Jenny Dawn Cellars wine hits liquor stores, but it'll be a wait for the urban winery

There's simultaneously a lot happening with Jenny Dawn Cellars and a lot of waiting going on for owner Jennifer McDonald.

Her wine is starting to hit Wichita liquor stores, but her urban winery won't open at Union Station this year as planned. Construction likely will take until April 2019.

"It's been somewhat of a blessing in disguise," McDonald says. "I feel like everything has its own timing."

For a long time, wine was simply McDonald's drink of choice.

"I'm a huge wine connoisseur."

Then it became her hobby as she started making wine from kits in her basement. She steadily increased the complexity of the wine and began giving it to friends and family members who encouraged her to start selling it. Then McDonald began winning awards for her wine.

"That gave me the confidence," she says of starting the business in late 2016.

McDonald started with website sales only.

She now has four wines on the market, including a pinot noir and chardonnay she released in October and a rose and white that came out in April.

Now, McDonald has a distributor and is starting to sell at liquor stores. So far, the wine is in R&J Discount Liquor on East Douglas just west of Hillside and Cambridge Liquor at 21st and Webb Road.

"We're excited to be getting into the liquor stores here in Wichita," McDonald says.

This weekend, she's going to begin planting what she's calling an urban orchard on property near 14th and Estelle.

"I thought it would be really neat to try and grow fruit trees here in the city," McDonald says.

She's planting 15 apple trees and six peach trees this weekend and plans to add a strawberry patch and grape vines in the future.

McDonald will use the fruit in wine production and a fruit blend as a base for sangria.

She expects a small harvest in a year. McDonald says she can use the fruit in wine production by the second year.

For now, she's making her wine in Napa Valley with a connection there, but she plans to have a full wine production facility at Union Station where customers can see how it's made.

"There's been a lot of hoops . . . to jump through to even start construction on that building," McDonald says of the historical property.

There's a tower at Union Station that will serve as the winery's entryway. It will house a wine cellar.

"One whole wall will be bottles," McDonald says.

There will be a moveable ladder so guests can climb to retrieve wine bottles.

"It's going to be really neat."

The 3,500-square-foot space will have two levels and an open-air balcony on the second level.

McDonald says that part of the building is known as the milk house because it used to store and cool milk at the train station prior to transporting it to market. She says as someone who earned a master's degree in agriculture from K-State, the agricultural and historic significance of the milk house resonates with her.

The winery will have a U-shaped bar with lots of seating and a tasting room where wines will be paired with food.

McDonald hopes to start interior finish work in January and expects it will take 90 days to complete.

Jenny Dawn Cellars will be open Wednesdays through Sundays and be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so people can rent the entire winery.

McDonald says she's happy her hobby has turned into a career.

"You know, a lot of times passion projects stay passion projects."

She says she can't wait until hers turns into the complete revenue-producing business she envisions.

"It's hard to be patient."

This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Jenny Dawn Cellars wine hits liquor stores, but it'll be a wait for the urban winery."