Grape Expectations
As new owners of Minnesota’s largest winery, Tami and Kim Bredeson are out to change what Midwesterners are drinking—one customer at a time.
BY ANDREA LAHOUZE
Tuscany it isn’t. Anyone familiar with Minnesota’s brisk temperatures might be surprised that the state is home to more than two dozen wineries and more than 600 vineyards—half of which have sprung up since 2002.
Tami and Kim Bredeson, the new owners of Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria, set out to show skeptical Midwesterners that Minnesota grapes can ferment into a mean glass of vino. Now, they’re on a mission to change Midwesterners’ perceptions of local wine.
“We need to convert Minnesotan wine drinkers into Minnesota wine drinkers,” Tami says. “Two percent of Minnesota customers [are] drinking local wines, [so] there’s a huge potential for [growth].” With sales at the winery up 24 percent compared to last year’s numbers, they seem to be gaining ground.
Bottled Inspiration
Unlike the Beringers or Mondavis, the Bredesons don’t come from a family of vintners. “We had never done any kind of winemaking at all,” Tami says. “Our wine experience was pretty much entirely on the consumption side.”
What they did know was how to manage a business. Tami had served as marketing director for Border State Bank in Baudette for 10 years, while Kim owned and managed Riverbound Carvings, a custom wood carving business. In the late ’90s, Kim carved a fireplace mantel for the east coast distributor of Mondavi wines. When he finished his work, his client sent him a bottle of Opus One wine with a note that said, “Our masterpiece for your masterpiece.”
Opus One wine is a collaborative effort between the Mondavis of California and the Rothschilds of France. When its Bordeaux-style blend was first sold in 1984, it created a new category of wine in America termed “ultra-premium,” which includes wines priced at $50 or more per bottle.
“It was beautifully packaged with a 20-page, full-color booklet that explained this whole [winemaking] process,” Tami says. “When we received it, we knew that this was not ... like a Franzia box of wine. We knew we needed a really good occasion to open this wine. So we set the bottle of wine aside, and it started us on a new hobby.”
Over the next few years, as their children headed off to college, the couple became wine enthusiasts, tasting different varieties and touring vineyards. Then, the chance of a lifetime appeared in the Sunday paper. “We were reading the classified ads in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and there was this ad that said, ‘Minnesota’s largest winery for sale by owner.’ There it was,” Tami says. “We had an empty nest, and we had this opportunity that beckoned.”
Undaunted by their lack of winemaking expertise, the Bredesons first questioned whether the winery could turn enough profit. Opened in 1999 by Alexandria resident Robert Johnson, Carlos Creek had been a successful business through direct sales and wine tasting events. The Bredesons wondered if transfer of ownership from a longtime Alexandria resident to another family might cause sales to plummet. “This is the first winery that has ever changed hands in the state of Minnesota,” Tami says. “There was absolutely no [way to predict] what happens to a winery started by a local person from Alexandria if it changes hands. Does it survive?”
In an effort to answer their own question, the Bredesons traveled to Oregon to visit comparable vineyards before making a final decision. Many Oregon wineries mirror those in Minnesota in terms of size, types of customers and revenue from hosting special events such as conventions and weddings. They also are newer than those in California and share a cooler climate and shorter growing season.
After finding Oregon wineries of similar size and function successful even after transfers of ownership, the couple purchased Carlos Creek Winery last year. They toasted to their new adventure with the bottle of Opus One that started it all, and they haven’t looked back since.
Today, Carlos Creek’s revenue comes from a combination of onsite and mail order purchases, plus purchases from local wine merchants and special events—including its annual “Grape Stomp,” a weekend-long celebration of food and wine. Last summer, the winery was booked for weddings nearly every weekend.
A Harold and Ethel Market
In France, California, New York and other prominent wine locales, vineyard visitors tend to be connoisseurs. Many are hunting for the next great vintage to add to a chic restaurant wine list. In Minnesota, they tend to be Midwestern tourists looking for a souvenir. Because 80 percent of the sales at Midwest wineries are made right in the tasting room—compared to 20 percent at many wineries out west—defining and attracting a core consumer market has been essential. “It really will not matter if a great restaurant in New York likes [our wine]. It will matter if Harold and Ethel Johnson, Iowa corn farmers who are on vacation, like it,” Tami says. “It has made us look at a completely different kind of customer.”
To draw the archetypal Harold and Ethel customers, Carlos Creek tries to break down any barriers of intimidation that often accompany the wine industry. Tours are offered twice daily, and visitors won’t feel snubbed if they aren’t total wine buffs. Filled with the sounds of upbeat oldies tunes, the remodeled tasting room with its large bar area and outdoor patio feels like a party setting.
To attract a constant stream of new and returning customers, the company sends out a regular email blast, advertises large events in the local paper and has recently begun a television advertising campaign set to run in the St. Cloud and Alexandria markets during Minnesota Twins baseball games. The company also has established itself in the social networking arena, posting upcoming events and new products on its Facebook fan page and Twitter feed.
In another bid for comfort and familiarity, Carlos Creek recently trademarked a trio of white, red and rosé wines under the brand name “Minnesota Nice.” Individual wines feature names tied closely to Minnesota culture. For example, “Wobegon White” pays tribute to Minnesota author Garrison Keillor, while “Hot Dish Red” is a nod to Minnesota food. “Rosé, eh?” is appropriately named for the Bredesons’ Canadian-border roots. Labels, too, are distinctly Minnesotan, with illustrations of moose, loons and the North Woods. All of these touches have made “Minnesota Nice” wine a popular souvenir. “People buy it for the loon on it,” Tami says. Customers may buy their first bottle for the loon but then return because of the wine’s taste.
Instead of defining its products and then finding a market for them, Carlos Creek has asked its customers to help shape its wine offerings. For its “Hot Dish Red,” the winery invited 150 guests to try three red wines and vote on their favorite. The only difference between them was the amount of residual sugar or sweetness, and the staff thought they had the winner pegged from the beginning.
“The staff had a favorite, and that was the one with the lowest residual sugar,” Tami says. “If we had made the decision solely based upon internal communication and direction, then we would have bottled the wrong wine. Sixty-five percent of the customers chose the sweetest one, and so it was a clear indication to us that that’s what the customer wants.” With a leap of faith, Carlos Creek bottled the customers’ pick instead of their own choice. The company sold out in a month, and it has been trying to meet customer demand ever since.
Many of Carlos Creek’s wines are award winning. For its “Hot Dish Red,” the winery received a bronze medal from the Tasters Guild International Wine Judging and a silver medal from the American Wine Society. Its apple wine recently took gold in the Tasters Guild International Wine Judging. Superior taste awards may be explained in part by Carlos Creek’s unique location. The winery sits on Alexandria Lakes, Minnesota’s only federally recognized viticultural area. American Viticultural Areas, or AVAs, distinguish regions with soil and conditions particularly well suited for grape cultivation. This also allows for more specific appellations—such as Napa Valley or Columbia Gorge—to be listed on the bottle in lieu of state names.
Greener Grapes
As more customers are requesting natural and organic consumables, the wine industry as a whole has shifted toward greener processes and products. Carlos Creek is no exception.
The winery recycles all of its bottles and uses only real cork, a sustainable material, to seal them. Its cave, which remains at 80 percent humidity and between 40 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, requires no energy input. Although its wines are not organic, due to the use of chemical sprays, the winery did not need to apply chemicals at all last year. This yielded both a more natural product and a savings on chemicals in 2008.
For its annual “Grape Stomp” event, which attracts some 10,000 to 15,000 visitors, Carlos Creek is even encouraging vendors to use corn-based, biodegradable products for serving food, and the winery will have 50 extra staff members on hand to man the recycling bins.
On par with the “grow local, buy local” trend, the Bredesons have worked to increase the percentage of their grapes that come from Minnesota. The previous owners imported most of their grapes from other states and crushed them onsite. Now, Carlos Creek uses Minnesota grapes for 78 percent of its operation, much of them estate-grown. The only grapes brought in from other regions are those varieties that do not grow well in Minnesota. Carlos Creek’s “Minnesota Nice” wines are made entirely from Minnesota grown grapes, while other offerings incorporate grapes from warmer regions.
Tami believes the winery’s commitment to Minnesota fruit has attracted customers looking for an authentic local wine experience. “We felt that a Minnesota winery should be much more about Minnesota fruit … because authenticity is huge with customer experience,” she says. “People will ask, ‘Which of your wines are from grapes that you grow right here?’ ”
Brewing Up History
Carlos Creek continually looks to its current customers to define its next moves. One project in the works is the addition of a beer brewery, an idea put forth by the Bredesons’ son, Tyler, who is vice president of sales. “We watch a number of couples come through here and the wife will do the wine sampling while the husband sort of leans up against the bar and wishes that he had a beer,” Tami says. Hoping to tap into local legend, the addition will mark the reestablishment of the Alexandria Brewing Company, which shut its doors indefinitely during the Prohibition era. Carlos Creek also is working with Rick Kvasager, Enterprise Minnesota business development specialist for the Alexandria area, to market its craft brews to local restaurants as “Alexandria’s beer.”
The microbrewed beer will allow Carlos Creek to be the sole alcohol vendor for its onsite weddings and events, and it has already helped attract new markets. “I just got a call from a huge Harley Davidson group. I didn’t think we’d ever land a huge Harley Davidson group here,” Tami says. “If we had not had the brewery here, it would not have happened.” The addition of beer also will define Carlos Creek as one of only a few companies in the United States to incorporate a winery and a brewery under one roof.
By 2015, Americans are projected to drink more wine per capita than the French, according to a study by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Grape Growers Association. Seeing the potential in that number, Carlos Creek has its sights set on the national scene. It also has asked Kvasager to help define new markets and ways to ship to them. Snowbird states such as Florida, California and Arizona have been first on the table, but shipping laws are complex. Citing a goal to double wine production within five years, Tami is the first to admit it won’t be easy.
“It’s obviously going to challenge the amount of fruit that we need to bring in and process,” she says. “How do you tell in two years how much people are going to want? Enterprise Minnesota is going to help us figure out where those markets are going to be most open, how to project sales and growth, and what our best methods of national distribution are.”