4/10/15 newsletter

4/09/15 9:330 pm

Good Evening:

Another week has slipped into history. This week Jon hauled two loads of wine and cider to our two distributors. While he was in the metro last night with the second load, he called me with news he had a flat tire and wanted to know if I had triple A. He solved his problem by borrowing a mobile air pump, inflated the tire, and was able to drive home. Today our repair garage found a big nail still in the tire, hence plugging the hole giving him time to drive home. It happens. In the old days my parent would have said he spun his wheels too much, but than it was in a rear tire on a front wheel drive.

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter in the evening. Iza came with a basket full of plastic eggs to hide. She is now having more fun hiding the eggs and watching for if we can find them. She is growing up so fast and yet she is only in second grade.

Last Saturday Iza got the idea to sell lemonade at the winery to earn some money. The day before she bought some lemons, a bag of sugar, and some paper cups using her own money. On Saturday morning Anna helped her make her lemonade and set up her table in the winery. The lemonade was good and she sold out plus got some money as tips. In the end she ended up with $23 total. She talked about that if she puts the money in the bank into her savings account, Jon would then match this money. Mary and I did the same when our kids were small, I still think it was a good lesson for our kids to save.

In the end Iza took a different path, Jon saw her with the neighbor kids with $5 worth of candy. He first thought the other kids persuaded her to buy their candy, in the end Iza fessed up that she drove her bicycle to the store and bought the candy for the neighbor kids. Hearing this it scared Jon and Anna that she took off to the store alone, given today's world. It was nice she wanted to share her good fortune, but she knew going alone wasn't allowed. On Sunday Jon told us they gave her a Don Millner punishment. What's that? She got to pick her own punishment with the condition that if it was too easy, they'd give her a really big punishment. From what I hear, Iza chose to do cleaning, including scrubbing toilets. Sometimes the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

_______________________________________ As of tonight we are now down to about 3/4 of a row of Marquette left to prune. Today we worked in the drizzle and tomorrow we are planning to finish-up. After that

we need to tear all the cut canopy from the top wires to get it ready for the spring fungal spray. One spray in the spring is standard in grapes to kill one type of spores, it needs to happen before the buds open, that the grapes are still dormant.

We had a scare in the vineyard yesterday. My son Scott was pruning with me when he suddenly screeched out. In the corner of my eye I caught that he had both hands on his long handled loppers so his hands should have been safe. It turn out that he had his little pruner in a chest pocket on his coat and he pressed it closed with one of his finger between the blades as he was pushing with the loppers to cut a big grape trunk. He cut the finger but at least didn't cut it off. It bled good, he wrapped with tape and later sealed it with super glue. He was back to work today, he should be OK.

___________________________________________________ On the Wine side today Jon unloaded the 2013 vintage of Draga, made with the Marquette grape, from the barrels and loaded the 2014 vintage to start the barrel aging for this vintage. The 2013 vintage is now ready for bottling.

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3/27/15 newsletter

3/27/15 10:00 pm

Good Evening: This week was a get back into the swing of things. The last two days we have been bottling this years' Little Iza. It is another good vintage, have the same fruit forward character that our customers enjoy. It will be available at the winery tomorrow.

When we were working on the last 100 gallons Iza came and helped. She was putting the completed bottles into the cases after I put the labels onto them. She did a very good job almost to the end, then she wanted to run the labeling machine. I shook my head no to her. (It would not be a job she could handle.) In a few minutes she was gone off playing in the store and climbing on some of the pallets of wine. When we got to the last bottles we called Iza back to now put on some labels. She did the last four bottles of her namesake wine. It is good to see her involved and helping. click here to see last label by Little Iza LittleIzaLabelingLastBottle LittleIzaLabelingLastBottle If you'd like to be part of a bottling crew, email me at donmillner@gmail.com with the subject line "I love a good bottling party." Try it, You'll Like it!

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I also had a chance to work in the vineyard this week helping with the spring pruning. This is the dormant pruning which sets the bud count for this years' crop. We are over 3/4 done, with the grapes coming through this winter much better than last year. During this pruning we are cutting the great bulk of the plant off, leaving the trunks and cordons with buds where the growth will soon come. Jon has been busy in the winery this spring that Jim, Holly, and our youngest son Scott have done the bulk of the work. Anna has also been in the field to a lesser extent, myself probably the least. My pruner looks just like this one, but this is not my hand.

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Minnesota Crisp

If you are interested to have a keg of cider for a party or for your personal inventory they are available for $87 for a 1/6 barrel, over 5 gallons. That is about half the price of buying by the bottle. (Less than $17.40/gallon. Wow!) Jon has purchased an inventory of pump up tappers for your use. No additional cost, just deposit on the keg and the tapper.

Our current inventory of the 22 ounce bottles in now very low. I expect we will sell all the bottles on the shelves tomorrow. Next week Tuesday Jon is ready to bottle the last 500 gallons of MN Crisp, don't miss your chance. Again, this is made from 5 types of apples, all grown in Minnesota at Trump Orchard, Fairbault. The pressed juice is delivered to us to ferment with no additives or processing. It don't get any better than that.

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1. Note: Easter Sunday April 5th, we will be open at the winery until 6 PM. Our family get-together will be that evening. Iza will have to hunt for eggs by sunset lighting.

2. Next week April 2nd, we go back to our Thursday to Sunday store hours. 3. In April we are looking to do another customer appreciation meal event. Entry requires use of your Millner Heritage 6-pack bag, find you bag or buy a case and get it free.

4. Lastly, mark your calendar for Mother's Day on May 10th. We have another great event planned for you, details to come soon.

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Time for Trivia and Free wine.

Last week I gave two trivia questions listed below.

1. The photo below is our granddaughter Lisa eating her breakfast. As you can see much of her meal is on her face. The question is, what is she eating? Hint, the first letter is a "B".

The answer is Beans and the lucky winner is Eileen Pohlkamp from Pierz, Minnesota my original home town.

2. What is Mary touching in this metal box, rare everywhere but Houston has one? Hint, it is out of this world and yet you see it every month. (Not your mother-in-law.)

The answer is moon rock and the winner is Kirk Ryerson.

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Lastly, trying to think of something smart to say to close this newsletter, if you hang around our winery enough you might be able to do this.....

The video of him walking is on my face-book page at FaceBook . The history of our youngest son Scott walking on his hands started when he was maybe 8 or 9 yrs. old. He'd practice almost every night, slowly getting better. After a few years he got it. Good job Scott.

02/26/15 newsletter

02/26/15 3:00 pm

Good Afternoon: How are you today? I guess I'm OK, feel that for being retired it was kind of a busy week, better than being bored and waiting to die. I worked this morning at the winery. Opened for our electrician to do some updating in our pavilion. We are adding secondary lighting, I call it mood lighting, adding more electrical outlets, insulating the ceiling, and putting in a propane heating unit. In essence we are extending the usage of this building to include earlier spring and later into the fall, like a three season porch. I am intending to have our Mothers Day again in the pavilion, this will be good if the weather is bad.

Do you have a smart phone? I have a flip phone, many consider this a dumb phone, but then it maybe isn't that dumb. This morning I was calling with my flip phone to order a propane tank for heating the pavilion. The lady asked who and where the billing should go to? Being that Jon's wife Anna now pays the bills she needed mailing address and phone number. I looked up Anna's number in my phone, with all the speed dialing we don't even know each others phone number these day.

Some how after I gave her Anna's phone number I must have pushed the wrong button on my phone, big fingers & little buttons, and it dialed Anna's number. Not seeing this I was rather surprised to hear Anna's voice, she is currently in Hungary visiting her family. I grew up in a home where it was a big no no to call long distance, I guess this is still in my psyche. I didn't know this dumb phone could call across the planet. Not knowing what to say, I asked her, "How are you?" In her Hungarian accent she replied, "Goood." I replied, "Yeah you sound good." I should have talked with her a minute or two, I feel badly now that I just said a quick goodbye. Next week Anna comes home, I'll have to talk more with her then.

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Minnesota Crisp

This week we did another bottling of our hard apple cider, Minnesota Crisp. It comes in a 22 ounce bottle, being that it is slightly carbonated the filled bottles must be lighter that wine, it has been flying off the shelves. We filled about 150 cases and much will go to wholesale quickly. If you'd to share in this batch, come in Saturday. I have marked the locations where it is sold in our wholesale network with an apple leave next to the liquor store name. http://millnerheritage.com/wines/local-wine-stores/

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And the answer to last week's trivia...

It is time for the answer to last week's trivia. The question was, " Without googling finish the sentence, Viniculture is the study of ........." The answer is, growing grapes for wine making. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/viniculture

Viticulture is the general term for growing grapes. Viniculture is the growing of grapes specifically for making wine.

And the winner is Sherri Smith with "Viniculture is the study of .........growing grapes specifically for making wine."

Thank you for your time.

Don Millner Millner Heritage Winery www.millnerheritage.com 320-398-2081 April 1st through December 31st Open: Thursday 11 - 7 Fri. & Sat. 11 - 8 Sunday 11 - 6

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2/11/15 newsletter

02/11/15   1:00 pm Good Afternoon:      Last weekend to say the least was busy.  Friday I went to the Minnesota Grape Growers Convention,(MGGA) did some seminars in the afternoon and the Wine Fest in the evening.  We had all our staff along also, a good experience for everyone.  I made it to bed Friday at 2 am, I think Jon got in at 4 am.  I left Saturday morning to open the winery, we had a busy day. Holly,Mary and Iza came in to help, I was really tired that night.  Iza stayed with us through Sunday, thought I'd get a nap but Iza had me playing outside so that didn't happen.  It still was good to be out with her.  We walked onto Spring Lake, near our Dassel house, Iza had never seen ice-fishing before.  In the end her hands got cold, on the walk home she keep one hand at a time in my coat pocket with my hand to warm them up.      Jon called to the winery on Saturday afternoon to announce that we had won the best booth award again.  We did the same as last year, our booth had zero decoration and instead we just put out extreme good service to the guests.  Of course we also sang every winery song we have, including the Schnitzelbank and worked to put a smile on every face. Below is an email Jon wrote to our workers after the convention. _________________________________ Jonathan Millner Feb 9 (2 days ago) Hey everybody,      I just wanted everyone to know of the 4 wine awards they handed out, we got best booth again even with as crappy as it looked and our name spelled incorrectly. I think that really just goes to show you how much service really matters!      We've basically won this 3 out of the last 5 years now. Well, after they used to have a "favorite servers" award but they got rid of that after we won it.  But... best booth is basically pretty close to the same award I think, especially since we are winning it not out of any decor but sheer thoroughness of service.      So, anyways, you all kicked ass this weekend! I'm happy to have this award. You did great, hope you had a good time and I think we should probably do this again next year.  The next day, I had to present some awards and I think that went over very well. I think the whole reason they wanted me on stage was for entertainment value. I was telling jokes and apparently they were pretty well received. Ok, well anyways, you guys rock! Thank you thank you thank you! :) Jon Dean, sales rep Fairbault, MN _____________________________________________________________________________________________________          If you are interested in our Valentine's Party, I'm sorry we are booked to capacity.  I have 13 people on a backup list if someone cancels or is ill. If you didn't get a booking you can still come out this Saturday earlier.  We are open our regular hours opening at 11 am.  Tours are at 1:30 and 3 pm and tasting and fun all day. "Have I told you lately that I Love you..." Join us for an " I Love You Valentine's Day Party"  Saturday February 14th. Charcoal Grilled Pork Loin with BBQ Sauce Chicken Alfredo Garlic mashed potatoes Baby carrots and full length Green Beans Asian Lettuce Salad Dinner Rolls & Butter Plus 1 glass Millner Heritage Wine Minnesota Crisp Apple Cider, Mixed Drinks and Beer Additional cost. Also don't miss Free Wine Bingo and more Valentine Games. Live Music by: Cathie English, Performing 5:30 - 8:30 Central Minnesota singer/songwriter whose American finger-style guitar playing an easy listening Americana folk music. Seating & Social starting at 5:30 with Serving Time Promptly at 6:30 pm Priced at $22 plus tax/person, secured reservations required. For reservations call 320-237-1958 or email to donmillner@gmail.com, include return phone number. ______________________________________________________ Thank you for your time.   Don Millner  Millner Heritage Winery www.millnerheritage.com 320-398-2081 April 1st through December 31st Open: Thursday  11 - 7 Fri. & Sat.  11 - 8 Sunday  11 - 6 Join our newsletter! Always be in the know! To Join Send an email to  donmillner@gmail.com with the subject line  "Newsletter"

1/15/15 newsletter

To Join our Newsletter, email to donmillner@gmail.com (subject: newsletter) Millner Heritage Winery, 32025 MN Hwy 15, Kimball, MN 55353 320-398-2081  April 1st through December 31st Open: Thursday  11 - 7 Fri. & Sat.  11 - 8 Sunday  11 - 6 January 2nd through March 31st Open Saturdays 11 - 7 pm (With Free Mulled wine every day)

01/15/15   1:30 pm Good Afternoon:   Below is last week's trivia question.  About half of the entries were Asian Beatles and  Box-elder Bugs, so you know what people are seeing in their own homes.  The correct answer is that it was a firefly!  Congratulations to Holly Schrupp the winner, drawn at random from the pile of correct answers by non-other that Mary Millner.      "When we awoke on Saturday morning at the AmericInn near Stillwater, Mary told me she had the strangest thing happen after mid-night, the early hours of her birthday.  She got too warm in bed and pushed back the blankets and noticed an insect climbing on her hand.  Ooh, that doesn't sound good.  She looked at it in the dark and in a second knew that it was OK.  Hearing this when I awoke later I couldn't help but think wow, this was the ultimate best birthday candle.  "What was it she saw in the dark that was special to be in a hotel room in January in Minnesota?""     _________________________________________________   "Have I told you lately that I Love you..." Join us for an   " I Love You Valentine's Day Party"  Saturday February 14th. Charcoal Grilled Pork Loin with BBQ Sauce Chicken Alfredo Garlic mashed potatoes Baby carrots and full length Green Beans Asian Lettuce Salad Dinner Rolls & Butter Plus 1 glass Millner Heritage Wine Minnesota Crisp Apple Cider, Mixed Drinks and Beer Additional cost. Also don't miss Free Wine Bingo and more Valentine Games. Live Music by: Cathie English, Performing 5:30 - 8:30 Central Minnesota singer/songwriter whose American finger-style guitar playing an easy listening Americana folk music. Seating & Social starting at 5:30 with Serving Time Promptly at 6:30 pm Priced at $22 plus tax/person, secured reservations required. For reservations call 320-237-1958 or email to donmillner@gmail.com, include return phone number. ______________________________________________________      Now if you are a video person, please try the video below. Again, I gave it all I had telling about the Valentine's Party.  Don You are invited to Valentine's Day with your sweetie! The Little Iza Corner! (Sometimes a place for words of Wisdom.)      Visiting Iza's Corner today is her cousin from Houston Texas, her name is Lisa Millner, just turned two last fall.  Her mom Angie sent this photo and text,  I think it is cute. As reported by Angie: "Top toddler photo of 2015: Lisa put on mama's sports bra and roamed around the house chanting, "backpack, backpack." Yup folks, this is going in her wedding slide show!"    Childhood innocence is always cute. Thank you for your time.   Don Millner  Millner Heritage Winery www.millnerheritage.com 320-398-2081 April 1st through December 31st Open: Thursday  11 - 7 Fri. & Sat.  11 - 8 Sunday  11 - 6 Join our newsletter! Always be in the know! To Join Send an email to  donmillner@gmail.com with the subject line  "Newsletter"

1/8/15 newsletter

To Join our Newsletter, email to donmillner@gmail.com (subject: newsletter) Millner Heritage Winery, 32025 MN Hwy 15, Kimball, MN 55353 320-398-2081  April 1st through December 31st Open: Thursday  11 - 7 Fri. & Sat.  11 - 8 Sunday  11 - 6 January 2nd through March 31st Open Saturdays 11 - 7 pm (With Free Mulled wine every day) 01/08/15   7:30 am Good Morning:      First I want you to know that January through March we are open only Saturdays now and we are offering free mulled wine every Saturday.  Try it, you'll like it.  If you'd like to read more on mulled wine and recipes click below. Mulled Wine Recipes      You've all heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and one person's junk is another person's treasure.  Last weekend Mary and I had kind of one of those happenings.  We left about 10 am last Friday returning on the next day Saturday January 3rd Mary's birthday.  Arriving home Saturday about 9 pm, we'd visited one brewery, 3 wineries, and 3 shopping stops, it felt like we did very much in a little time.      When we awoke on Saturday morning at the AmericInn near Stillwater, Mary told me she had the strangest thing happen after mid-night, the early hours of her birthday.  She got too warm in bed and pushed back the blankets and noticed an insect climbing on her hand.  Ooh, that doesn't sound good.  She looked at it in the dark and in a second knew that it was OK.  Hearing this when I awoke later I couldn't help but think wow, this was the ultimate best birthday candle.  "What was it she saw in the dark that was special to be in a hotel room in January in Minnesota?"      This has to be a good chance to give away a bottle of wine.  Send your answers to donmillner@gmail.com with the subject  line, "The Ultimate Birthday Candle!" The winner will be drawn at random from both correct answers, OK from all the correct answers.      __________________________________________________      Mark you calendars for February 14th Valentine's Day, this year it is on a Saturday, a wonderful day of the week for a party.  I will have info coming sometime soon.   ______________________________________________________      Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate New Year's Eve with us.  We were tired the next day with a good kind of tired.  The party went very well, including the bingo and balloon races.  Below are some photos we received from one of the guests.      The Little Iza Corner! (Sometimes a place for words of Wisdom.)      Jon's vision, which is very natural for most parents, to pass the family business on to the next generation is something I probably share.  I think that getting the kids involved as they grow up, child size portions and keeping it fun, is a good thing even if they don't later become involved in the business.  To learn responsibilities and accountability.      For Christmas this year Mary and I gave Iza, our 7 yr. old granddaughter, a full sized Gumball machine.  Last night we filled it and it's placed on the bar, Little Iza Gumballs.  Being a kid her eyes glowed seeing all the mixed colors.  I told her that the first box of gumballs the winery bought, but after that she has to save the coins and buy the next load.  Earlier this week we noticed that she must be already developing business skills.      Iza said to Jon, "The people in China must be really rich."  Jon asked, "Why is that?"  Iza replied, "Because they make everything!" It's good to see she is reading and thinking. Thank you for your time.   Don Millner  Millner Heritage Winery www.millnerheritage.com 320-398-2081 April 1st through December 31st Open: Thursday  11 - 7 Fri. & Sat.  11 - 8 Sunday  11 - 6 Join our newsletter! Always be in the know! To Join Send an email to  donmillner@gmail.com with the subject line  "Newsletter"