There’s a trail spur off the Katy Trail, about a mile south of Rocheport, that climbs steeply through the woods before opening onto a blufftop with a view most people don’t expect to find in Missouri. The A-Frame Winegarden at Les Bourgeois Vineyards sits up there, a rustic structure that Curtis “Doc” Bourgeois purchased in 1974 and eventually transformed — after living in it while building his family’s permanent home — into what has become one of mid-Missouri’s most beloved wine destinations.
The winery itself opened in 1985. Four decades later, it produces over 120,000 gallons annually across dozens of varietals, distributes across the Midwest, and is recognized as Missouri’s third-largest winery. But the A-Frame doesn’t feel like a production operation. It feels like a patio someone built on the edge of the world, where the Missouri River bends through the valley below and the Katy Trail disappears into the tree line. You bring a picnic basket, they bring the wine, and the evening takes care of itself.
The wines that arrive at that table have earned their place. Feast Magazine named Les Bourgeois to its “Feast 50” list of the best in Missouri, and the winery’s Jeunette Rouge — a dry red built on Missouri’s Chambourcin grape — earned Best of Class at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. The Jeunette Rouge has become something of a signature: the wine that keeps converting skeptics who arrive expecting sweet Missouri blends and leave with a different idea of what Missouri wine can be.
The A-Frame is open April through October, with live music most weekends. You can bike there directly from the Katy Trail, arrive by car, or stay on-site — Les Bourgeois operates three guesthouses in and around Rocheport: Founder’s Point, The 1912, and the Trailside Suites at the base of the bluff. Feast Magazine once wrote that the Katy Trail stretch between Rocheport and Defiance “might be the most scenic stretch of wine country in the state.” The A-Frame is the reason that sentence exists.
Learn more about the winery and plan your visit at Les Bourgeois Vineyards.
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