Vines and wines change the Minnesota landscape

There are days when John Maloney wonders why he ever decided to start a winery. "Sometimes several times a day," he admits.

For starters, there's a massive upfront investment of money and labor, a barrel full of planning and planting and building, with several years before a cent of revenue comes in. Then the plan and people -- for growing, winemaking and marketing -- must be in place. And, oh yeah, this is Minnesota we're talking about.

"This business isn't for the faint of heart," said Maloney, as 40-mile-per-hour wind gusts batted us about on his hilltop vineyard south of Cannon Falls. "I'm very lucky, though, and I'm reminded when people come up here and see what we have."

The affable Maloney is too modest to say so, but he surely takes equal pleasure when he sips the fruits of his labors. Cannon River Winery is making some truly tasty wines, and not just by Minnesota standards.

Its red, white, pink and fortified bottlings, deftly made by Colombian Vincent Negret, are perhaps the best array of local wines here. And thanks to the work being done at Cannon River, Alexis Bailly, Northern Vineyards, Winehaven and other wineries in the state, along with a crack research team at the University of Minnesota, the once-bleak local wine landscape has a very promising future.

There's been a lot to overcome, even more than Maloney figured. The harsh winters -- and the limits they place on the grapes that this seasoned horticulturalist can grow -- are just part of it. Spring, summer and fall are no picnics, either, with the distinct possibilities of late frost killing the first buds, bone-dry stretches requiring irrigation and wicked storms unleashing public enemy No. 1 for emerging grape clusters: hail ("a huge enemy, Maloney said. "I notice that a lot of established wine regions in the world don't have hail. Hmmm.").

Maloney anticipated all of those problems -- but not public enemy No. 2: birds, which pick at grapes as they get more sugary, "inviting all kinds of bacteria and rot."

The birds come from nearby forests, but otherwise Maloney is thrilled with his vineyard site, a 20-acre, south-facing hilltop that he chose after visiting more than 50 plots. High atop the Sogn Valley (pronounced "Soan" in the original Finnish but "So-gan" by Cannon River folk), he is growing 10 types of grapes, a number likely to shrink as he and Negret learn what works best.

A matter of timing

In this business, timing is pretty much everything. For instance, Negret said his most important task is choosing the right date to pick the grapes.

"Absolutely. You do it one day before or after, you never get what you should," said Negret, sporting a "Got Wine?" cap. "It's like taking a picture at the right moment. The guy blinks, it's gone."

Cannon River wines are sold mostly at the winery but also at such Twin Cities shops as France 44, Furlongs the Wine Market and several municipal stores, and generally sell out within months of release. Its success is attributable to another dose of good timing.

"I flew to Ohio and spent the next weekend with him, and we hit it off very well," said Maloney, adding that he got more than expected with this hire. "I knew he was a good winemaker. I had no idea his social skills were so great. He loves people. So that component actually was a bonus."

Negret makes frequent appearances at tastings and other events in the area, but most often he can be found at the winery in downtown Cannon Falls. The building, which formerly housed Lee Chevrolet and an auto-repair shop on the first floor and a dance floor on the second, now holds not only the large fermentation tanks but also a retail space and tasting room featuring a bar from 1873.

Overseeing the latter space and the business side of the winery is Maloney's wife, Maureen, an accountant. "She's got tremendous skills in that area," said Maloney, "which is a good thing because the marketing part scared the snot out of me. I had always thought of marketing as smoke and mirrors."

That job becomes easier when the product is there; for Minnesota wine, that means a continuous effort to find the right grapes and use them properly. By state law, at least half the grapes used by a winery must come from Minnesota. About two-thirds of Cannon River's grapes come from the area, and that figure might rise soon. Not that there haven't been some setbacks, such as the U of M-developed Frontenac grape.

"When I made my first Frontenac," said Negret, "I was terribly disappointed. It's a very, very challenging grape, a difficult grape. We are hoping the [newer] Marquette grape works better. But we have some good grapes here.

And a sense of place, a decidedly unexpected place, as well.

Bill Ward • 612-673-7643