Enterprise Minnesota Magazine - October 2010HELPING MANUFACTURERS GROW PROFITABLY |
Manufacturing Minnesota NiceAwarded a $280,000 Value-Added Producer Grant from the USDA, Carlos Creek Winery toasts to significant expansion opportunities.
Colleen Landkamer (center), state director of USDA Rural Development, presents Tami and Kim Bredeson with their USDA grant check.
Put a Cork in ItIt may not be located in Napa Valley, but Carlos Creek Winery is equally committed to quality winemaking. Case in point: its bottle corks. While about 70 percent of the world's cork industry can be found in Portugal, Carlos Creek chooses corks from Ganau, a cork producer on the Italian island of Sardinia. Ganau "uses a different process in making their corks that we think sanitizes them better," Tami Bredeson says. "They also fire brand all of their corks, and not every company can do that." While many other companies brand corks with ink, Bredeson believes that the pricier option of fire branding is worth the expense. "After we've tried to do everything to keep the wine very sanitary, we don't want to introduce a cork with ink on it," she says. "Fire branding is just heating up the cork. It's an ancient, much older technique and one that they do in Italy. It harkens back to the ancient way of making wines.
Owners Kim and Tami Bredeson, who purchased the winery in 2008, say the $280,000 grant will help increase production of their Minnesota Nice brand wines, a trio aptly named Hot Dish Red, Wobegon White and You Betcha Blush. Since launching the wines, Carlos Creek Winery's sales
doubled between 2008 and 2010. It has struggled to keep up with the demand.
To learn more about Carlos Creek Winery, visit www.carloscreekwinery.com. |
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