Prairie Berry Winery-Hill City, SD Pt. 2

Welcome to The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast. I’m your host Forrest Kelly from the seed to the glass. Wine has a past. Our aim at The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast is to look for adventure at wineries around the globe. After all grape minds think alike. Let’s start the adventure.

Our featured winery is, we continue our conversation with Angela of Prairie Berry Winery in Hill City, South Dakota. So we’ve won over a thousand international awards for our wine. When I tell people that sometimes, you know, they look at our labels are very whimsical and attractive, people enjoy the artwork on our labels. Right. And so when I tell them about the awards that we won, for example, for our flagship wine Red Ass Rhubarb, they’ll say, oh, it’s the name, but wine competitions are blind. So the judges don’t know what they’re tasting, speaks for itself. Okay. I would be remiss if I don’t ask about your most awarded wine and how you came about the name.

Ralph, our winemaker’s dad was helping Sandy out of the winery one day with wine back then that we called it, Razzy Rhubarb wine. So the story goes that his face turned red. He felt like an ass for messing up the wine. And so the wine became red as rhubarb and then we added a donkey to the label. And it’s our most famous line now, our most award-winning wine. It’s a fine wine. It’s 90 percent rhubarb and 10 percent raspberry. It’s quite lovely. So Hill City, where the winery is located, I see where the population is just under a thousand people. So doesn’t necessarily reflect on how many visitors you get your winery per year.  Doesn’t know our hill city communities are great and they support us very much. But being in the Black Hills of South Dakota, not too far from Mount Rushmore, it’s a very popular tourist destination. So our door count, the number of people and guests we welcome into our winery each year is generally around one hundred and fifty thousand people that come and visit us. We’re happy to welcome them when they’re out visiting Mt. Rushmore, touring Deadwood, and looking at the Web sites. Your complex just looks huge. So I imagine the two you’ve got guests when they come that they’re just not staying for wine tasting. They’re doing a multitude of things. We have not only very, very winery, but right next door. In 2013, we opened a miner brewing company. So a craft brewery, Sandy void, our winemakers, actually our brewmaster as well. She’s a woman of many talents. We also have an event center on-site where we host parties and weddings, reunions, things of that nature. And then we have a concert at normal times. Every summer we’d be hosting outdoor concerts. We have a basketball court, long games. So we really encourage our guests to join us for more than a wine tasting and spend an afternoon having lunch with us or enjoying some live music, having a pint of beer so you can really make a day of it. And I love it to the tune. Kind of a holistic approach at the winery because it’s just not about wine. You’re also helping with the community, with the farmer’s market. We do. We hosted a farmer’s market every Tuesday morning. It is a community’s farmer’s market and we just welcome them to our station and help promote it. And so that’s great for the community. The locals, as well as the tourists, have fresh produce once a week and in our area. Yeah. Yeah. Local farmers. Local growers. Yeah. You can pick up fresh meat at a farmer’s market in South Dakota. Nothing wrong with a big scoop of Midwestern charm. You sound very proud to work at Prairie Brewery. Have you been there long? Yeah, it’s been really amazing to see. I started as a tasting room associate. Just doing wine tastings in the summer is kind of a part-time job. And my husband and I first landed in the Black Hills and have been able to grow with the company myself and watch the company grow. And we’re all very, like I said, humbled, but very proud of what we’re able to do and what we’re able to offer. In part three of our conversation with Angela Prairie Brewery Winery, we’ll find out just how big their wine club is. I’ll give you a hint. It’s one of the largest in the United States.

Thank you for listening. I’m Forrest Kelly. This episode of the Best 5 Minute Wine podcast was produced by ISYM. If you like the show tell your friends and pets and subscribe. Until next time, pour the wine and ponder your next adventure.

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