Signs Show Way to Arkansas Wine Industry

When it comes to state expenditures, $26,000 is not a huge outlay.

That was the bargain rate for some highway signage Arkansas bought and erected to direct people to the state’s wineries. The signs, brown with white lettering, advertise the Arkansas Wine Country Trail and the winery tours available.

Michael Post of Mount Bethel Winery in Altus, the Franklin County town around which most of the state’s older, more established wineries are centered, said the signage has already increased traffic to his winery by an estimated 10 percent. Visitors are the lifeblood of Arkansas’ wineries, even as the vintners complain that a restrictive direct shipping law prevents them from selling to customers who never make it to their location.

“Tourism will always be No. 1,” Post said. “I want it to be that way. I want them to visit and enjoy the atmosphere and wine. That’s way more important to me. It’s a way of life to us. That’s what it is all about to us.”

Al Wiederkehr of Wiederkehr Wine Cellars in Wiederkehr Village said getting promotional signs put up has been a long process and is already proving to be worth the wait. The signs are accented with what Wiederkehr called the Arkansas wine emblem: a bunch of grapes next to a bottle.

“That will be a great help to the industry and it already has been,” Wiederkehr said. “We’re going to connect Texas to Oklahoma to Missouri to Arkansas. The new maps will have our emblem on them. It has been 15 years of drudgery.

“We’re working hard to build this up. Missouri really supports their industry. We need to promote the industry.”

State Tourism Director Joe David Rice said the Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department did the wine industry a huge favor by erecting the signs at a discount. Maintaining and updating the signs as the years go by will cost money, but the initial expenditure was very much a bargain.

“The Highway Department gave it to us at a bargain-basement price,” Rice said. “The Highway Commission was reluctant to put up any signs until our commission gave the OK. We’re very proud of what has been posted.”

Rice said tourism brought in $6 billion in revenue last year and was responsible, directly or indirectly, for 100,000 Arkansas jobs. The state’s 24 million visitors generated $311 million in tax revenue, Rice said.

Only a fraction of that was wine-related, obviously, but Rice said any increase in wine traffic would have a positive effect on the state’s coffers. That’s why it was worth the investment to put up the signs, especially along Interstate 40, which passes near the epicenter of Arkansas wine country in the Altus area.

“That signage program has made a huge difference,” Rice said. “Lots of people drive through I-40 and don’t realize we have a nice and expanding wine industry.

“It’s interesting how wine tourism has expanded. It used to be hunting and fishing and camping, and wine was a niche. Now, it’s something that has a lot of potential.”

Audrey House of Chateau aux Arc Winery in Altus said the signs help promote locations that many people may either be unaware of or may not know the directions to. Post said the subsequent signs that direct people after they turn off the interstate help assure travelers they’re not going to get lost driving in unfamiliar countryside.

“It has been awesome support,” House said. “Driving to an Arkansas game, people will think, ‘How can they be in Arkansas wine country?’ Now the signs are up and people are like, ‘What? Let’s go see this, honey.’

“I would love to tell [the Parks & Tourism Department] thank you. I was really happy to see them finally come up. It has been a very excellent boost and tool for tourism awareness.”

Winery officials complain the direct-shipping restrictions in a new law force customers to visit the winery to order wine, but Michael Langley, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Administration, said that could be a positive. Travelers might plan more trips through Arkansas wine country in order to place more orders.

“In the state, what we hope [the law] does is expand the tourism industry of Arkansas,” Langley said. “It is a tourism tool. People may say, ‘We need to go to Arkansas again and get our wine again.’ It’s very much an economic development tool — the more tourists, the more transactions, the better for Arkansas.”

Just like the wine industry hopes the new law is a first step, the producers hope the trail signage is a harbinger of future initiatives to promote their product. Wiederkehr wants to see wine brochures placed in Arkansas’ 14 visitors’ welcome centers and signs promoting the trail placed at points of entry into the state.

Rice said it would probably cost about $30,000 to print up a year’s supply of 100,000 brochures for the welcome centers, and the Tourism Department was willingly to go in “50-50” with the wineries on the cost.

“We would not have any trouble approving wine brochures,” Rice said. “If we had something to put in visitors’ hands, it would be great. That is a critical step. The sooner that it happens, the better off we’ll all be.”

Rice also encouraged the wineries to create a portal website that not only promotes the Arkansas wine industry as a whole but advertises, for example, a weekly special at each individual winery. Post and Wiederkehr agree that building on the new signage is vital.

“It’s time to get serious about an Internet presence,” Rice said. “It is a more sophisticated, better-educated traveler. They want to see what makes a state unique.”