This all starts over a year ago… I got an email blast from a local liquor store saying that the Cannon River Winery was having several weekends of volunteer grape picking. I immediately emailed to see if there was anything available for a specific weekend and no such luck. So I added my name to their email list and shazam …  it’s already 2010. Still not sure where it went, but I managed to get a ‘reservation’ for grape picking for a weekend in September.

It turned out to be one of the coldest and wettest weekends they had had for picking, but it was still oodles of fun. The best part? We got to eat off the vines as we worked! It was so awesome!! And of course the wine tasting that followed our hard labor was enjoyed as well. I believe we picked about 4 tons of grapes {mmm i could be wrong on that figure} and then we got to watch them get de-stemmed and sucked into a tube to sit in a tin can and ferment… And that’s just the layman’s gist of things. I promise it’s a lot more glorious than I have described.

We arrived on  Saturday morning to a lovely hilly winery where we all received a bit of background information on the vineyard itself as well as what we were going to be doing that morning. 4 hours of picking led to a lovely lunch and some delicious wine tasting, which inspired us to check out their store in downtown Cannon Falls.

What fun!! Thanks Mel for wandering around letting me take pictures, being my model, holding my grapes and picking up those bundles that just wouldn’t stay put. You rock! Dad, as always I appreciate you indulging my plans and my to-dos… Now let’s drink wine!!