Though it’s harvest and perhaps the busiest season of the year, the family behind Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery took time Friday and Saturday to show off the winery and its products, while stomping grapes and preparing for what’s next on a beautiful, autumn-like day.

After all, a busy, transformative summer at one of Minnesota’s largest wineries shows no signs of slowing.

Four Daughters also held its third Grape Stomp Festival on Friday and Saturday — in part to celebrate the harvest that started about two weeks ago and will last through October.

But Marketing Director Kristin Osborne described harvest as a time to look ahead to the next production year and evaluate the past year.

It’s the culmination of a busy summer. In May, work started on a project to double the winery’s size with a 9,000-square-foot expansion, a project that will add a large event space and help increase production at the winery.

In June, Four Daughters released a riesling and moscato to debut its wholesale Sunflake Wines line. Then in August, the winery released Loon Juice, a hard cider line.

“For us it’s really exciting,” said Kristin, one of the daughters of owners Gary and Vicky Vogt. “Loon Juice has really taken off. Sunflake has been really successful.”

 

‘Good quality wines’

A few weeks ago, winemaker Justin Osborne was readying a batch of the Sunflake Wine moscato at Four Daughters. When he added one of the last ingredients — sulfites, which can sometimes have a bleaching effect — the vibrant red wine turned orange.

For the next two days, Justin adjusted and sampled the batch to get it just right.

“[It was] long hours of legitimate work-related drinking to get the Sunflake to where it needed to be,” Justin said.

To Kristin, Justin’s wife, it’s just the way her family does things: They’re hardworkers who thrive for an attention to detail.

“We want to make good quality wines,” she said.

This time of year, the hard work part shows. Last Sunday, Justin and recent hire Nick Smith watched the first Minnesota Vikings game while crushing grapes, with Justin working until about midnight to finish so bottling could start first thing Monday morning.

“Right now, we’re doing the job of 10 men,” Justin said.

 

A growing palate

Help has already arrived for Justin.

Another key change is the addition of Smith, who started at Four Daughters in August. Smith had been a widely-respected enologist and assistant scientist at the University of Minnesota for more than eight years.

Smith is known for his wine expertise in Minnesota and across the Midwest, Kristine noted.

“It’s a big name, and we’re really excited to have him,” she said.

Justin spoke highly of Smith’s unique skills, stating he compliments his own skills nicely as an important addition to the business.

“He’s probably one of the most qualified people to make alcohol in the state,” Justin said.

“That’s definitely a significant hire for us,” he added.

Vicky Vogt said Smith brings a new perspective to the business and important knowledge on licensure.

“We’re really excited for the skills he can bring,” she said.

Smith joins Justin, an award winning winemaker in his own right, on the production side of the business. To Vogt, Justin is one example of her family embracing the initial idea to open the winery.

“He found his true calling when we decided to do this,” Vicky said.

Vogt praised Justin’s palate as his greatest strength, noting he’s able to taste and adapt all the flavors in a wine.

“He’s a true artist in the fact that he can just bring them out,” she said.

 

A unique taste

While Four Daughters is already picking its 2014 crop, only a portion of Four Daughters’ grapes are grown at the vineyard. Four Daughters grows about six acres, which can yield about 3,000 gallons of wine a year. Much of the rest comes from other wineries across the state, many of them “mom and pop” growers in southern Minnesota, according to Justin.

“It’s almost exclusively hobbyists who are doing it strictly for the love of grape growing,” he said, noting many are in Mower County.

Justin also buys grapes from out of state, especially for Sunflake, which blends California and Minnesota grapes. Highly acidic Minnesota grapes are often used to boost the acidity of low-acid California grapes, but Justin is doing the opposite with Sunflake. He uses California grapes to cut the acidity of Minnesota grapes, something he says is unique.

“No matter what we do, we try to be unique in it,” he said.

 

Sky is the limit

Though some of the grapes come from out of state, the family takes pride in being a Minnesota company.

To the family, crafting a local product has always been important, and Kristin said Minnesotans appreciate locally-crafted, locally-grown products.

“We think everyone appreciates that as much as we do,” she said.

A prime example is Loon Juice hard cider. Four Daughters purchases apples — predominantly honeycrisp, a popular Minnesota variety — from growers and then gets them pressed, so they arrive as fresh, unpasteurized cider.

“It tastes pretty good,” Justin said. “It’s the best cider we’ve ever had.”

To the family, Loon Juice is something new.

“We feel like no one else has done something like this in Minnesota,:” she said

While Four Daughters has long appealed to the state’s wine community, Kristin expects Loon Juice to be a favorite of craft beer fans, too.

“We’re really proud of it,” she said.

The new territory of the cider is much of Justin and Smiths’ focus now, but everyone at Four Daughters is raving about the future.

“The sky is the limit,” Justin said. “We’re at the very early stages.”

The hard cider is being sold in about 30 bars and restaurants in the Twin Cities and two in Rochester, according to Justin.

It’s also wholesaling in 5-liter miniature kegs, but bottled and canned options are in the works. Justin and Smith are working on new varieties — one with hops and a caramel apple flavor, and some will soon be featured at a firkin in the Twin Cities, which serve as a way to introduce the new flavors.

Still, Justin said they’re not ignoring the Sunflake lines or Four Daughters’ roughly 10-12 varieties. The future looks bright for Four Daughters, and Justin would also like to expand the Four Daughters brand to more store shelves.

 

Hopes and goals

With all the growth, Justin noted it’s also a balancing act. With Four Daughters’ brands becoming more widely available, the family still wants to give people a good experience at the winery.

The new event center will take the winery from hosting events of about 72 people to events of about 300 people. Justin said the expansion will help continue to increase wine production, which has gone from 8,000 gallons of wine in Four Daughters’ first year to 26,000 gallons last year.

“We want people to come here and see what we’re about,” Justin said. “It’s more than just good wine. It’s also good food and just a good experience.”

Kristin said the experience is unique at the winery, but they also want people across the state to enjoy their products. If they can’t make it to the winery, they want people in Minneapolis to be able to access their products.

But the winery has been successful, too. It’s become a widely-supported local business that employs 50 people, about half of them full time, according to Vogt.

When Four Daughters opened, Vogt admitted they had ideas for things like Sunflake and Loon Juice. Justin and the rest of the just didn’t think it would happen this soon.

“We did not imagine the success that we would have, anyway shape or form,” Justin said.

Vogt noted they’re far from done, as they have big goals for Loon Juice and Sunflake and are hoping to get their name out there to “compete with the big boys.”

“We have a lot of hopes and goals,” she said.