Great Weekend

What a great weekend, with the Art Crawl in the vineyard, the Ladies Tailgate Party, and weather in the 80s. The Art Crawl was a huge success and I wish only the best for all the fantastic artists we had the honor of showcasing this past weekend. A HUGE thanks to Rick Thake and his wife Theresa for bringing the Rube Cube to our Ladies Tailgate party. The beast gets an amazing 6 gallons a mile!

One final thinks to Richard and Molly Dollarhide for all their work on the Fun with Wine series this summer. You guys are great.

The best part? We're not done yet! Join us this coming Saturday for a bonfire in the vineyard, or check out the annual Sips of History event Oct. 21-23, 2010.

For more details, or to see a great montage of pics from this past weekend, check out the Events page on the website. We'll see you in the vineyard!

Pics, Harvest and Weekend Plans

If you were in the vineyard for the Grape Stomp or the Unbridled Chocolate weekend, check www.crofutwinery.com for links to photo galleries from those events. We always welcome new photos, so don't hesitate to send us yours to post, too!

We're cancelling tomorrow's grape harvest since the rain is predicted to last thru the morning. We got a lot done on Tuesday and Wednesday, though. Between harvest and all the vineyard events these past two weeks, Don is wiped out and sleeping in. He'll be back in the vineyard picking grapes this Saturday morning, weather permitting, and we hope you'll join us at 8:30 am.

There's lots more to do this weekend in Scott County, including:

- Scott County's annual City to Country tour takes place this Saturday, Sept. 25 from 11am to 4 pm. Find out more.

- The Pure Country Alpacas Farm is having a boutique and craft festival on both Saturday and Sunday. Visit www.purecountryalpacas.com for details.

- Glewwe's Castle Brewery Open House takes place on Sunday, Sept. 26. There will be music and root beer samples, as well as demonstrations on apple pressing, soda making, bottling and more. Find out more.

This weekend is a great time to visit Scott County. We'll see you in the vineyard!

Harvest 2010 (First Day)

Ahhh vineyard after first day of harvest. The grape is ON.

Patty Wagon

Patty and her "Patty Wagon" took us for a ride in around and thru the vineyard!
Love great friends and holiday weekends.
-Don

MN State Fair Wine Competition

The Minnesota State Fair provides the time and place for the annual International Cold Climate Wine Competition. This year the Crofut Family Vineyard brought home two silver medals for our Frontenac Rosé and Prairie Blanc wines, plus two bronzes for our Essence du Nord and La Crescent.

We'd really like to rock this competition since it takes place in our own backyard. However, the ICCWC judges seem to consistently favor the sweeter wines, and that's not where our own preference lies. I guess we'll just have to console ourselves with the 59 new medals we've brought home in the past two years.

Congratulations to the Crofut Family Vineyard and all the other 2010 ICCWC winners!

August 2010: Indy International Wine Competition

We won a boatload of medals in 2009, but haven't entered many contests in 2010 because the weather didn't cooperate with competition deadlines. (Fluctuating temperatures during shipment can affect the color and aroma of wine, if not the taste.) We did send some to Indiana for this summer's Indy competition, though. The results are:
Prairie Blanc 2008, SILVER
Frontenac Rose` 2008, BRONZE
Frontenac Red 2008, BRONZE
Essence du Nord 2008, BRONZE

Be sure to swing by the vineyard to pick up a few bottles of our award-winning wines for your dinner tonight!

Augusting in August

Veraison (augusting or turning) is in full force. Thanks to Marshal (from Cities 97) and Carol from coming out to the vineyard and hanging with us.

Want to pick?
We welcome all volunteer grape pickers who show up on weekends in late September through early October. Email and tell us you want to participate. You pick, then enjoy a home-cooked meal and wine after a MN morning harvest. Take home a bottle of our wine and a full tummy after a morning of playing with (er... harvesting) grapes.