Minnesota’s Oldest Winery Has Been Sold After 51 Years

We have tons of amazing and beautiful wineries around Minnesota with delicious wines to offer. I love that wineries are usually out of town a bit and in a pretty, open area, it's always so relaxing.

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Something I didn't know, though, is that Minnesota's oldest winery began back in 1973 and is now 51 years old.

Minnesota's Oldest Winery

The oldest winery in Minnesota is called Alexis Bailly Vineyard and it's located in Hastings.

They planted their first vineyard in 1973, however, they didn't open their tasting room and release their first wines until 1978.

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My curiosity got the best of me and I had to know if that really is how long it takes to get the grapes you need to make wine. The answer is yes! According to BinWise it takes about 3 years "to grow grape vines to maturity". Then, the "first year of bottling might be a couple years after that."

So after all of their hard work, in 1978 the tasting room finally opened and people were able to try "the first wines ever produced commercially of 100% Minnesota grown grapes."

But today, an era of the vineyard is coming to a close.

Minnesota's Oldest Winery is Being Sold Out of the Family

Alexis Bailly Vineyard was founded by David Bailly. Eventually, he retired and his daughter, Nan Bailly, took over ownership. Nan and her husband Sam have run the vineyard and winery ever since.

But now, they've decided it's time to retire. They made the sad announcement on the vineyard's Facebook page yesterday. But it's not all sad news, because a new family is coming in to run the place!

Chet and Andrea Haider from Farmington, their 4 kids and their golden retriever, Fin, helped Nan and Sam with the grape harvest this year and fell in love with the winery. Now, Chet and Andrea have decided to purchase the winery and continue it's legacy.

As Nan wrote in her post, "My father gave me a gift with the winery when he died many years ago and I’ve treasured that gift every day. ... I’ll never say goodbye because I will never truly leave."