A serious local wine industry is taking root in region Shores of lake waconia. You can"t wander a rural highway in minnesota(Or wisconsin)These days without stumbling on a winery.Yes, a winery, in a state not known for its grape crop.But it"s not the equivalent of running a mountain guide service on the plains.There is some there here. Local wines make up only about 1 percent of state wine sales, but the regional wine industry is tapping a deep vein of interest in wine, as well as wine tourism, which may actually be driving its boom.That dichotomy is perhaps why area winemakers are still struggling to pin down just where the local wine industry is headed. Minnesota"s wine industry is growing phenomenally fast, but it"s also very young and in the middle of a classic adolescent identity crisis.Katie cook, an enologist at the university of minnesota, says that resolving that crisis is going to be key to the industry"s longterm success. Local wineries are still trying to find their sweet spot, she says. "If you look at the history of wine over the last 200 years, the wineries that survived are distinct and highquality. " Currently, cook says, many wineries are trying to focus their output on what"s already on the market and familiar homepage to consumers.The problem is that local winesboth what"s being made right now and what can realistically be made from grapes that will grow herelie well outside the national trends of the past decade or so.And that"s exactly the opposite of what you get from the grapes that grow here.Coldclimate wines tend to be lighter in body, lower in alcohol, more acidic, and, at the same time, sweeter.That sweet finish, a result of the winemaker trying to balance out natural acids, is probably the strongest association drinkers have with local wines.As the national palate starts to swing back toward sweet wineswhich trendwatchers say is happeninglocal pours may get a boost. Booming but tinythe local wine industry has emerged over the past two decades almost out of nothing.In 1990, there were two licensed wineries in the state awaiting sourcing.Today there are more than 60, with 41 of them actively selling wine, according to the minnesota grape growers association. (Add five more on the wisconsin side of the mississippi).The rest are either hobby wineries or in the early stages of development.Four out of five of the wineries in the state have opened since 2002. Grape growers, who naturally got into the game a little earlier than the wineries themselves, show similarly explosive growth.While today there are more than 600 vineyards in minnesota, before 1990 there were fewer than 20. "In 2008 we were concerned that it looked like there might be a glut of grapes on the market,"She says,"But the wineries have come online to pick up slack. "Tuck"s research shows 84 percent of local wineries grow at least some of their own grapes.While commercial grape growers often sell grapes to wineries, a surprising number do not.By 2007, researchers at the university of minnesota had measured the total economic impact of the grape and wine industry in minnesota at $36.2 million, including the wineries themselves, along with the vineyards that supply them and the related tourism.By 2011 that impact had grown to $59 million, tuck saysimpressive considering it occurred during the nation"s worst economic downturn in 75 years. According to a survey by the midwest wine press, minnesota and wisconsin have the fastestgrowing wine industries in the region, measured by the number of operations, while the minnesota grape growers association puts the industry"s annual growth rate at 28 percent. That"s jawdropping, but it"s worth putting in perspective. "The market hasn"t really hit the point where it"s saturated.You"re looking at the number of wineries, but most of the wineries are producing less than 5, 000 cases of wine.They"re very small,"Cautions cook. "If you look at all the production in minnesota, it"s less than beringer [winery] in california. " The grape growers association puts the state"s total production at about 125, 000 gallons last year(A case of wine equals about 2.4 gallons).That leaves plenty of room for continued growth, according to terry savaryn, secretary of the association and coowner of sovereign estate winery in waconia. "The potential is still huge,"She says. "Wine has now surpassed beer in sales in minnesota.If we get to just 2 percent, we"ve doubled.There"s still a lot of room for educating the public about minnesota wines and for improving the product. " Minnesota winery financials dossieron average, each minnesota winery registers annual sales of $310, 500. Minnesota wineries spend an average of $78, 800 per winery on labor per year. On average, each winery employs two fulltime, yearround employees. Total minnesota winery employment stands at roughly 350. On average, each winery relies on 610 hours of volunteer labor each year. (2012 data) Tourists rule the marketa big chunk of the minnesota wine industry is driven by tourism and events.Our geography forces grape growers(And therefore most winemakers)To cluster along the few rocky bluffs and hillsides, off the fertile, wet, glacially compacted plains, which grape vines hate.That has led to the easy creation of a handful of wine trailsalong the mississippi river(Great river road)And the minnesota river, for examplethat bring in daytrippers who come as much for the experience, the scenery, and the fresh air as the wine itself.Wineries have also become a hot location for weddings and charitable functions. Nearly all wineries have tasting rooms where they do a briskenoughbusiness serving tasting flights to the curious, most of whom go home with at least a bottle or two as a souvenir.In fact, many small wineries don"t sell offsite at all, and it"s typical for area wineries not to have much distribution outside of their immediate area.The minnesota farm wineries act allows retail and wholesale sale directly to stores and restaurants within the state;A distributor is required to sell nationally, so few, if any, minnesota wineries sell outside the state.But it"s a moot point, really, as they already sell as much as they can produce. Those daytrippers and wedding planners don"t just pull into the wineries" long dirt driveways(Or, increasingly, into wellappointed paved parking lots), buy wine, and leave.They have lunch in town, visit a historic site, buy gas and snacks, maybe even stay overnight.Tuck"s u of m study estimates that wine tourists injected about $14 million into local economies in 2007a figure she is sure has grown in the past six years.That"s nearly a third of the industry"s total economic impact on the state. Cause and effect is difficult to divine, but the relevance of this agritourism to the local wine industry means the typical local wine consumer is not a wine snob.The u of m"s cook describes the minnesota winery patron as someone who is excited about local products. "They drink wine, enjoy wine, but they"re not connoisseurs,"She says. "It"s mostly generationx women, women in their 30s and 40s, and a lot of young people, as well.They"re a little more openminded and they"re still developing their taste preference.It"s also people just looking for a fun drive on a saturday. " Built on passiongarvin heights vineyards, sitting on a Quinceanera Dresses Sale 2014 bluff overlooking winona, is a typical minnesota winery in many ways.It is, in the words of owner and winemaker marvin seppanen,"Very much a momandpop organization. " Seppanen and wife linda opened their doors in 2007.Today they produce between 5, 000 and 10, 000 bottles a year, which they sell entirely in the winona area, largely onsite. "We"re a tourism business,"He says. "Our customer base is chicago to fargo, but about 30 to 40 percent is people out of the twin cities doing a trip along the mississippi river. " It"s also a business built on passion.The seppanens started growing grapes before they ever decided to make a business of it.Now they make wines from most of the coldhardy grapes introduced by the university of minnesota"s viticulture researchers, primarily singlevarietals such as frontenac, marquette, and la crescent.Unlike an increasing number of minnesota winemakers, garvin heights doesn"t buy grapes or juice from california to http://www.bridesmaidressesonline.co.uk/ supplement the local stock and produce wines that taste more like california vintages.Instead, they rely on what they grow and what they can buy from their neighbors in winona county. "It"s just supporting the local industry,"Seppanen says. "We want to say it"s a local product and really try to educate people about the wine that we have. "While seppanen still tells visitors at his tasting room that his la crescent"Has rieslinglike characteristics,"He"s finding that more and more consumers know the varietals by name. Like most minnesota wineries, garvin heights doesn"t try to compete Cheap Party Dresses UK on price. "We"re at a higher price point because basically our wines are handmade,"Seppanen says. "I"ve seen operations that could do all of our annual production in one hour. "
