a river town
By the mid-1850’s, the Mississippi River had lent it’s hand in helping Winona become one the busiest and fastest growing cities in Minnesota, and one of the largest crushed wheat ports in the country.
Not only was the city booming with opportunity, it was also beautiful. For these reasons, our family, like many others, settled here in 1853.
a farming heritage
Upon settling on our rugged farm just five miles west of our current Vineyards, our family immediately began planting gardens, raising crops, and harvesting anything that the wild landscape could offer.
Wild fruits were also abundant, especially grapes. In fact, it is these ancient grape varieties that would eventually play a major role in the development of the hybrid grape varieties that now fill our vineyards.
Our many generations of caring for and raising grain and fruit crops encouraged us to plant our now thousands of grape vines on these same rugged hills that our ancestors did generations before.
a new vineyard
We began planting our vineyards in 2003, and opened our tasting room with our first wines in June of 2008. Since 2003, we have planted nearly 17,000 vines throughout our vineyard, with hybrid grape species including Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, Marquette, St. Croix, Sabrevous, Brianna, Prairie Star, and La Crescent.
The many wines that we craft each year have received numerous awards, including gold medals at the International Cold Climate Wine conference. Award-winning or not, we will always be proud to share our many great wines with our family, friends, and most importantly, our many guests.