Stone Hill Winery in Hermann wins national awards

By Hannah Freiberg // November 23, 2021

It’s time to grab a drink, St Louis. Stone Hill Winery, at 1110 Stone Hill Hwy. in Hermann, recently received several national awards for their wine. Stone Hill touts that it is the oldest winery in Missouri, opening back in 1847.

The winery, which is just over an hour west of St. Louis, was named the champion for Best Native Wine from the American Wine Society’s Annual Competition. (They won the same award last year for a different wine utilizing the same grape.) A few days later they also received three Jefferson Cups, “the highest award available from the Jefferson Cup Invitational Wine Competition, known as the ‘Olympics of wine competitions,’” according to Nathan Held, director of strategy for Stone Hill. 

The American Wine Society’s Annual Competition is a premier competition in which judges taste hundreds of wines. “It is thrilling to hear that our 2018 Cross J Norton brought home the Best Native Wine,” said Jon Held, president of Stone Hill Winery, in a press release. The 2018 Cross J Norton is an estate-grown wine, like most of Stone Hill’s wines, which means all grapes are grown in Stone Hill’s own vineyards. “We’ve been making the Cross J Norton for about 20 years now, it’s made differently than our regular Norton because it’s aged in European oak barrels,” said Nathan Held. “It also has a slightly longer aging period and is from its own vineyard.”

The Jefferson Cup Invitational Wine Competition takes place annually in Missouri and has been judged by master sommelier and master of wine Doug Frost in Kansas City, Missouri, since 1999. About 500 wineries participate in this competition. Stone Hill was recognized for its 2019 Ozark Hellbender, the 2018 Norton and the Cream Sherry, which has won the Jefferson Cup four years in a row. The Ozark Hellbender is a semi-dry red wine with a three-grape blend of primarily native grapes, including the Norton. The 2018 Norton is made of 100% Norton grapes, which is the state grape of Missouri and is a dry, full-bodied red wine. Lastly, the Cream Sherry is a classic sherry wine made of brandy and wine, perfect for dessert.