Photos by Mike Lamb Wayne and Kari Rigge stand next to the vineyard they first planted 10 years ago with their son and daughter-in-law.

By Mike Lamb

mlamb@marshallindependent.com

BELVIEW — Wayne Rigge grabbed the vine full of bright green leaves hanging down in front of the long rows of crops yielding little grapes and lifted it up.

“We are on our second time going through them. All of this had to get cut off. We don’t need this much leaves. This will all get cut off,” he said. “We only need so many leaves in making the fruit. This is just wasted energy for the vine. Just cut it all off.”

As he talked on a warm sunny early Saturday evening about maintaining 7 ½ acres of vineyard at the Grandview Valley Winery, a patio just about 50 feet away was full of diners not only enjoying the wine with the grapes grown from those same vines Rigge was talking about, but also beer and pizza.

The beer and pizza part was the surprising development from the business venture started by the Rigge family. It was 10 years ago that Wayne Rigge was sitting next to a campfire on their farm land with other family members. It was during that campfire discussion that a plan was hatched to start a vineyard business.

A decade later, what was first considered by some family members a risky venture, is now a thriving business.

“The business is not like anything we expected. It’s the pizza that drives the business,” Wayne’s wife, Kari said. She stood behind the bar inside the building that houses the restaurant and wine tasting. It too was packed with patrons.

“We also knew we needed to visit a lot of other wineries,” she said of starting the new business. “And there were mostly women clientele (at the other wineries). So we knew we needed to do different beers in here for the men. I suppose it’s about 50-50 — half beer, half wine.”

She then looked over the rows of tables in front of her.

“It’s all ages as you can see. Babies on up. And elderly — we get some buses in here from retirement homes.”

The wines are made from grapes from the Rigge vineyard or other vineyards in southwest Minnesota. A Minnesota theme runs through the wide-range of wine offerings: Rockin’ Coyote and Squirrelly. But there are also Frontenac Gris, which is a dry, aged with French Oak. And LaCrescent, a semi-sweet which is fruity with citrus notes and considered light and crisp.

Several names of the various pizza also takes on the Minnesota heritage like the wines. The menu includes 3 Little Pigs, BBQ Pulled Pork and Buffalo Chicke.

Both Wayne and Kari talked about their son John as the driving force behind the idea to start the vineyard.

“My son John liked to make wines of all kinds, but small batches,” Kari Rigge said. “And he talked with my husband. My husband wanted to get out of construction. He had been in (construction) for 36 years (and wanted to get out of it) before his body would wear out. They kind of connived together and talked with Laura, my daughter in law into joining in the venture.”

“I knew it would work. I was probably the most confident. We were sitting around the campfire here probably about 2008 after we put in our first little vineyard in. Probably having a beer, you know,” Wayne Rigge said with a laugh.

“And my son said, ‘dad why don’t we put in about 7 or 8 acres next year and then build a winery.’ And I said ‘yea, let’s do it. I didn’t hesitate. I knew it would work.

“The most challenging thing is probably the grapes. You know it’s always a weather issue, but they really look good this year,” he said, still standing next to that hanging vine of leaves. “They (grapes) are not in the tank yet, but they look good. It’s kinda like the farmers you know. Grain is not in the bin yet. But they look good.”

And Wayne Rigge knows a little about farmers. He grew up on a farm and the 7 ½ acres of vineyard was once farmland owned by Kari Rigge’s grandparents. Wayne Rigge does a lot of the field work.

“We don’t like the cold winters. Thirty-five to 40 degrees below is too cold. They are hearty, but it’s too cold,” Wayne Rigge said. He said a couple past winters were rough on the vineyard. And their very first crop of grapes was wiped out by severe storms. The first batch of wines were made from grapes grown at other southwest Minnesota vineyards.

This summer’s rain bursts have been challenging as well.

“They don’t like their feet wet. It would be better if it was dry,” Wayne Rigge said. But he adds that a little weather stress is OK.

“We would rather be stressed a little bit. It will make for a better wine if the grape is stressed a little bit. Because they are pushing everything into the grape, which has a seed in there that’s their next generation.”

Wayne Rigge also explained the vineyard is made up of Minnesota hybrid grapes. Most of them developed by the University of Minnesota Extension.

Wayne Rigge says he spends a lot of time in the field.

“I probably go through 35 to 40 times a year with the tractor either mowing, spraying weeds, spraying fungicide, cleaning up all the clippings after we do the pruning,” he said.

Wayne Rigge does get help in the vineyard from his son and wife and his brother, Robert.

“This is pretty hard to take care of alone,” he said. “When we bought these (the plants) they were root stocks in the nursery. The guy who owns it used to farm. He said, you know, for every acre of grapes you put it in, you are going to have as much time as farming 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans. So we are farming 7,000 acres of corn and soybeans. But I think it’s more work than 1,000 acres.”

Besides the agriculture aspect, there are many hours that go into other parts of the business according to the Rigges. John Rigge is the head vintner and other family members have their roles as well. Kari Rigge handles the financial end that includes payroll. Laura Rigge deals with event bookings and employee scheduling. The grandchildren also help out where needed.

“We are here a lot,” Wayne Rigge said. “But like Kari said, after harvest our wine is made, it’s in the tanks, we let it sit for a month and then we will rack it. Then we will pump the good wine off and all the dead yeast cells and stuff will be on the bottom. We will just keep doing that. It purifies the wine.

“It’s fun, but it takes a lot of hands,” he said. And he said it’s very satisfying to see the customers that come from hundreds of miles away to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Last week, the vineyard held its sixth annual Vendors in the Vineyard. Forty-five vendors with all kinds of merchandise set up booths along the vineyard. Wayne Rigge said they ran out of places to park for the event that grows larger every year.

And he said the family continues to upgrade its wines and pizza.

“We just bottled our new wine. It’s called Night Owl,” he said. “We bought that grape from a grower. We don’t have a Frontenac blanc here, but it’s just been going crazy.”

Wayne Rigge then pointed to a church steeple just above a tree line in the distance.

“Next week we are going to bottle — you see the steeple on the ridge — it’s called Steeple Ridge. The church steeple up there is the label.”

Kari Rigge said they try to make enough varieties to make all their customers satisfied.

“Most people like the sweeter wines in the area,” she said. “We try to make something for everybody. A couple that are not quite as sweet, but slightly sweetened. And you try to have a couple that are dry and don’t have sugar added.”

Kari Rigge said it’s that attitude of adding variety that is keeping the business growing.

“We have some ideas for the future,” she said. “We upgraded our oven and it’s working awesome. We are quicker now. We have two people who build (the pizzas) continually non-stop. And most of them are teens. They are amazing. They really have a good work ethic.”

And Wayne Rigge said the customers don’t seem to be bothered by the gravel roads that lead to the winery on Grandview Avenue.

“A lot of people say, ‘this is great. We don’t mind the gravel roads.’ A lot of people say the best wineries are on gravel roads.” he said.

That’s why Wayne Rigge’s confidence in the family business is growing right along with the grapes it’s built on.

“I didn’t have a doubt I in my mind,” he said. ” I knew it would work.”