Winehaven Wins 5 Silver Medals at the San Francisco International Wine Competition!

There is no wine competition that excites us more than San Francisco!  It's like sending our wines into the lion's den.  The competition is fierce!  All the 'big guys' enter their wines in San Francisco, and the judges come from all corners of the wine world to evaluate them.  This year, five of our wines emerged from the competition with medals!  Our Stinger Mead, Marquette Reserve, Lakeside Rosé, Raspberry Wine and Franconia wines all won silver medals at this year's competition!  We are so proud of all of our awards and delighted that our Minnesota wines have once again been recognized as some of the best in the world!  

Jan 8, 2024 at 6:54 PM Permalink

Winehaven's New Wines from Patented Grapes Featured on Twin Cities Live!

We had a great time sampling wines with Ben and Elizabeth from Twin Cities Live!  Check out the segment here!

 

Aug 4, 2023 at 12:26 PM Permalink

Winehaven's Cinnamead wins medal at National Mead Crafter's Competition!

Winehaven's Stinger Mead and Cinnamead each won Bronze medals at the 6th annual National Mead Crafter's Competition!  The Stinger Mead is made from a blend of Minnesota wildflower and basswood honey.  The Cinnamead is infused with natural cinnamon to create a smooth, balanced wine with intense cinnamon honey flavors and a crisp, delicious finish.  The competition is sponsored by the National Honey Board and included nearly 300 meads from throughout the United States!  This is the 6th consecutive year Winehaven's meads have earned top honors at this competition!

Jul 6, 2023 at 2:23 PM Permalink

Winehaven's Vineyards Featured on KSTP-TV Segment About Growing Conditions!

We enjoyed hosting KSTP-TV at Winehaven as they checked-in on us about the dry conditions starting out the 2023 growing season!  Check out the story here!

Jun 14, 2023 at 12:38 PM Permalink

Winehaven featured in an article about the Future of Fruit Wines!

Winehaven was recently interviewed for an article about the future of fruit wines! Check it out here!

May 30, 2023 at 10:19 AM Permalink

Winehaven's Pruning Crew Featured on KSTP-TV

We enjoyed hosting KSTP-TV at Winehaven as we began pruning our vines for the 2023 growing season!  Check out the story here!

Mar 27, 2023 at 1:43 PM Permalink

Winehaven Won 6 Medals at the San Francisco International Wine Competition!

Winehaven won 6 medals at the San Francisco International Wine Competition last week!  This is the largest competition in North America, where our wines competed with wines from throughout the United States and over a dozen countries.  A complete listing of the award winning wines is below:

Gold Medal - 2021 Deer Garden Red
Silver Medal - Stinger Mead
Silver Medal - 2019 Lakeside Chardonnay
Silver Medal - 2021 Marquette Reserve
Silver Medal - Raspberry Wine
Bronze Medal - Strawberry Rhubarb Wine

Nov 28, 2022 at 1:34 PM Permalink

Winehaven Appears Live on WCCO Television at the State Fair!

We had a great time visiting with Mike Max and Chris Shaffer from WCCO television on the opening day of the 2022 Minnesota State Fair.  Click on the photo below to watch the segment!

Aug 27, 2022 at 10:09 AM Permalink

Winehaven Wins "Best of Class" Award at International Eastern Wine Competition

Winehaven Takes Top Honors at the International Eastern Wine Competition

Winehaven Winery won 3 medals at the International Eastern Wine Competition in this week.  Winehaven’s Stinger Mead and LaCrescent earned gold medals with scores of 96 and 91 respectively.  Winehaven's new Lakeside Rosé won a silver medal.  The judges conducted a final blind tasting of the Gold Medal winners and awarded Winehaven’s Stinger Mead the title of Best in Class. 

Founded in 1975, the International Eastern Wine Competition is the longest running Wine Competition in the United States.  Twenty-four judges throughout North America evaluated the wines.  Their decision was based on the wine’s appearance, aroma, flavor and aftertaste. 

Honey wine, also known as “mead,” is widely regarded as the ancestor of all fermented beverages.  It is referenced in many sources of ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.  Winemaker Kevin Peterson has raised honey in the Chisago Lakes Area for more than 50 years.  The honey wine was the winery’s first wine selection when the Peterson family opened WineHaven’s doors in 1995.

The Best of Class award marks the ninth time that Winehaven’s Stinger honey wine has won top honors nationally.  It is made from Peterson’s special blend of honey that is collected from local wildflowers and basswood trees.  Basswood honey is relatively rare throughout the world because the trees bloom for less than two weeks during the summertime.  If the conditions are warm and humid enough in the St. Croix River Valley, the blossoms open enough to produce nectar.  “It’s a honey with a special pizzazz,” said Peterson.  “The beautiful flavor of the basswood honey really comes through in our wine.”

A complete listing of the award winning wines is listed below:

Stinger Mead: Gold Medal - Best of Class
LaCrescent Wine: Gold Medal
Lakeside Rosé: Silver Medal

Feb 19, 2022 at 8:36 AM Permalink

Winehaven Wins 5 Gold Medals in San Francisco!

Winehaven Winery, of Chisago City, won 5 gold medals at the San Francisco International Wine Competition last week.  Winehaven’s Stinger Honey Wine won its 8th gold medal since 1995.  It remains Winehaven’s most awarded wine and one of the top ranked honey wines in the United States.  Winehaven’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Wine won a double gold medal with a score of 94 points.  The only fruit wine that scored higher in San Francisco was Winehaven’s Raspberry Wine, which took the “Best of Show” award with a score of 96 points.

Winehaven’s Nokomis wine won its first gold medal.  Nokomis is a dry French-style red wine made from a grape that was developed at Winehaven and recognized by the U.S. Patent Office in 2013 for its unique combination of winter hardiness, disease resistance and wine quality.  Winehaven’s Lakeside Chardonnay also won its first Double Gold medal in the highly competitive chardonnay category.  It scored 95 points, making it one of the highest ranked chardonnay wines in the United States.

“We are so happy with these awards,” said Winehaven’s owner Kevin Peterson.  “When my family and I opened Winehaven’s doors in 1995, we were one of the first wineries in Minnesota.  The support and encouragement of the community allowed us to grow and it’s really exciting to now be recognized for so many of our local wines on a national stage.”

In addition to Winehaven’s 5 gold medal winning wines, Winehaven won silver medals for its Edelweiss white wine and Marquette Reserve red wine.  Winehaven won bronze medals for its Riesling and Itasca white wines.  It also won bronze medals for its Franconia and Deer Garden Red wines that are made from grapes developed at Winehaven and exclusively grown in Winehaven’s Chisago City vineyard.

Honey wine, also known as “mead,” is widely regarded as the ancestor of all fermented beverages.  It is referenced in many sources of ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.  Peterson has raised honey in the Chisago Lakes Area for more than 60 years.  The honey wine was the winery’s first wine selection when the Peterson family opened Winehaven.  It is made from Peterson’s special blend of honey that is collected from local wildflowers and basswood trees.  If the conditions are warm and humid enough in the St. Croix River Valley, the blossoms open enough to produce nectar.  “It’s a rare honey with a special pizzazz,” said Peterson.  “The beautiful flavor of the basswood honey really comes through in our wine.”

Now in its 40th year, the San Francisco International Wine Competition is one of the world’s largest and longest-running international wine competitions.  It included more than 2,000 wines from 31 countries around the world. Competition judges are established wine-industry experts from throughout North America that evaluated the wines.  Their decisions were based on the wine’s appearance, aroma, flavor, and aftertaste. The 11 awards Winehaven received this year are the most in its history.

A complete listing of the award-winning wines is below:

Raspberry Wine: Double Gold Medal, Best Fruit Wine
Strawberry-Rhubarb Wine: Double Gold Medal
Lakeside Chardonnay: Double Gold Medal
Nokomis: Gold Medal
Stinger Mead: Gold Medal
Edelweiss: Silver Medal
Marquette Reserve: Silver Medal
Riesling: Bronze Medal
Itasca: Bronze Medal
Franconia: Bronze Medal
Deer Garden Red: Bronze Medal

Dec 5, 2021 at 10:55 AM Permalink