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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 72 WINES&VINES October 2016 The Honeycrisp juice arrives at Four Daughters in 5,500-gallon tankers and is put into one of the 5,800-gallon tanks made by Badger Fabrications in Sauk City, Wis. Cham- pagne yeast is added to start the fermenta- tion; the temperature of that fermentation is controlled using the glycol chiller. After the cider has finished fermentation, it is sweetened with fresh Honeycrisp juice to bring the alcohol to about 6% and then fil- tered on the same day through the Della Toffola crossflow filter. According to Os- borne, after a day or two of filtering, the cider is pasteurized using the 42 hl per hour pasteurizer from IDD Process and Packaging and goes into cans that same day. The can- ning line, a 24/4 monobloc from Palmer Can- ning Systems can fill 200 cans per minute. The new flavored ciders that Osborne added to the cider lineup this summer include some juice concentrates added to the apple juice: Ginger Mojito has key lime juice, ginger and mint essences; Grow a Pear includes pear juice; Strawberry Shandy has strawberry concentrate and lemon juice, and Tea Time has black tea added to the apple juice. When Osborne first made Loon Juice, it was served only on tap in the tasting room. As demand for the cider grew, the decision was made to distribute the cider to restaurants in a specially designed package: 5-liter mini- kegs. "We especially liked the space that the mini-kegs gave us for graphics," Kirstin Os- borne noted. "A local artist did the artwork. At that time, we were the only place in the U.S. putting cider in mini-kegs." The first dis- tributor shipment of 50 kegs went out in the fall of 2014. The winery, however, knew Loon Juice was a good product and that it was going to grow in sales volume. The mini-kegs had to be filled by hand, a major disadvantage when large volumes need to be packaged. Consequently, the winery switched to using 22-ounce "bomber" bottles and then added its first can- ning line in the summer of 2015. When the 12,000-square-foot cider facility was finished May 31, 2016, the original can- ning line was replaced with the new 200-cans- per-minute Palmer Canning Systems line. Four Daughters also has hired a cider maker, Luke Schomer, to help manage the facility. The can- ning line runs five days per week and some- times on Saturdays and Sundays. Meanwhile, the mini-kegs haven't been totally abandoned. While not in use right now, Justin and Kristin Osborne think they will be used in the future for special events or holidays. Marketing Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery is located about an hour and a half drive southeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul and was designed to be a destination winery. The vineyard was planted with the idea that weddings might be held in the middle of it or on the patio when the weather is warm, and the new Barrel Room was designed for events as large as 300 people. The windows in the Barrel Room that look out on the patio and the vineyard are actually a series of garage doors that can be raised to expand the room to the outside when the weather permits. The space has a dual purpose, as the barrels are not just for decoration but are used for aging wine. With a tasting room bar, a restaurant on site, tables and chairs both inside and on a patio overlooking the vineyard, it is a welcom- ing place for people who want to spend an afternoon in the country, and the winery has developed a loyal local clientele. But Four Daughters also benefits from being only a half hour drive south of Rochester, home of the internationally known Mayo Clinic and a large IBM facility; it also is not far from the head- quarters of Hormel Foods in Austin, Minn. As a result, the winery has visitors from all over the world. Promoting a winery takes a lot of hard work utilizing social media, advertising, public rela- tions, special promotional events and much more. Vicky Vogt and Kristin Osborne have done that, but sometimes it's being in the right place or who you know that can make the dif- ference. That happened to Four Daughters in 2014, when a high school friend of Vogt's rec- ommended to the Universal Music Group that they use Loon Juice at their after-party at the 2014 Country Music Awards, and the planner in charge did just that. As a result of contacts made at the Country Music Awards, Four Daughters was asked to provide wine for private events at the Sun- dance Film Festival in January 2015, and then in 2016 the winery became the official provider for the Sundance Film Festival. Their wines— including Marquette, Chad's Folly, Big Boy Blend and Moscato—were poured at all official festival receptions and parties. The final question for Vicky Vogt: Does she think her other two daughters will come back to Spring Valley and join the winery? She re- sponded, "Hopefully, at some point!" The monobloc canning line from Palmer Canning Systems can fill 200 cans of cider per minute. Four Daughters' Loon Juice cider is pasteurized and canned the same day.