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Raising a glass to progress at Nissen Vineyards
BOW VALLEY — As Nissen Family Vineyards celebrates just over 20 years in business, the local family behind the bottles shares its progress and plans for the future.
Owners and brothers, Tim and Dave Nissen, began running the 400-acre farm as a vineyard with their father, Vic, in 2003. They currently offer four main varieties of wine grapes and 13 wines.
Located just west of Bow Valley, the four-generation family farm added a winery and tasting room in 2012 to provide opportunities for local gatherings and celebrations.
Co-owner and operator Tim Nissen said over time their business has had to go with the flow.
“We always have to keep adapting some of our products to industry trends,” said Nissen.
He said the current trends focus on seltzers and fruit wines.
“We’re doing some new labels with fruit wines and lower alcohol wines to keep up with customer preferences,” said Nissen.
The winery has also updated its harvesting technique. “We’ve adopted a lot of automation, much like any business,” said Nissen. “We used to hand harvest all of our grapes when we started.”
A grape harvester is now used, which has improved their quantities and reduced their labor load.
“It saves an immense amount of time, but you really miss the people,” said Nissen.
They also updated their bottling system after running the wheels off of their previous one.
“We wore our first bottler out, and I think we had a million and a half bottles run through it,” said Nissen.
Their new system allowed the vineyard to follow another industry trend – the screw cap.
“Now we have increased our efficiency, and the line is much faster,” said Nissen.
New technology is constantly emerging and often throws learning curves at businesses.
“You have to embrace it, as much as you may hate it,” said Nissen. “You’ve got to keep learning and keep going forward, just like technology is.”
With consistent customer flow and updated practices, Nissen estimated the vineyard’s capacity has doubled and is continuing to grow steadily.
“That’s always been our business model, slow and steady and don’t get in a hurry,” said Nissen.
Even with some growth, Nissen said there aren’t distinct plans for expansions, but will continue to change with customer wants.
“We are shifting more to fruit wines. It’s really a growing segment right now,” said Nissen. “Our grape wines are very popular, and I think we’ll always continue those, but it is about reaching another demographic.”
To continue expanding their line of offerings, the vineyard will need to source the fruit from outside farms.
“There are fruit farms in the state, if you can believe that,” said Nissen. “It’s kind of a quiet secret that Nebraska grows fruit.”
The first options they presented were blueberry and strawberry wines, but they are considering more.
“I’m experimenting with a couple of other ones right now, but it’s about a two-year process for me,” said Nissen.
Adding variety to their collection will hopefully grow the overall ambiance of the vineyard.
“We want it to be a place for people to enjoy and relax, and just take a few minutes to breathe,” said Nissen.
While offering event services is crucial to the business, Nissen said change and growth will not change their purpose.
“We certainly have a vision for the future, and it looks a lot like what we’re doing now,” said Nissen. “Incorporating some new things and highlighting the core of the business will always be wine.”
