‘Creating a little wine community’: Geneva Winery expands production in Elburn, plans to grow

Brent Copstead started making wine as a hobby when he and his family moved to the area from Washington state in 2014.

“I got a kit and played with different flavors,” he said. “It got to a point where all my friends were taking all my wine, so I decided to step up and open a little tasting room in Geneva.”

Copstead opened Geneva Winery to the public in 2020, set in the middle of historic Geneva’s downtown at 426 S. 3rd St., and then opened another location in Batavia in March 2024. The Batavia location, along the Fox River at 5 N. River St., features generous lawns where guests can sit and relax with a glass of wine and snacks on summer days. Both locations include a wine bar and tasting room, where tastings and samples of the wines are available. The two locations also feature live music one or two days a week.

In 2022, Copstead and his wife Laura bought a 113-year-old farm on Brundige Road in unincorporated Kane County outside of Elburn. They created a small manufacturing operation there to make the wine for sale in Geneva and Batavia.

Now another expansion of sorts in underway. Recently, Copstead leased a warehouse on Dempsey Street in Elburn. He has obtained a liquor license from the village allowing wine to be made at the location and was awaiting a license from the state to begin production there.

The new location and brand-new equipment will allow Copstead to increase production of the wines exponentially, as well as making the process a lot less hands-on. While he has been producing 48,000 cases a year in small batches on Brundige Road, he will be able to manufacture 48,000 to 49,000 cases a month on Dempsey Street.

Copstead has 50 different wines, with 95% of them made by him on Brundige Road. To make their wines, they purchase wine juices, some from California and some from a distribution company in Canada, which sources the juices from places all over the world.

The wine-making process takes about four to eight weeks. The juice is fermented with yeast, then is stabilized and clarified, and finally bottled, capsulated and a label attached.

Copstead said he likes to try different wines and flavors, sometimes adding oak chips for an oaky flavor, or incorporating other flavors including fruits, berries, floral bouquets and chocolate. The Boonestone Gnome, for example, is a cabernet sauvignon with a chocolate accent.

Next up in Copstead’s plans is to seek a change in zoning for the Brundige Road location so he can plant a vineyard there. He hopes to begin that venture next spring. His eventual goal is to move his main production operation to Brundige Road and to host special events at the farm.

Copstead said he likes to introduce people to new wines and different flavors, making each visit to the tasting rooms an adventure unto itself. Sometimes he has customers participate in the wine-making process, having them taste a wine before it’s filtered, or fill the bottle, gassing it, corking it and labeling it.

“Then they take it home, and say, ‘This is the wine I made,’” he said.

Geneva Winery also has a wine club through which members enjoy a number of privileges, including a 25% discount on the purchase of wines, free tastings every day for the member and three of their friends, one to four bottles a month and a complimentary birthday and anniversary bottle of wine.

“The best part of all of this is making friends and creating a little wine community,” Copstead said. “We enjoy it and we love to help others to enjoy it too.”