Inside Volcano Winery’s cozy tasting room, Vancouver honeymooners Felicia and Rece Bergstrom settle into high seats at a long wooden serving bar. “I’m a wine person, and we’re from British Columbia where there are lots of wineries,’’ says Felicia, a first-time visitor to Hawaii. She discovered Volcano Winery on the Internet, and its unusual location piqued her interest. “It seems odd to us,’’ Rece chimes in, “but we decided to give it a try.’’
After tasting two symphony grape wines, three blended fruit wines, and the winery’s signature honey wine made from the nectar of the island’s macadamia nut tree blossoms, Felicia weighs in on her favorites: She favors the peach-apricot fruitiness of the Symphony Dry, a white dinner wine and bronze medalist at the 2004 Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. The rich nutty flavor of the Macadamia Nut Honey, a bronze medalist at the 2003 Riverside International Wine Competition, also wins a thumbs-up.
Kilauea’s rumblings are a boom to business. “Tourists come to see the smoke and molten-lava flows, and then stop at the winery,’’ says Del Bothof, winery owner. Bothof, 64, runs a high-tech media company in Summit, N.J., and travels to Hawaii frequently. He likes to drink wine but knew nothing about running a winery when he purchased Volcano Winery from Alana and Lynn “Doc’’ McKinney, the original owners.
“It’s kind of a surprise that I ended up buying it,’’ Bothof says. “I love Hawaii and was interested in buying a condo on the Big Island. A friend in the media business ran across an ad for the sale of the winery, and as a joke suggested we buy it and retire.’’ Bothof struck a purchase deal with the McKinneys and walked off with the deed to the place in 1999. Under Doc McKinney’s tutelage, Bothof’s son Scott learned the ins and outs of the wine-making business and managed the winery for years.
