Mise en Place: KC Wine Co keeps fun all in the family
Taylor Roesch And Eli Berggren Of KC Wine Co // Photo By Sarah Sipple
From starting as KC Pumpkin Patch in Gardner to moving to Olathe, then expanding with KC Wine Co, the Berggren family has created a destination for all ages, in all seasons. The rural oasis is known for wine slushies, outdoor events, and, of course, Kansas wine.
Siblings Taylor Roesch and Eli Berggren are second-generation vintners, pumpkin farmers, and experience-curators. Taking over KC Wine Co. from their parents was a no-brainer, even after exploring careers in pharmacy and construction, respectively.
Tell us about yourselves.
Taylor Roesch: I’m the oldest sister, and then we have a middle brother who is an officer in the Air Force. He’s in Virginia right now. Eli here is the youngest by 10 years. I am married, I have two baby girls, and I’ve been at the farm for 10 years–since this farm was started.
Eli Berggren: I’m the youngest of all of us. I graduated from K State, and last May I went and worked construction for a year, and so I’ve technically only been full-time for now about a month. I’ve been around, coming back from college and helping out over the years. So not new to it, but new to it all at the same time. I kind of do operations. I work closely with my dad. And while she [Taylor] comes up with all the ideas, and we’re the ones that actually put the hammer to nail and put it together.
Tell us about growing up in a unique family business.
Roesch: So this is actually our second farm. We started in Gardner off I-35–that was KC Pumpkin Patch that was on leased land. And then when the big intermodal came in, we had to move. So we purchased this current land, and this is our permanent home.
Berggren: When I was really little, I was too small to reach the gas pedal on a mower, so my dad would set the cruise on and I would go and mow and do all that. So literally, growing up on the farm is something I’ve done. I’ve had a unique experience, especially for Kansas City and Johnson County, of being able to actually go out and play in a field and do all that.
What led to the transition from pumpkin patch to vineyard?
Berggren: When we originally moved here, because we were a pumpkin patch, we wanted to actually mow over the grapes to grow more pumpkins. And then Taylor was like, let’s give it a shot.
Roesch: Yeah, originally, we thought that the pumpkin patch would still be the main beast. When we started the winery, there were wineries around, but I didn’t know that it was super popular to visit or to try Kansas wines. So we didn’t anticipate how popular the winery would be. We do serve all our winery products over at the Pumpkin Patch as well, so people with kids can enjoy that too. And we’ve morphed into a lot of adult-only events, like Oktoberfest and Ciderfest. That’ll be three whole weekends for only ages 21 plus.
Taylor Roesch pouring a red wine flight at KC Wine Co // Photo By Sarah Sipple
At what point did you know or decide that you were going to stick with this family business? What brought you back after trying your own things?
Roesch: After K State, I worked in a compounding pharmacy for a couple of years, and I just kind of helped here on weekends. Eventually I came on full-time. This has really kind of turned into my love. I’m going to stick with it forever. I think that I’ve found my thing. I like being outdoors. I like problem-solving and fixing, and I love the events aspect of it, so I think I will always stick.
Berggren: I got a Construction Science degree from K-State. One of the big things in that degree is the management of people and how things operate. So that was kind of a goal in the back of my mind, was to learn all of that so then I can come back and translate it to out here. And I wanted to go experience something else for a year to try to learn that. Once my year was up, it was kind of just the right time overall to jump back in. I knew that I always loved this place, so I knew I’d be back eventually.
What would you count as the most valuable aspects of your parents’ legacy that you want to maintain?
Roesch: I think one of the things we’re most known for is our people, staff, and environment. If you see my dad, he’s the first one to offer to clean the bathrooms, take out the trash, or do the yucky jobs. He leads by example. And I would say my folks are very well-respected by our staff and by our patrons, so one of my goals is to continue that. We’ve never had a staff turnover in 10 years. We have these same people, and we just keep adding, and I think that tells a lot. So that’s one of my main focuses—always be kind, provide a good experience, and just have a good time while we’re doing it, too.
What surprises people most about KC Wine Co?
Berggren: I think one thing that catches people off guard if it’s their first time out is the beauty down by the pond. We have four massive chairs down there that you can fit five people on, and then we have a swing down there and everything like that. So just the overall beauty that’s out here, and peacefulness.
Roesch: I definitely agree with the beauty. I think people are surprised that we’ve built all this in 10 years as well. We do almost everything ourselves as far as building goes. I think people are surprised that we do our own stunts.
Berggren: And I think the biggest like shell shock when people walk in the door is the chandeliers. If it’s someone’s first time in, they walk in and they’re like, holy cow.
What kind of team does it take to keep this place running, the wine flowing, and the pumpkins growing?
Roesch: I think that’s another thing that would surprise people–we only have four full-time staff. Us two included. That’s year-round, full-time, Monday through Friday. And then as far as weekend staff or seasonal staff, we have up to 60 on our payroll, and we just kind of filter people through. Some people just work one time a month. Some people work every weekend. It just, it really depends. So that’s a larger group, and we’ll see a lot of them in the fall, and that’s our main season too.
What about the winemaking?
Roesch: We hand bottle most of the time. If we’re behind for some reason, we hand bottle our cider. He [Eli] does all our kegging of our ciders, and mixing and fermentation. We will start harvest here soon, and that will be the few of us.
It sounds like you work really hard in the fall. Do you take some time off in the winter or early spring?
Roesch: Fall is what it is. When the grape harvest hits, it’s the same time as pumpkin season, and so sometimes those are extremely late nights and early mornings because we try to pick about four or five in the morning before the heat starts. You’ve got to get those grapes out of the sun as fast as possible. So we’ll start really, super early.
Berggren: Yeah, normally about January through March it’s a little bit slower. So that’s when we try to really hit a vacation. So to say, of a little bit more downtime and kind of it might not be as hard of work out here, but it’s more just revamping for the year to come.
Swirled Wine Slushie At KC Wine Co // Photo By Sarah Sipple
Roesch: Maintenance, yeah. And then that’s the nice thing about having staff that’s been here for 10 years is, you know, when we have those slower weekends, if we want to call them, we’re okay just leaving them. They can they can do it. They treat the place like it’s their own.
What’s your favorite drink here?
Berggren: Pineapple cider. That’s my year-round favorite. I think it’s so refreshing, and it really surprises people when you say pineapple cider, but I think it’s the best thing we make. I’m also biased because I’m the one that makes it.
Roesch: I always flip-flop between two—You can’t go wrong with a wine slush. Then, we just released an orange Moscato that is amazing. They’re both pretty awesome.
Your themed events and weekly activities engage a wide variety of ages and interests. What inspires your experience lineup?
Roesch: We’ll try anything once. Obviously, if an event doesn’t go well, we’re fine with it. But last night, we had a, you know, fried pickle Friday, and there were so many people here. They love the fried pickle. So we just have to try and see what goes. We’re dog lovers. Obviously, we’ve got a bunch of pooches running around here, so the dog events are always popular.
I just find anything, even TV shows, I can get some inspiration. I think both of our brains are always going.
Is there anything else you think our readers would be interested in learning about KC Wine Co or the family business?
Berggren: That we’re so ingrained in the farm. She [Roesch] was actually married on the front lawn–did a reception out here. So she’s really ingrained in the farm and really loves it, and now it’s like a full family business. So we were always interacting with our parents, which is a great experience to be able to work hand in hand with your parents on a thing that I truly love. I can’t speak for Taylor, but I’m sure she truly loves working with them all the time. And, you know, getting to see even my nieces grow up out here, and they’re kind of learning it. I mean, they’re only two, but yeah, you’ll see her oldest one will run around, and she knows where everything is. So it’s really special and touches our hearts to be able to have it be a full family business.
KC Wine Co is located at 13875 S Gardner Rd #1, Olathe, KS 66061.
