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Southeastern Minnesota is a beautiful area with magificent wooded river bluffs interlaced with small picturesque valleys. When the glaciers melted 10,000 years ago, these valleys were carved by the rush of melt water and then filled up with huge amounts of sediment as the flow slowed down to eventually become the Mississippi River. Flower Valley is one of the valleys carved from this flowage and is located about 4 miles south of Red Wing.
No one knows who gave this little valley its name. We will attribute it to the original settlers
who homesteaded the land. In any case, it provides a wonderful setting for our vineyard.
Except for the addition of a new home here and there, the valley has managed to keep its
same look and character with hardwood forests on the hillsides and farm fields
filling up the bottom land.
For more than 150 years this bottom land yielded excellent crops, but the small size of the
fields make them less appealing to the large scale operating style required by farmers who
raise corn and soybeans. The soil has a consistent sandy loam quality that makes it drain well
and yet provide a perfect medium for growing the grapes. The ph level of the soil runs
around 6.6 which puts it nicely in the accepted range that is considered ideal for grapes.
The gentle slope at the edge of the bottom land is where we decided to do our first planting.
We hope to have the same amount of success growing our grapes as the other growers who have
also chosen to plant vineyards in this area.
