This Wine is Making Me Awesome!

Anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy a nice Cabernet. I'm not picky - they are all nice. Whether I'm cooking and sipping, eating at the Legion or a fancy restaurant, up at our friends cabin, red wine is my drink of choice. I had to learn to like it. My Husband and I had gone to Napa  Valley and Sonoma to explore vineyards and at that time I just enjoyed white wine. I told myself I wasn't leaving until I learned to like red wine. I was lucky - it only took me 3 minutes to fall in love with a Syrah . I drank my way thru every vineyard we visted with a Syrah. It didn't take me long to move into Cabernet. But then I love to switch things up with good Chardonnay. Oh and I can't forget a Pinot Noir or Merlot. And Sangria - my favorite of all ! You get the picture :) I'm known for my Sangria and I'll share a couple recipes later :)

So now that we are retired  we are working our way thru our Minnesota Destination lists and visting Wineries and Vineyards was our #1 must see.  The Winery business in Minnesota has BOOMED! I'm not sure how many vineyards and wineries we have but I was told it's over 40 wineries and 600 vineyards!. Our growing season is short, from May to September and grapes here are cold hardy. In fact I had no idea there was an International Cold Climate Wine Competition.  Which  loads of our wineries have won top awards. The University of Minnesota is known world wide for their expertise in cold hardy varieties of grapes and has a hand in many of the vineyards here in Minnesota.   There are Vineyard signs everywhere  in the state and we just never had the right time to visit.

Being retired has become the right time for us. We went  vineyard hopping and visited 3 wineries in a day and were pleasantly surprised at how busy they all were. Things was it was all retired people like us ha!

First one we went to was Crow River Winery in Hutchinson, MN. It has a big sign on the road and is advertised as  sitting on the edge of the Minnesota prairie.  I first wanted to see the actual grapes growing so we walked and were amazed at all the rows of assorted grapes.

                                                        

                                                                    They all had protective netting on them to keep the birds from eating them. Also we were hearing all these birds and couldn't figure out where they were coming from as we saw none. They had speakers ramdomly on posts with assorted bird calls - I'm assuming to keep birds away too.

We went inside their tasting room which was my favorite of the three we went to. Long bar counter in an elegant setting, We each ordered a different flight. I ordered the Minnesota Flight - 5 tastes of wines from these vineyards. My husband ordered a West Coast flight. It was only $5 for the tastings. I enjoyed all of the wines but really liked 2 so bought bottles of each, the Brianna 2015 - a light sweet white  and Marquette 2014 a lovely  dry red.  They have brunch on Sundays which would be fun to try. They also have a large event room which is perfect for weddings or whatever special event you may have. We enjoyed this very much and look forward to returning.

The 2nd Winery we visited was  Sovereign Estate Winery on the north end of Lake Waconia. I thought the grounds to this one was my favorite of the three. It's located across the street from Lake Waconia. Their tasting room is smaller but the patio and setting is beautiful. We ordered a full glass of wine. I asked for their best seller which was a white wine called Talon Crest. My husband had a Syrah. We walked the grounds which were just beautiful. They had a barn with horses and a chicken coup, a lovely garden and the vineyard was open - no netting on the wines. They had a pole with a nest of some bird which I think was put there on purpose to keep other birds away. We strolled and enjoyed both wines and would love to return another time. Wine stomps are coming up in the next couple of weeks at all the wineries we visited. That would be fun to see~!

The last winery we vistied was Parley Lake also close to Lake Waconia - down some winding back roads. The drive there was gorgeous. The wine tasting room is in an old old barn.  We got to taste 3 different wines for $5. The ambiance is wonderful - Minnesota style. The grapes used in these wines are University of Minnesota grape varieties. They also had horses and lots of metal sculptures dotting the outside around the tables for people to sit and enjoy their wines. Loads of people coming in while we were here.  We got to keep our souvenir wine glasses! This one was the busiest. 

Each winery has their own personality and I can't believe how much I learned  about Minnesota wines just visiting these 3. It was a really fun day. We met wonderful people, tasted interesting and delicious wine and learned about cold weather grapes. 3 Down  - 37 to go. Wine makes everything better :)