For Jon Malinski, launching a winery in Argentina was relatively easy. But building a small barrel to dispense his wine?
"Hardest thing I've ever done," said the Lakeville businessman. "You look at it and can't believe something so basic could be so challenging."
Perfecting the barrel mechanisms took six years, with lots of "connectors that didn't connect" the wine pouches with the tap in front of the barrel. Finally, Malinski got it working like a traditional beer keg does, dispensing whatever quantity of wine one desires at a time.
The "wine kegs" are being sold for $199 at dozens of retail outlets, including, appropriately enough, the Liquor Barrels in Mahtomedi and St. Louis Park (the wine pouches are sold separately). Several area venues, among them Main Street After Hours in Lakeville, Pinstripes in Edina and Dr. Chocolate's Chocolate Chateau in St. Paul, are using the kegs for glass pours.
The wine in the 4-liter pouches (just over a gallon) lasts for 60 days. And this is not your standard box wine, either: It's some quite tasty varietals and blends from Piattelli, Malinski's winery in Argentina.
Suddenly a vintner
While the barrel project was a natural outgrowth, launching a winery came out of nowhere.
"Wine wasn't ever really a passion for us," Malinski said. "We just enjoyed wine specific to the type of food we were eating."
During a 2000 trip to Argentina on unrelated business (his office-equipment enterprise), he got a call from one of his managers in California. "He asked if I had ever considered owning a winery," Malinski said. "Well, that was probably the furthest thing from my mind." But he dove in, largely because he liked the people and the place, Cafayate in the province of Salta.