Z&M Twisted Tour Bus travels to local vineyards

A new tour bus will allow customers to go to various vineyards in the area and try local wines and hard ciders.

Z&M Twisted Vines Wine and Winery hosted its first Kaw Valley Wine Run this weekend, taking its Twisted Tour Wine Bus on stops to local vineyards.

For $45 a ticket, customers can ride Z&M’s Twisted Tour Wine Bus to Holy-Field Winery in Basehor, Crescent Moon Winery in Lawrence and Irvine’s Just Beyond Paradise Winery in Lawrence. The tour ends back at Z&M’s, where people can taste more of its wines and hard ciders. The Kaw Valley run is one of the tour options and lasts for five hours on set dates each month.

Owners Gina Montalbano and her husband Bryan Zesiger had the idea to start vineyard tours because they wanted to get more involved with their community and share the importance of supporting local businesses.

“Twisted Tours was just really an opportunity for us to celebrate agriculture and farm wineries,” Montalbano said. “We talked about going to pumpkin patches in the fall or going to see Christmas lights. We can use this for lots of opportunities to network with our community.”

Montalbano and Zesiger bought a used bus from a retirement home and added new paint and colorful lights. Until they find a more permanent driver, Zesiger will drive the Twisted Tour Wine Bus, Montalbano said.

For Katie Brown, the Twisted Tour Wine Bus is a feature that sets Z&M apart from other wineries.

“I think it’s a great idea, especially in Lawrence because I don’t think there are a lot of options when it comes to things to do,” Brown said. “I think it’s a great way to continue to grow the winery while also giving people something fun to do.”

Along with the Kaw Valley Wine Run, they also have a Vino and Brews Tour where people can visit wineries and breweries. The Twisted Tour Wine Bus will also be used at Z&M’s original location in Leavenworth and visit wineries in that area. 

After Z&M’s production increased, Montalbano and Zesiger expanded to their Lawrence location in 2020, which gave them an extra 100 acres for their vineyard.

“We started in the downtown location and then we realized we couldn’t keep up with the amount of wine we needed to make, so after we found this place, we bought it,” Montalbano said.

While the Twisted Tour Wine Bus is a new addition to Z&M, they host other events as well. The Twisted Flying Festival is an event where people can rent a fire pit and roast marshmallows while watching hot air balloons float to the sky. 

Montalbano and Zesiger’s enthusiasm is shown through the different events they put on, Brown said, which adds to the experience of going to Z&M.

“They bring in a lot of their passion outside of the winery,” Brown said. “They are very personable and you can talk to them just like how you would talk to your friends.”

Montalbano and Zesiger always wanted Z&M to stand out from typical wineries because they noticed there is a classist stigma tied to drinking wine. 

“Sometimes wine gets that connotation that it’s for a certain class and age of people, but that’s not us,” Montalbano said. “We wanted to be sure we had something for everybody’s palate, regardless of age or background.”

They got creative with their wine flavors so that anyone could enjoy them. Some of their most popular wines are watermelon, peach and hellfire, which is a jalapeno wine. 

Along with their classic red and white wines, they also have coffee and spicy wine collections. In total, they have about 50 wine flavors and eight hard cider flavors, Zesiger said.

“Our concept was to make stuff we like, but also make it a little different or unique than just traditional red and white grape wines,” Montalbano said. 

Zesiger is a U.S. Army major, which has influenced a lot of Z&M’s flavor profiles and names. Their Household Six wine is named after a military term for the commander of the house. It represents those who take care of their home while their spouse is deployed, Montalbano said.

While Montalbano and Zesiger get creative with their flavors, they still value traditional winemaking techniques. Montalbano’s family is from Sicily and owned several vineyards, which influenced the way Z&M makes its wine.

“Typically with white wines you use the pressed grape juice and discard the grape skins,” Montalbano said. “The traditional Italian method my family uses is they leave the grape skin on and ferment them, which always gives it a better flavor profile.”

Along with wine and hard ciders, Z&M also sells soap, lip balm, sugar scrubs and jam made with the wine byproduct from its fermentation process. For Montalbano and Zesiger, recycling the leftover ingredients was a way to have less waste.

“It kind of organically happened,” Montalbano said “We thought maybe we should start using some of our waste to make other products.”

In the near future, Z&M will offer brandy. What started as a mistake led to Zesiger exploring the process behind distillation. 

“I screwed up about 400 gallons of wine and instead of wasting it, I did my research and found out that cognac and brandy are the same thing,” Zesiger said. “Cognac can only be made from white grape juice, which is turned into wine and then distilled.”  

Those interested in purchasing tickets for Z&M’s Twisted Tour Wine Bus or another event can visit its website. 

Reach reporter Camryn Robbinson with more business news at [email protected].

Don’t miss local news! Subscribe to receive our Wednesday weekly e-newsletter here. It’s free.

If you appreciate our coverage, please donate. Our newspaper depends on your donations to provide coverage of Eudora and continue providing local news.

To donate to support our community journalism, please go to this link: tinyurl.com/y4u7stxj