Cold-climate wine gets its day in the sun

Grapes on a vine
Grapes on a vine at St. Croix Vineyards in Stillwater, one of six wineries located along the Three Rivers Wine Trail.
MPR photo/Tom Weber

The Minnesota State Fair starts Thursday, and that means judges are gearing up for competition in everything from sheep to pumpkins to Bundt cakes.

Today, at the University of Minnesota, a new competition took place. It was the first ever cold climate wine competition.

Commercial wine-makers from 16 northern states -- including Minnesota -- entered their creations into the contest. Judging was at the U and results will be announced tomorrow. The winners will be displayed at the fair.

But, time was when no one was making wines this far north because traditional wine grapes don't deal well with cold climates.

Jim Luby is out to change that. He's a professor of fruit breeding at the University of Minnesota's Department of Horticulture Science and he sat down with Tom Crann, along with some wine from the cold-weather climates, to talk about the competition.

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