This has been a fun week for me! I’ve had a wide variety of Minnesota wines, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality I’ve found. Due to the very cold winters here in Minnesota, wines produced from grapes grown here are necessarily different from many of the more common grape varieties, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t as good. Some grape varieties have been developed that can be used to make some excellent wines.
I’ve also tasted wines made from rhubarb, cranberries, and honey, and I ended the week with a Port-style wine. All of the Minnesota wines I’ve had were in the Very Good or Excellent categories. Very impressive.
I wasn’t able to sample wines from all of the Minnesota wineries, as there are quite a few. Many of the smaller wineries sell their wines only at their store, and also do not ship their wines, so trying all of those would take a considerable amount of driving. Maybe I can eventually visit all of them.
I hope you enjoyed Regional Wine Week as much as I did. There are wineries in all 50 states of the USA, and I encourage you to visit some wineries close to where you live and sample their wines. You may discover a new favorite!
I’ll be returning to my regular reviews of wines throughout the world, but I do plan on featuring more Minnesota wines in the future.
My thanks to WineHaven and Forestedge for providing samples on short notice for this week.
The reviews from Regional Wine Week:
- 2010 WineHaven Marquette Reserve – Excellent
- 2009 WineHaven La Crescent – Very Good
- Forestedge Rhubarb – Very Good
- Forestedge Early Season White Cranberry – Very Good
- Parley Lake Apples and Vines – Very Good
- WineHaven Stinger Honeywine – Very Good
- Alexis Bailly Hastings Reserve Minnesota Port – Excellent
