(JoplinGlobe) - Keep the grapes happy so they will make you happy.

That is the philosophy of vineyard owner Erv Langan and his winemaker, Andrew Pennington.

Langan and his wife, LeeAnn, are the owners of Keltoi Winery, located on County Road 260 near Oronogo. They've been in the wine business there nearly 20 years. 

Langan's passion for wine developed from a desire to have a retirement hobby and his enjoyment of wine. He had a career with the U.S. Army and then as a graduate program coordinator for Missouri State University on the Missouri Southern State University campus.

"I knew that when I retired from education I wanted something to do to keep busy," said Langan. "I'm retired from the Army, and I spent over 10 years in Germany where we were assigned in wine country. If they could do it there, we could do it here is what I thought," he said of winemaking. "Actually this hobby has gotten a little bit out of hand."

"I don't know what I was thinking when we started, but it's gotten bigger than I thought it would get," he said. Two years ago, his vineyard ranked 37th among about 150 in the state.

He believes young people are contributing to the growth. "I think we're seeing the millennials are driving the beverage industry. They're not big on the soft drinks like maybe we were" in the baby boomer generation, he said. "They like craft beers and wine. They are more European."

Langan also is trying to promote interest in the future of winemaking as much he does his wines.

"I'd like to see more young people get into this industry," Langan said. "You're seeing more distilleries coming open now." 

That's why he hired Andrew Pennington, who was a biology student at MSSU when he took a summer job in 2009 picking grapes at Keltoi.

Pennington combines his biology background and a little freshman-level chemistry to brew the wines produced at Keltoi.

"Really grapes, just like any crop, they have a prime picking time," Pennington said. "We're looking for acid levels, sugar levels, nitrogen content in the grapes. So when Erv says they're ready to go, they come in and I test them. and I put them in the tanks and crush them up for a few days to a week and then off to the barrels to age for a year on a red wine." Other types of wine can age up to 18 months or two years.