Beer, Wine-ified

Ste. Genevieve’s Charleville Brewery pours beer with a wine sensibility

Written by TONY REHAGEN

Visiting the new Charleville Brewery (16937 Boyd Road, Ste. Genevieve; 573-568-8165; charlevillemo.com) is not like walking into your typical taproom. For one thing, it’s a helluva hike, more like a long, winding road trip into the wooded hills of rural Ste. Genevieve County, from highway to two-lane county roads to a steep gravel drive that leads to a remote hilltop clearing. The next thing a beer drinker notices is the absence of the sweet, yeasty aroma of fermenting brew — nothing but clean, fresh country air. Then you ascend the broad stone steps, through double glass doors, and into a bright, high-ceilinged 2,500-square-foot tasting room with clean lines and a bar made from leather-textured granite framed with old oak staves. And then there’s the glass — floor-to-ceiling windows that showcase the manicured grounds, the deck-chairsurrounded firepits and the panoramic view of Saline Creek Valley beyond.

If you haven’t noticed yet, it sounds like I’m describing a winery, not a brewery — and that’s the point.

First, technically it is a winery, full name Charleville Brewery & Winery, and it still offers several house-made whites along with reds from nearby Wild Sun. But the 10,000-square-foot development that opened in January is focused on beer, part of a growing nationwide trend of brewers taking craft beer out of the dark bars and industrial warehouses and giving drinkers a different, dare we say more sophisticated atmosphere. “People are going where the experiences are,” says Shanna Starnes, part of the ownership group that bought the location and the brand early last year. “A lot of breweries are opening up venues where adults and kids can play games or listen to live music, play murder mysteries and do food pairings and beer release parties.”

Leaning into the winery vibe makes perfect sense for Charleville because this place and its surroundings are inextricably entangled in grapevines. The area’s first French-Canadian settlers were vintners when they arrived in the early 18th century, and the first documentation of the local practice dates to 1763, when a visiting English engineer reported that “inhabitants make wine with wild grapes, which is quite inebriating.” In the 1800s, Ste. Genevieve even developed its own type of grape, the American Rulander, which was grown and crushed for wine as far away as Ohio. Subsistence winemaking continued to flourish in this area up to (and let’s face it, probably through and beyond) Prohibition, until the late 20th century, when the locals started to uncork wineries for tourists traveling the state’s freshly blazed wine trails.

In June 2003, Jack and Joal Russell joined the party, opening Charleville Vineyard as a retirement project. But within a few years, the couple realized they needed to expand their offerings to beer to attract more tipplers to the remote locale. They enlisted their son, Tait, an experienced homebrewer, who started cooking up small, five-gallon batches. But the beer turned out to be at least as popular as the wine, eventually leading to packaging, regional distribution and even a satellite brewery and tap room near Lafayette Square. Early standouts included Box of Chocolate, a truly unique Belgian quad whose namesake sweetness and smoothness belie its swoon-inducing 10.5 percent ABV; and Whiskey Scented Santa, an annual Xmas present of an imperial porter aged on whiskey-infused oak chips.

In late 2021, amid the pandemic, the Russells closed the St. Louis location and decided to retire a second time. They sold the Ste. Genevieve operations to Starnes and her partners Cara Naeger, RJ Clements and Eric Clements, who had grown up together in the area and had been longtime patrons of the brewery and winery. Part of what they bought was a rustic 500-square-foot tasting room that was essentially a bar, bathroom and no windows looking out onto the gorgeous vista. They invested nearly

$5 million to “open things up,” including creation of a beer venue that could host a bachelor/bachelorette party on Friday night, a wedding on Saturday and Sunday brunch for the entire family.

This sort of “wine-ification” of beer service is not unique to Charleville. It’s happening across the country as breweries search for ways to differentiate and attract new clientele. It’s also an indicator of beer outgrowing its yeoman roots and evolving into a true craft, with artisans producing quaffable flavors and aromas that are every bit as complex and sophisticated as a bottle of burgundy or pinot noir.

Notice the word “sophisticated” appears twice in this story — but in Charleville’s case, that is not to be confused with snobbish. The new owners, along with director of operations Jeremy Gilbert, are continuing the approachable style of Charleville beer that we’re used to, from the easy-drinking Strawberry Blonde Ale to the caramelly malt of Tornado Alley Red Ale to the slightly hot finish of the fruity Pineapple Mango Habanero Blonde. (They are also facilitating the masses’ access to new beers by contracting production space to other brewers such as Center Ice Brewery, formerly of Midtown, and Auburn, Illinois’ Slauterhouse Brewing Company.) They’ve also made the beers literally more accessible by installing a wristband-activated iPourIt system that allows you to grab a glass, pour your own beer, wine or Charle-rita wine cocktail straight out of the tap, so you get as much or as little as you want. “You can try an ounce of each offering without having to wait 10 minutes for a bartender to pour you a flight,” Gilbert says. “And nobody is watching or judging you. You can get what you want.”

So you can feel free to trek to Charleville, pour yourself a fresh tulip of beer and take in the scenery as you swirl, sniff and sip the day away. n