Giggling Grapes Wine has been in business since 2013. Our most frequently asked question is “How did it all start? How did you become interested in making wine?” Well, sit back and I will tell you a story.

First off, my wife Amy and I have 3 kids that have all grown up and left the nest. All the credit goes to these 4 people in my life. Without their love, support and hard work none of this would be possible.

Many years ago my Mother-in-Law came to our house with a large bowl of fresh picked cherries. Amy wanted to make pies, but as much as I like pie, I wanted to try making wine. So I bought the supplies I needed and followed a recipe that a friend of mine used. We let this wine ferment for 3-4 months in our laundry room and when it was ready, we bottled it on the back deck in some empty Jack Daniels bottles (True story). It turned out pretty good.

So the next year we set out to make 50 gallons. I think we made Cherry and Blackberry that year. We started giving bottles away and people just kept coming back wanting more. [Note: we were still making this on the counter in our laundry room.] The year after that, we made 150 gallons. At this point we knew the Government only lets you make 250 gallons per year for personal use without buying a list of licenses longer than a child’s Christmas list and Amy was getting a little tired of wine jugs taking up the laundry room. We knew it was time to jump all in and go commercial. First thing to do was come up with a name.

Giggling Grapes actually is the brain child of a good friend of ours, Kari. We knew she was creative and asked her to come up with a name. One day I was perusing the web and came across a children’s book called The Giggling Grapes and on that exact same day Kari called us and said “How does Giggling Grapes sound?” It was fate that we both came up with the same name. And so it came to be.

In June of 2013, we started the very long process of getting the approved licensing and everything else that goes along with it. We purchased a 14 x 24 shop for Giggling Grapes to call home and with the help from my Dad and Father-in-Law, we turned it into reality. It took until October of that year to get everything buttoned up and we were off and running.

With the help of a Kickstarter campaign and tons of support from our family and friends, we were able to purchase everything we needed at the time and produced 500 gallons in 2014. We have upgraded every piece of equipment since then, but I always keep the old equipment around just as a reminder of where we came from. Today we are still considered small compared to most while producing 2,500 gallons. If you break that down it comes to 10,000 bottles.

I can’t even count how many people have helped us along the way. We still have countless people come over to help on bottling days. We thank each of you so much. This business has taught us that is takes long hours, hard work and laughter to make it. Sampling the product helps too!

So what does the future hold? Well, we want to open a full winery and tasting room. We are always looking for that right building, in the right location and for the right price. This is not as easy as some may think. Until then we will keep doing what we do, produce a quality product and ship it to our 35+ stores across the state of Missouri and attend 16+ wine strolls per year.

We want to thank each and every one of you GGW fans out there for continuing to support us and purchase our products.

Stay thirsty,

Cletis Webb