About Wide River Winery
Summer Hours:
11am-5pm every day
Dorothy O'Brien founded the winery in 2005 after years of organic gardening,
cooking, grape growing and home winemaking. Her vision was to celebrate
locally grown, fresh and delicious food. The idea of the earth supporting
a family and bringing enjoyment and fun to visitors motivated the enterprise.
In just a few years the winery has grown exponentially, captured wine contest awards and produced fun and enjoyable wine. Dorothy's daughter Ann Pelton joined the winery in 2007. Ann oversaw the development of marketing themes, branding and got the winery off to a good start with retail and wholesale sales. With all of her marketing responsibilities, Ann's favorite responsibility continues to be the Davenport Farmers' Market.
In 2009 son in law Paul Quinn took over wholesale. Katy bar the door; we are now in most of the Hy-Vees from Dubuque to the Quad Cities, many Fareways and Jewels. All of the sudden the bottlers are working nonstop to keep up!
Jim Sorensen continues to be a dedicated and hardworking assistant winemaker and vineyard manager. Jim, who has his own grapevine nursery, apparently gets 25 hours out of every day to fit it all in.
Son Matt Cardoni is the web genius behind our presence on Google and behind the web page. Daughter Liz Quinn is our management and marketing consultant and occasional wholesale representative/wine taster. Son Brent Pelton makes guest appearances at the North Park kiosk and tasting room. Daughter Carol Balducci can be counted on to line up many friends to celebrate the winery. They are all qualified tasters who regularly contribute to the quality control effort.
We've had a lot of fun making this wine. We hope you enjoy your experience at the winery, the tasting, the river view and the beauty.
We are now open Monday-Friday from 11-5 and Saturday-Sunday from 11-6. Our
new phone is 563-519-WINE.
Ann and Dorothy happily sampling the product.