Year in Review: Minnesota Wine & Spirits in 2018

December 3, 2018 by John Garland

A martini at Nye’s Bar is a fine drink to reflect on the year 2018 in local spirits. In January, this bar, Nye’s in name only, opened in the dust of the demolished Polonaise Room, a place whose divey charm earned it the Best Bar in America designation from Esquire in 2006—a lifetime ago, from the … [ Read more]

Filed Under: Drink, Homepage Featured, Spirits, Wine Tagged With: 1000 Drops Craft Distillers, 11 Wells Spirits, Alexis Bailey Vineyard, Brother Justus, Carlos Creek Winery, Dampfwerk Pear Brandy, Far North Spirits, Grumpy's, Hai Hai, Heirloom Pineapple Amaro, Heyday, hodges bend, Itasca grapes, J. Carver Straight Wheat Whiskey, Lawless Distilling, Loon Liquor Co., Market Bar-B-Que, Martina, Next Chapter Winery, Northern Hollow Winery, nyes, Rye, Smalley's Caribbean BBQ, Spirits, Studio Distilling Rye Malt Whiskey, the rabbit hole, Vikre Distilling Bent Paddle Black Whiskey, wine, Year in Review

Cold Climate Wine Competition 2017: La Crescent, Marquette reign supreme

August 18, 2017 by John Garland

The Growler was on hand to help judge the 2017 International Cold Climate Wine Competition, which always gives us a good barometer on the state of local wine. The competition is open to any winery using non-Vinifera, cold-hardy grape varieties to make wine, and some of the region’s finest wineries were among the winners this … [ Read more]

Filed Under: Drink, Homepage Featured, Wine Tagged With: Carlos Creek Winery, Cold Climate Wine, Indian Island Winery, Itasca, La Crescent, marquette, Minnesota Wine, Next Chapter Winery, Northern Hollow Winery, Parallel 44, Richwood Winery

Lawsuit challenges locally grown mandate in Minnesota wine

March 29, 2017 by The Growler Leave a Comment

The Institute for Justice, joined by Alexis Bailly Vineyards of Hastings, and Next Chapter Winery of New Prague, announced yesterday a lawsuit that will challenge the language of Minnesota’s statutes for farm winery licenses. Currently, the statute mandates that Minnesota wineries must use a majority of Minnesota-grown grapes in their yearly winemaking output. The lawsuit … [ Read more]