On Wednesday July 29 the Walking Lake Pepin (WLP) group walkers headed out to the Great River Vineyard, 4 miles north of Lake City on Hwy 61, walking through the vineyard and orchard property with new owners Simon and Sunni Kehren while they described their plans for the property.
Kehren’s purchased the vineyard last year and have been working to re-establish the wine grapes while continuing to nurture and sell the table grapes and orchard fruit that have been growing in the vineyard for years.
The vineyard started by John Marshall in 1988, was an early vineyard in Minnesota that worked at establishing winter hardy grapes for wine making. One of two wineries in Minnesota in 1988 there are now over 75.
John Marshall had a huge impact on the Minnesota wine industry due to his work in pioneering cold hardy grape. He did his work with grape breeder Elmer Swenson and the University of Minnesota
Sunni treated the group to grape juice she had made last year from the harvest of the table grapes. The juice was delicious! Wine grapes will take more time to produce a harvest but the table grapes will be available again late August for purchase.
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