Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
One evening last November, Cat Neville, a TV personality who was then the publisher of the magazine Feast, sat down for a private tasting menu dinner in Hermann with hosts Jim and Mary Dierberg. The Dierbergs are St. Louisans; Jim’s family is known for its grocery chain and for its stewardship of First Bank, which Jim chaired until his retirement in 2016. Yet by the night of this dinner, Jim and Mary were also considered visionaries in Hermann. They owned not just the venue—The Inn at Hermannhof—but also, through various legal entities, at least 50 parcels in town. Their holdings include a winery, brewery, event space, and B&B-style cottages.
The Dierbergs had been working for five decades to preserve and revitalize this small town of German heritage on the Missouri River, about halfway between St. Louis and Jefferson City. And they were about to recognize Neville, a former military brat born in Germany, as someone who could help them with their most important project.
They chatted between forkfuls of curry pumpkin pasta and tea-brined duck breast prepared by chef Bernie Lee of Akar, then retired to seats in front of a roaring fire, wine glasses clinking into the wee hours.
The next morning, the Dierbergs gave Neville a tour of the centerpiece of their investment: the 200-acre Hermann Farm. She visited all its highlights: the Greek Revival brick home, built in 1847; the tradesmen barn; the hulking Shire horses grazing in the pasture; the distillery; and the huge 19th-century barn, much of which had been trucked in from Pennsylvania. She found herself brainstorming with the owners about how to make the farm more compelling to visitors.
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
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About six weeks later, the Dierbergs’ daughter-in-law JiaMin Dierberg, who helps out informally at the property, called Neville to offer her a job as the farm’s chief curator and creative director. Neville’s first reaction: No way. Aside from Feast, she was also producing and hosting tasteMAKERS, an Emmy-nominated food-and-travel show on PBS. But then she thought about it. Neville had wanted to work in an agriculture-adjacent position for a long time, and tasteMAKERS had only whetted her appetite for it.
“With the TV show, I’d be on location and I’d be interviewing these people and I’d have this feeling in the back of my mind and in my heart: I want to stay here. I don’t want to just tell a story; I want to be part of it,” she recalls. “This felt really connected to a community.” She accepted the offer and began work at the farm in April. (She will continue her TV work as well.)
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Cat Neville
Neville has a variety of projects in the works at the farm, which has been open to the public for tours since 2016. The ethos right now, Neville says, is to step back and focus not on what the farm can do but rather on what it should.
Toward the back of the property is the giant stone-and-wood barn. It’s an amalgam of Missouri limestone and lumber from three 19th-century barns in Pennsylvania, the state from which the area’s first German settlers arrived. Neville plans to hold educational events for the food and farming industries on the barn’s upper level; the bottom level will serve as stables for the farm’s seven Shires. The draft breed—which holds records for height and size; only 3,000 or so remain worldwide—is another nod to the pastoral life of the early settlers.
A stone’s throw from the barn is the brick distillery, built on the site of an original rickhouse. It’s been producing bourbon, gin, and vodka for a few years, but Neville says that distiller Derrick LeRoy has an interest in brandy and rye and may move in that direction. To make those spirits as well as wine, Neville hopes to bring agriculture—particularly vineyards, orchards, and grain crops—back to the farm. This could mean growing heritage apples, she says, or constructing a library of grape varieties. (There are also plans to raise sheep, poultry, pigs, and cattle once the fencing and watering holes are complete.)
At the front of the property is the Hussman House, once the home of George Hussman, who is considered the father of Missouri’s wine industry. At some point, Neville says, this house may become the focal point of a living history interpretation, with actors wearing period clothing and blacksmiths and other tradesmen working their materials.
But for now, the house’s main draw is its collection of antique furniture, crafted in and around Hermann.
The Dierbergs have been avid collectors of such items since 1971, the year that they came to Hermann on a whim for its annual spring celebration, Maifest, and fell in love with the place. They were fascinated by the hardiness, industriousness, and artisanal mastery of those immigrants and felt a calling to ensure that their mark on the region never fade into oblivion. “That’s our mission: to preserve the culture,” says Jim Dierberg. “Otherwise, in a few more years, there may not be anyone left to talk about it.”
