Wichita has a new place downtown to drink wine — and watch it being made
Wichita wine lovers now have a pretty new place to sit and sip, and it’s right downtown.
Local winemaker Jennifer McDonald has just opened Jenny Dawn Cellars, which she says is the first “urban winery” in Kansas. It’s at 703 Douglas Ave., which despite its address doesn’t face Douglas. The winery and tap room is in an old Union Station “express building,” which actually faces Mead Street near Waterman.
Her first day in business in the new 2,000 square-foot space was the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
The new winery is a place where people can stop and have a light meal while enjoying a flight, glass or bottle of the wine that McDonald makes using juices from California and juices and berries from Kansas. Her fermenting equipment is also set up in the space, which features an attractive bar and seating for 40. Visitors can watch her actually making the wine.
“People get to see me crawling around inside my tanks and working through fermentation and bottling,” she said.
She has a small menu of soups, charcuterie boards and desserts, and she’s offering monthly wine classes (which she calls “wineucation”) as well as wine dinners featuring food pairings prepared by local chefs.
At the moment, McDonald is serving five different wines plus sangria and says she’ll have two more wines ready by the end of the year. The varietals she’s serving now include cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, chardonnay, a white wine and a sweet red blend.
In the spring, she’ll have two new wines, she said, and when the weather warms up, she’ll be able to open the garage doors on the front of the building and add 40 more seats on a large outside patio. That’s when she also plans to start hiring bands to perform on Saturday nights.
For now, the winery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. In the spring, she may stay open later and could even add Sunday hours, she said.
A flight of four wine samples costs $10, McDonald said, and glasses of wine range from $6-$12.
McDonald, who was always interested in wine, started making it in her basement years ago and released her first wines in 2016, selling them online. A few local liquor stores started selling them last year.
So far, she’s had good feedback from the community, McDonald said. The only problem is that people sometimes have trouble picturing where the building is.
“Since we’re at the southern most point of Union Station, people kind of stop at the terminal and don’t realize we’re way in the back,” she said.
McDonald recommends that people make their way to Waterman and Mead streets then head north. She’s across from Protection 1.
To check out her calendar of events, including information on the next “wineucation” event, check out Jenny Dawn Cellars on Facebook.
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 5:01 AM.
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