Chateaux aux Arc Vineyards & Winery

Some college students tackle internships, fellowships or part-time jobs. Audrey House started a winery.

During spring break 1997, her senior year at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, House took a trip to California’s wine country, and “within 10 minutes I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” she said.

The next year she bought 20 acres near Altus in the lesser-known Arkansas wine country. House spent weekends that year camped out in a tent and building the winery and a house that would later double as a tasting room.

She planted her first vineyard in 1998 and by 1999 was selling grapes to nearby wineries.

She opened Chateau aux Arc — named for the original French spelling of Ozark — in 2001 with two wines bottled in 1999 and 2000. After selling 632 cases of those first wines, the winery now sells 8,500 cases a year of eight to 15 different varieties.

In October, the winery opened a 5,400-SF tasting room. House had previously used her home, which was tucked away on her property and could not be seen from the highway, for tasting. The new facility, however, invites highway passersby, which is important because the business sells about 95 percent of its wine from the tasting room.

To be sure, House’s winery is not the only one in the Altus area, but she does not view the others as competition.

“We’re a destination,” she said of the wine-producing area. “What would be special about going out to one winery in the middle of nowhere?”

Chateau aux Arc also draws revenue selling grapes from its 40 acres of vineyards. It has become the world’s largest planter of cynthiana grapes, the largest chardonnay vineyard outside California and the state’s largest zinfandel planter.

And the business is planning to increase production eightfold over the next five years.