Marquette Grapes = Marquette Wine

Marquette is a red wine made from the marquette grape. Gerry, our winemaker, crafts five styles of wine from this new grape, a product of the University of Minnesota grape breeding program, released in 2006. We planted our first marquette grapevines in 2008, and this Spring we're planting more. Why? Several reasons"¦

First of all, our marquette wines sell quickly, and we don't want to run out. We learned our lesson when we opened our tasting room in August 2013. We sold out of our red wines and only had white wines for most of the next summer until the next vintage was ready to bottle. We don't want to do that again.

Since then, our crew planted more vines and Gerry added to his winemaking repertoire using the marquette grape. We don't have enough marquette grapes to make all five styles of wine every year. We're hoping to bring back Rebellion, a semi-sweet wine, when we are able to harvest more marquette grapes after our vineyard expansion.

Our three other varietal wines – Revolution, Turning Point and Independence – are made in the dry style with different harvest times and aging processes. In 2018 we added a dry red wine blend – Three Rivers – to our red wine achievement list. All styles of our marquette wines are growing in demand.

Victory View Vineyard's soils and southernly orientation are well suited for this French-American hybrid. Gerry's environmental and science background aids in the success of our vineyard. Our vigilance and vineyard management during the growing season prove that marquette has found a home in our Upper Hudson region.

So, to put it simply, planting more marquette vines equals more delicious marquette wine.