My NW MN Wine Trip, May 14-May 16, 2010

The third annual MN wine trip has come and gone. I am nearly done planning the 4th annual wine trip for 2011, but sadly I have to wait a whole year before that is going to happen! However, in the mean time, hopefully writing about the 2010 trip will help me relive it and not long for the next one quite yet!

This year 7 of us piled into 2 cars and hit the open road for NW MN. Well actually the open road didn't come right away since the first stop was in St Louis Park! About 6 miles away from our brunch stop at Victor's 1959 Cafe (where "wine trip 2010" is now penned on the walls), was our first stop: Warehouse Winery. By appointment only, we were able to schedule a tour of these new winery and enjoy all the rich bodied wines they are creating. My favorite was #3, the Sangiovese blend, it was nice and peppery.

Second stop (and second time Google map failed us) finally brought us to Millner Heritage Vineyard and Winery in Kimball. Opening the tasting doors in May of 2009 (but in operation since 2006) - Millner is one of the newest in MN and they have a strong tie to their heritage (hence the name!). Our host was dressed in a traditional German outfit that was pretty adorable. :) All the wines have a German/Austrian name. My favorite here? Freizeit. Great patio wine for those warm summer evenings! There website is helpful to know how long you can continue to age the wine (if people can actually wait around to drink it!).

We then drove to our rest stop for the night: Brophy Lake Resort. So... who else knew it was fishing opener this wine trip weekend?? The stir that 7 girls made traveling to a resort lake was pretty impressive! And then when the guys realized we couldn't get our fire pit started, oh boy. Finally we had a hero come to our rescue. Although I still claim that we couldn't get the fire started cuz once we realized we needed paper we got distracted and started to read the magazines instead. This resort was so fantastic, I highly recommend it and if you go fishing opener, you get to experience a very interesting subculture!

The next day started with the first of our 6 theme stops....

Then we continued on to the real business at hand, drinking wine! We traveled to Carlos Creek Winery and stayed for much too short of a time. The grounds here are so nice and they had all sorts of activities that we couldn't just stick around for. We did go on a tour here and then quickly slammed some wines. Recently Carlos was taken over by new management, and I think they are still working out their recipes. I had a hard time finding a wine I could name my favorite, but finally sampled Trinity and I really liked it!!

It was then off to a surprisingly wonderful stop: Leatherwood Vinegary. I say surprising because I left with 2 bottles of vinegar and I have never used vinegar in my recipes or meals before! I thought I didn't like it. One man's hobby has turned into a exciting new adventure! Set up in a humble workshop connected to him home, there are endless containers of vinegar of all stages of fermentation. I left with a tangy combo of rosemary and apple and a plain apple cider. Yum.

We had the luxury of not having to stay in a hotel or resort the second night, someone in the group had a cabin right along the travel path! We visited the best Mexican joint in the Northwoods: Companeros. We were all wishing we were wearing stretchy pants by the time we left there!! Once back for the evening, we watched loons dive for endless minutes and ran from june bugs.

The next morning was lazy and wonderful. We only had 1 winery left: Forestedge Winery. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant. All their wines are fruit wines and well, the thought of drinking sweet fruit wines was not appealing after a weekend of wine tasting. But before we were were going to see if we could handle it, we had theme stop #2!

Ok! Now we could drink down some syrup...however, we were in a treat for a treat - these wines were dry, not syrupy sweet! The black currant and rhubarb raspberry were both my favorite. Great stop!

We then had the long drive home from Laporte to Minneapolis, thankfully we had 4 kodak moments to stop at!!

Foshay Observation Deck

The skyline of Minneapolis was a different place in 1929 when the tallest building opened and held that title for 40 years. It may not be the tallest building in 2010, but it is rooted in downtown liked an old oak tree. Recently it had a rebirth and now holds a trendy nightclub, a trendy bar on the 27th floor and a trendy hotel, however the 30th floor is not so trendy... but instead transports you back to the "conspicuous consumption" era of the 1920s.

When you enter the Foshay Tower (on Marquette and 8th), held straight to the info desk of the W hotel. After handing over a chunk of cash ($8 for adults), you will get a special key card that takes you to the 30th level.


The museum is lined with old papers and letters highlighting the history of the Foshay. Hanging on the walls in 2 places is an electronic screen that will play videos outlining the past and current stories this building has had. One of the most interesting things I retained is that each floor is 4.5 inches shorter than the one beneath it. Therefore plumbing and duct work has to be offset at each level, which leads to quite an engineering feat! After wandering and reading gobs of memorabilia for a good 45 minutes, I finally climbed the final steps to the open air observation deck. And here are a few of like the 42 pictures I took....






Open Monday - Saturday from 12pm - 9pm
Open Sunday from 12pm - 6pm

Observation Deck Winter House are subject to the weather - call ahead (612-215-3700)

Midwest wine tour season has started!

First winery visit of the season: Hook Stone Winery

Tucked right in with all the tourist shops lining main street is a little wine tasting room right in Hayward, WI. Four dollars will get a full tasting and a glass etched with the winery's name and "mascot". In addition to having fun wines like "Campfire" and "Rock Bass", the shelves are also lined with great food items like olive oils, mustards and sauces. I fell for the olive oils which were lined up right by the front door. These oils were different in that the olives are pressed right along side the accompanying flavors. For instance, the roasted garlic is pressed right with the olives as opposed to the olives being pressed, then infusing the oil later with the flavor. Pressing together allows for a much more predominate flavor and richness.

All wines are made on premises with grapes from California and Washington. I really enjoyed the whites. The reds were all pretty oaky. The port was my "best in show" - it is non-fortified (meaning no brandy added) and I thought it was just lovely.

Address:
10588N Main Street
Hayward, WI 54843

Phone:
715-634-WINE (9463)