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John and Barb Marshall's Great River Vineyard/Nursery is a family owned and operated vineyard established in 1988 on the shores of the mighty Mississippi. Our oldest son, Donovan, is now working for us full time. It's saving Mom and Dad a lot of the heavy work! During the harvest, September, we have a picking crew, led by Donovan and Judi Ellison, picking grapes like crazy for Wednesday's pressing day. Our sons, Donovan, 37, and Chris, 32, can fill you in on the beginnings of our adventure in grape growing in Minnesota. Our vineyard is located on the Great River Road - Highway 61 - about 70 miles south of Minneapolis/St. Paul, 12 miles south of Red Wing and 3 miles north of Lake City. We have been growing grapes for over 30 years with cold hardy grapes our main concern. After many years of trial and error we decided to plant what we think are the perfect grapes for Minnesota's ferocious climate. This is the fulfillment of our vision for northern grape growing and, in our view, the beginnings of a new and exciting agricultural crop for the far north. Great River Vineyard is not a winery - but specializes in table grapes, cold hardy nursery stock and grape juice. This makes us a truly unique operation in the Midwest. Our planting in Lake City, on the shores of beautiful Lake Pepin, began with the sweet and tasty Bluebell table grape and the hardiest grape known - the Valiant. The Bluebell has become very popular as a table grape and a blend of these grapes produced Minnesota's first fresh grape juice in 1994. Thanks to the University of Minnesota and the work of Elmer Swenson, we now have new cold hardy wine varieties available also. Although we are not a winery (and have no plans to open one!), we offer these grapes to home winemakers and commercial wineries through out the midwest. To get on our "home wine makers list" contact us at grv@mcshi.com and let us know if you're interested in picking your own wine grapes. Commmercial wineries welcome as well, although demand for our fruit remains very high. Currently, we have about 7 acres of producing vines including Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, Prairie Star, Louise (Swenson), Lacrescent, Sabrevois, King of the North, Bluebell, Valiant, Chontay, Sipaska, Clinton, Summersweet and Somerset Seedless. These varieties are available via our cold hardy nursery. Barb and John invite you to stop by and say hello. Our oldest son, Donovan, is now working full time at the vineyard and has taken a big load off of both of us. Chris, our youngest son, would love to help you finance your new car at Red Wing Chrysler Plymouth, Jeep in Red Wing.