Big news in the Missouri wine community coming out of Ste. Genevieve: Mark Baehmann, who’s been at Mount Pleasant Winery for the past 17 years, has taken the job of winemaker at Chaumette Vineyards and Winery. Prior to Mount Pleasant, Mark worked as winemaker at Montelle Winery in Augusta and consultant for several other wineries in Missouri.

Mark is incredibly passionate about wine, but even more so, he’s been a key figure in the evolution in quality of Norton and other native and hybrid grapes that are grown in Missouri. (Plus Mount Pleasant has long been an experimenter with vinifera grapes; I have to wonder if this will carry over to Chaumette.)

I wish mark and Chaumette owner Hank Johnson the best and can’t wait to once again join them to have acid profiles and vining configurations sketched out on napkins while we enjoy the fruits of their labors.