May 28, 2016

Summertime at the Winery

May 28, 2016/ Millner Heritage

Greetings Readers!

Our vineyard tours are in full swing now at the winery! Grab a glass, (or a bottle) and board our trolly to be taken on a ride through our vines. We will tell you all about viticulture and our cold climate grape varieties! Check us out on Groupon before you come out to receive BOTH tours (vineyard & winery), a glass of wine, tasting of 8 table wines, a chocolate bar, a wine glass to take home, and 30% OFF CASE DISCOUNT!

Tours take place Saturday and Sunday at 1:30pm and 3:00pm.

SAVE THE DATE

If you haven't bought a case of our wine, (which automatically enrolls you in our Case Club) you still have time before the next Case Club appreciation dinner! Our next Case Club dinner is one to show you that we REALLY appreciate you buying cases of our wine, (cue drumroll) WE ARE BRINGING IN A HOG ROAST!

Mark your calendars for July 16th! Call our event line at 612-568-8318 to reserve your spots or simply reply to this email. This event is FREE with the requirement of 6 bottles of wine or a case of cider to be purchased per couple.

The Glass is Half Full!

Good Morning: Saturday 5/28/16

I have not written for two weeks, not due to lack of desire, just didn't get it done. It has been really busy lately, two weeks ago the frost gave us a real push. Jon and Phil drove from 1 a.m. two nights spraying water on the vines to help to protect them. I think they helped the grapes, but we did get some losses. On average we thought we lost 50% of our primary buds, now we think it closer to a 40% primary bud loss. Where these buds are lost replacement buds will grow but the replacements produce less than half of the normal amount of grapes. This is just the start of the season, so we can still loose grapes to hail, birds, disease, drought, deer, raccoon, and other things I can't remember right now. So the wine tastes really good especially when you know all the perils the grapes have to survive to become wine. Enjoy!

The dead areas in the above photo are frost damage. Replacements will come and some shoots survived the frost with their neighboring shoots killed.

For our music this weekend we have as new group playing Saturday and Sunday 2 - 5 pm. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing this performance.

Gravel Road" is made up of musicians as diverse as the music they play, offering a variety of musical styles. Their music ranges from Blues & Folk to Rockabilly & Traditional Country. Playing everything from Muddy Waters and Bob Dylan to Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash.~

Thank you for your time and have a special weekend with you family.

Don Millner

PHOTO of the WEEK

Did you know you can click this photo to view our entire library of weekly photos on Instagram?

2021 What The Foch is back. So... Foch Yeah! 😉

As always, thank you for reading!

- Andrea

May 12, 2016

FREE DINNER at Millner's Prohibition History Night!

May 12, 2016/ Millner Heritage

Dearest Readers,

Case Club Appreciation night is just around the corner! May 21st at 5pm! During this dinner we will be celebrating our history of making wines and spirits during prohibition. You'll get an exclusive look at old photos of the family and the old still, (that's still around today)! Plus, live music! Don't forget to bring your Millner Case Club Bag!

Not a Case Club member yet? No worries! No formal membership fees are required, simply just purchase a case of our wine! Click the image below for a printable flier:

Feel free to have fun with the night and dress up! Here are some examples:

The Glass is Half Full!

Good Morning: Thursday 5/12 /16

Yes this still is farming, I called Jon this morning to see if he knew of the frost warnings for Friday night. He had a one word reply with a word similar to manure. The problem of a frost now is that we loose 50% to 60% of our crop, because the buds are totally open and growing. We do have a plan, I will later today attach the 150 gal. fungal sprayer onto the tractor and check that it is operational. Saturday morning early, Jon and Phil will have a date in the vineyard keeping water spraying onto the vines, hopefully minimizing any damage.

Don't miss the case club party advertised above. If you don't have a case club bag, you can buy a case of wine that day and still be part of the party. You all probably had a big meal last Sunday for Mother's Day, by May 21st you should be hungry again.

Last week I transferred my goldfish into the smaller patio pond and then dropped my phone into the water. It dried out OK in rice and below is a phone it contained of their winter home.

Last Sunday was the start of our music season. We will now have live music every Saturday and Sunday until the end of November. I was able to bring in some new performers this year, I'm sure you enjoy them all.

This Sat. and Sunday May 14 & 15 will be "Just Jerome".

Playing 2 - 5 pm.
Jerry Kadlec playing clarinet, saxaphone, keyboard, and voice.
Performing a variety of music Genre.

One last note, the vineyard tours are back. Come and enjoy the best vineyard and winery tours in Minnesota. By touring the vineyard now, early in the season, you'll see the tremendous growth that occurs in a normal season. It is amazing!

http://www.millnerheritage.com/tours/

Thank you for our time. Don Millner

PHOTO of the WEEK

2021 What The Foch is back. So... Foch Yeah! 😉

Have a fabtabülous week!

- Andrea

May 06, 2016

Case Club Appreciation May 21st - FREE MEAL!

May 06, 2016/ Millner Heritage

Greetings!

Let's start this newsletter out with a drumroll because we broke a new bottling record! Last Saturday we bottled What The Foch at 753 bottles per hour! That is 62.75 cases an hour! Even more significant: we did 204 cases it in 3 hours and 15 min!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OF OUR VOLUNTEERS!

We literally could not have done it without you!

Reply to this email if you would like to volunteer for bottling on a Saturday this summer!

We are currently looking to fill every Saturday June - August. We start at 8:15am and finish 4 hours later, then we feed you and pour you all the wine you want! Then we send you home with two bottles!

May 21st: Case Club Appreciation (FREE) Dinner:

Millner Prohibition History Night

Click the banner below to see more details!

We have been making spirits and wine since we arrived from Neuhaus, Austria in 1882! Prohibition did not stop us! Come and join us for a night of flashbacks as Jon tells us the Millner story!

Live music too!

Reply to this email or call 612-568-8318 to reserve your spot!

The Glass is Half Full!

Good Morning: Thursday 5/5/16

Another week going into the record book and another week of fast growing lawn. Mary did quite a lot of cutting yesterday. It must be almost five years now we are running a zero turn mower. When we first got it I told Mary to drive in the parking lot a while to get used to steering with the two handles, I was afraid she might drive into the pond. Like a fish in water, she took off onto the lawn and has done very good with it since.

Speaking of "Like a fish in water". This week I brought my goldfish back to the little pond from their wintering in a cage at the bottom of the big pond by the driveway. I put 24 fish in the cage last fall and "Holy Mackerel", 24 fish were still alive this spring, wow. The first day back they swam around like happy children on a playground at recess time. I wanted to show you an actual photo of my babies, but I dropped my dumb smart phone into the little pond, it is now drying out in a bag of rice.