2012 Memorial Day Weekend

The 2012 Memorial Day Weekend is off to a busy start.  We brought in over 1000 pounds of Rhubarb at the Maple River Winery.  We had groups stop by to visit today from 10 different states and Canada.  Looks like the rest of the weekend with rain in the forecast will be a time to spend it indoors.  That means we'll be busy this weekend.  Think everything is in place for staff to be there til 7pm on Friday night...6 or 7 on Saturday night...noon to 5pm on Sunday and then 9 to 5 on Monday.  We went through a lot of wine and spirits today.  The top seller was Chokecherry Vodka.  It seems the Chokecherry Truffle and the Chokecherry Fluff have become big hits.  Might have to mix a couple of them up later.

Remember to take time this weekend and remember the reason we have a 3 day weekend.  Memorial Day Services in Casselton begin at 10am with a parade from the Fire Hall to the Cemetery.  Our thanks go out to each and every veteran as well as their families.  We are glad that we are free.  Thank you!!

Maple River Distillery Chokecherry Brandy

We are very privileged here to have tons of North Dakota fruit come in every summer.  Another great privilege is holding one of a very limited distillery licenses in the upper Midwest.  We enjoy using this license to have fun and experiment some.  One of the driving factors to getting a distillery license several years ago was to distill chokecherries and chokecherry wine into brandy. 

That idea has become so popular that after 2 years, we still can't produce enough yet to put away in oak barrels in our cellar.  We have been selling the clear Chokecherry Brandy in our tasting room in Casselton, North Dakota.  We hope to build up enough product to age some for 5, 10, 15, 30 years down the road.  Wouldn't that be awesome? 

I enjoy the Chokecherry Brandy with a couple of ice cubes or an occasional splash of club soda.  It is definitely one of a kind and only available in our tasting room or to North Dakota residents on our website, www.northdakotawinery.com.  Grandma only wishes she could have made this stuff!!

2012 Maple River Distillery Drink Recipe Contest

What a fun ride the 2012 Drink Recipe Contest has turned out to be.  We were hoping for a couple of hundred entries for our Drink Recipe Guide that will be released in June, what we weren't expecting was almost 1800 entries!! Wow!!  This past Thursday, we unveiled 3 of the 9 finalists.  Someone will win $1,000.00 on May 31st for using either Pride of Dakota product, Maple River Distillery Rhubarb Vodka or Maple River Distillery Chokecherry Vodka.
The 3 finalist drinks are:
Rhu Woo
Rhuby Rhed and
Chokecherry Truffle.  To view instructions click here for the Maple River Distillery Semifinalist page.

Can hardly wait for this Thursday to see the next 3 drink recipes that make it to the finals.

Good luck!!

North Dakota Spirits made with Chokecherry?

Grandmas across the great state of North Dakota had a knack for finding enough chokecherries every fall to make chokecherry jelly, jam, syrup, butter, and, of course, wine.  But, most grandmas never imagined you could infuse chokecherries into vodka to make a prairie cocktail with a kick to it (Chokecherry Vodka)!  We always enjoy stories at the Maple River Winery about grandma/grandma/cousins/brothers/sisters and how they would make chokecherry wine.  However, now that we have branched into the Maple River Distillery as well, we have many, many people comment about how they had wished grandma would have been made able this fine product.  Every now and then, you get someone that has a tear (or more) in their eye talking about this.  Well....raise your glass and toast....this one's for you grandma!!