I don't know, some people partied.
Kerry Amigoni:
I think they stayed up all night.
Michael Amigoni:
They partied in Chicago and then other people stayed by Midway and then they took the flight back in. It's really fun.
Kelly Scanlon:
So your wines were served on that flight coming back and you have a bigger announcement that's coming up with even more exposure that you'll be getting. You mentioned your wine club, that is growing too. So lots of really good things on the horizon. And if anybody wants to come down and experience Amigoni now that they've heard about it on this podcast, can people just walk in or do you have to make reservations? How does that work?
Kerry Amigoni:
So we are open to the public Tuesday through Sunday. No reservations needed, everything, we pre-select wine tastings and then they're welcome to do that or grab a bottle, get a glass. We have some small plates. And we try to incorporate as much local as we can. We always have Green Dirt Farm, Local Pig, Farm to Market, KC Canning. So all of our plates incorporate all of the local.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, congratulations on the success you've had so far and for helping to bring wine in the community that wine promotes too on many levels to the Kansas City area.
Kerry Amigoni:
We thank you for letting us come today.
Michael Amigoni:
Yeah, thanks. Cin-cin. Salute. Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, President of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Michael and Kerry Amigoni for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. There are as many paths to entrepreneurship as there are entrepreneurs. Michael Amigoni didn't set out to be a professional winemaker and he certainly didn't aspire to start a business. He did know that he had a curiosity about wine and that he liked to grow things. So what started as experimenting with a wine kit he bought at a home brew shop morphed into growing grapes in his backyard, and finally, into what he described as a hobby that grew out of control.
Before he knew it, he and his wife, Kerry, had a full-fledged business on their hands. Now, they spend their days producing wine they hope to make accessible to everyone in their historical tasting room in the urban core. As a bank that continues to embrace the entrepreneurial mindset of our past chairman, Byron Thompson, Country Club Bank appreciates the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs like the Amigonis. Give us a call to discuss how we can help you grow your business. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, member FDIC.