MN Connection: Badger Mountain

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Nicholas Livingston

Badger Mountain | Columbia Valley, Washington

THE CONNECTION:
Graduating from the University of Minnesota, it is no surprise Mickey Dunne enjoys playing ice hockey, fishing, and cooking. Mickey experienced his first harvest in 1987 and has been hooked on the Washington wine industry ever since. After joining Badger Mountain as Sales Manager in 1998, the brand grew from 17,000 cases per year to more than 70,000 cases per year. Can we chalk that up to his Midwestern work ethic? It certainly impressed someone because Mickey was made a partner in 2005. Passionately committed to the success of Washington wines and the environmental sustainability vision embodied by Badger Mountain Vineyard and Powers Winery, Mickey is active in the Washington Wine Commission and sits on the Steering Committee of WineWise, an organization developing a Sustainability Guidebook for vineyards and wineries.

THE PRACTICE:
Visionary and life-long farmer Bill Powers planted Badger Mountain Vineyard with his son Greg in 1982. Just six years later, well-before the word organic became trendy and then universal, Bill transitioned his 80-acre estate to organic viticulture and in 1990 Badger Mountain Vineyard became the first Certified Organic vineyard in Washington State. Produced in the premiere Columbia Valley AVA, Badger Mountain Wines benefit from an ideal location and climate, deep volcanic soil, and organic production from vine to bottle. Badger Mountain N.S.A. wines (No Sulfites Added) are USDA Organic Certified and are made with certified organically grown grapes. All Badger Mountain Vineyard wines represent their ongoing commitments to environmental sustainability and the creation of high quality wines that reflect the purest expression of exceptional fruit.

Since 1990, Badger Mountain has not used chemical herbicides, insecticides, fungicides or synthetic fertilizers among their vines.

THE WINES:
Since 1990 Badger Mountain has not used chemical herbicides, insecticides, fungicides or synthetic fertilizers among their vines. Harvesting premium fruit is virtually assured by respecting these assets: a favorable location and climate, volcanic soil, and organic techniques. Using this diverse palette of organic grapes, winemaker Jose Mendoza creates a spectrum of classic varietal wines with no sulfites added. Jose’s imaginative blends result in fresh, provocative wines -each with a distinct, heady balance of fruit and floral notes, spice and earth. Badger Mountain’s NSA wines carry the USDA Organic logo and, per federal regulations, contains less than 10 parts per million sulfites.

MN Connection: Argyle

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Nicholas Livingston

Argyle | Willamette Valley, Washington

THE CONNECTION:
Argyle is synonymous with Rollin Soles, the affable “cowboy philosopher”, founding winemaker at Argyle, and the only winemaker to make white, red and sparkling wines to reach Wine Spectator’s Top 100…but every philosopher has an apprentice and who knows when pupil might surpass professor? In 2013 Rollin handed the torch of head winemaker to Nate Klostermann, graduate of the University of Minnesota in Food Science. After getting a taste for winemaking at Falconer Vineyards along the Mississippi River in Red Wing, Nate went west to the Dundee Hills, started at Argyle as a harvest intern, was quickly promoted to enologist, and then assistant to none other than Rollin Soles. Now at the helm Nate is proving a keen-eyed captain making wines every bit as moving.

THE PRACTICE:
Prospecting the New World’s coolest latitudes, Brian Croser and Rollin Soles staked a claim in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a place ideal for late ripened Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fruit. Since 1987, Argyle Winery has produced world-class methode champenoise sparkling wine, barrel fermented Chardonnay and ‘silky’ textured Pinot Noir from low yielding vines on winery farmed hillside slopes. As an estate winery where they work the fruit themselves, it comes as no surprise that environmental stewardship is a core value at Argyle as proven by their status as LIVE Certified Sustainable and Certified Salmon Safe. Argyle was named “OREGON’S PREMIER WINERY” by Wine Spectator in 2000.

As an estate winery where they work the fruit themselves, it comes as no surprise that environmental stewardship is a core value at Argyle…

THE WINES:
Argyle’s vineyards define their wines. At 120 acres, Knudsen combines old vine blocks with new high-density blocks planted to “Old World” Dijon clones at high elevation in Dundee Hills -proving key components in Argyle’s sparkling wines. Just south sits the warmer Stoller planted in 1995 using state of the art viticultural techniques producing some of Oregon’s finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Fifteen miles away sits Lone Star, a 160 acre site in Eola-Amity Hills. Their newest is the 135 acre Spirit Hill, a high-elevation site in the gusty Van Duzer corridor of Eola-Amity ideal for sparkling wines. All grapes are hand harvested into small baskets, chilled overnight to 35F, and crushed the next day. Chilling preserves ripe fruit characteristics and naturally limits oxidation yielding superlative wines.

MN Connection: Alexis Bailly

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Nicholas Livingston

Alexis Bailly,
Hastings, Minnesota

THE CONNECTION:
Minnesota’s original winery, Alexis Bailly Vineyards has been growing cold hardy grapes in Hastings since 1973 when David Bailly planted the first vineyard in Minnesota in that pioneering spirit that marks our northern lot. The tasting room opened in 1978 with the celebratory release of the first wines ever produced commercially of 100% Minnesota grown grapes. Today, Nan Bailly represents the second generation of the family and continues this proud heritage of making wines in the world’s most difficult climate – “Where the grapes can suffer.” After years tending vineyards that many believed would surely fail, Alexis Bailly not only proved the wines can be delicious but that cool climate grape varieties are as hardy as the people who settled the North Star State.

Alexis Bailly not only proved the wines can be delicious, but that cool climate grape varieties are as hardy as the people who settled the North Star State.

THE PRACTICE:
From this once-unlikely grape growing location in the Hiawatha Valley of the Upper Mississippi come the nationally acclaimed wines of Alexis Bailly Vineyard. Bucking the conventional thinking that no wine grape could withstand Minnesota winters, Minneapolis attorney David A. Bailly bought a 20-acre field of winter rye in Hastings in 1973 and planted it with French grapes. He took to heart the French philosophy that vines under stress produce the best fruit. What better way to stress them than our winters?

THE WINES:
His passion and his palate for fine wine meant he would not be content to just produce a wine from Minnesota, it had to be a Minnesota wine of exceptional quality. Grape varieties, therefore, were chosen not for their hardiness, but for their flavor and the superiority of the wine they produce. To survive sub-zero temperatures each vine had to be buried in the ground at the end of the season. Backbreaking work that it is, it nonetheless made his job as a winemaker easier by providing him with the quality grapes he sought. In 1978, Bailly opened the doors to the winery he designed and constructed from Minnesota limestone and white knotty pine. It also marked the release of Alexis Bailly Vineyard’s first vintage, 1977, produced exclusively from Minnesota-grown grapes. David Bailly died in 1990. His daughter, Nan, continues his legacy as the master winemaker, producing wines that have won over 45 national awards.

Introducing MN Connections

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Nicholas Livingston

Your homegrown fine wine distributor and importer serving the state of Minnesota since 1985, The Wine Company is Minnesota born and raised proud to spit so you don’t have to.

While Minnesota Nice might keep us from boasting day in day out, we have a great deal to be proud of in the land of 10,000 Lakes. Minnesota is not only home to the headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi but Wheaties, Aveda, the Juicy Lucy, Scotch Tape, Bisquick, Post It Notes, HMOs, the stapler, the armored car, the Better Business Bureau, the skyway, the shopping mall, the Bundt Pan, the pop-up toaster, Rollerblades, the snowmobile, Spam, rice cakes, and Snickers among countless other candy bars… Minnesota is an innovative hotbed of all sorts!

We hosted the first open heart surgery and the first bone marrow transplant. Minnesota is even the Birthplace of Waterskiing which should not come as a surprise when one in six of us own a boat and Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline –more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined. It is a special place indeed…but did you know that we also gave the world several accomplished wine folk involved in some of the best juice that belongs on your table?

Join us over the coming blog posts where we will highlight but a few of our favorite MN ties to wines worthy of your cellar. So don’t be a goose –it is Duck Duck Gray Duck after all; be nice and learn more about what connections make us Minnesotans so special on the wine front.

Alexis Bailly Vineyards on a Sunday afternoon: does life get any better?

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Jason Kallsen

We are in the middle of summer in Minnesota. The excitement of the first blossoms of Spring are long behind us, the anticipation of the State Fair is in the air. Some days are sticky to the point of New Orleans dreams at night (very fitting considering the focus of this post).

Weekends start to take a lazy air in Minnesota in August, as we take our last sip of the warmth and enjoy what we will surely miss in six months.

These beautiful Sundays of July and August can be easily enhanced. A little wine and a little jazz goes a long way, and our own Alexis Bailly Vineyards in Hastings combines them every Sunday in the summer with Jazz in the Vineyard sponsored by KBEM 88.5 fm.

For as many wine lovers as the Twin Cities boast, it’s surprising to discover just how few have made the 35 minute drive to the oldest winery the state. Open to the public on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, Alexis Bailly has an ‘open picnic’ policy — bring your own chairs, blankets, food, and more and kick back to enjoy the grounds. All of this is free, and of course it’s good form to head into the winery to buy some beverages. Who says you can’t buy wine on Sundays in Minnesota? A change to the state retail laws (about 15 years ago) allows for Minnesota wines to be sold from Minnesota wineries on Sunday!

If you forget your picnic blanket, cheese, cutting boards, or stemware have no fear. All are available at the winery.

The Doug Little Quartet was playing yesterday. Due to some rain in the forecast, the first set was held in the winemaking facility under the tasting room. With wine in the air, bistro tables throughout, and Little playing classic jazz on his 1946 Parisian saxophone, you could suddenly imagine you’re in Paris. Seriously. (Except for the guy next to me with the Nascar t-shirt.)

Here is a video of part of the performance, along with some photos that will hopefully cause you to make some new plans for your summer weekends. Take a look at the full schedule of Sunday Jazz in the Vineyard as well as Doug Little’s website. Support local music and local wine!

We’ll be following up soon with an interview with Nan about the current state of Minnesota wine and what she has planned for the future. For now, enjoy the video and pictures!