Scenic Valley Winery

This was the second time I had been here. The first was few years after it opened. I like wineries that make wines using things grown locally. These are good local wines, made from local ingredients. Therefore, you won’t find any cabernets or zinfandels here. Though I am no expert, here are a lot of excellent fruit wines, including a dry rhubarb and a sweet rhubarb.

Scenic Valley Winery has the fine touch of a small nostalgic local winery that is run by knowledgeable and very friendly people. As for the wine — it is GOOD. Thus it is worth a stop if you are in the Lanesboro, MN area. In addition, there are many other things to do and see besides visiting Scenic valley winery.

Where to begin… I visited Scenic Valley Winery as part of a Wine Tour I made up for my beautiful bride’s birthday celebration. We started and ended the day in Rochester. During our stop here we were able to taste 4 wines each, I believe they had 16+ available. And two of them were good enough for us to purchase a bottle to bring home.
What I didn’t like about the place was that it seems much more like a knick knack or antiques shop than it does a winery. The place was packed with a wide assortment of things from old magazines, a set grandma’s china, a ¹⁄₁₈^th size Michael Jordan action figure, to wine and accessories, as well as souvenirs to use as bragging material to your friends. They only had one person pouring wine for whomever wanted to try it. So us and the other winery patrons made our own rotation around the place so we weren’t in each others way. Not sure if it was designed that way on purpose, but no one hinted or told us to do this, it just kinda happened by itself. Kinda like «The Wave» at Minnesota sporting events, when we get bored with our teams endless failings. Can’t quite explain how it started, but once its happening your a bit annoyed and a bit amused.
My favorite thing about the winery was «that one person» pouring the samples for everyone. He was so amazingly Norwegian, in his accent, mannerisms and vocabulary. I was immediately reminded of my younger days listening to my great grandparents converse in Norwegian, eventually my siblings and I picked up on several words and phrases, which I was able to use on my visit to Scenic Valley. For me he would almost be reason enough to visit again.