A vineyard at Grandview Valley Winery, rural Belview, Minnesota.
TWO YEARS AGO TOMORROW, in the scenic Minnesota River Valley north of Belview, a winery opened.
Folks have raved to me repeatedly about Grandview Valley Winery, located on land that’s been in a family (Wayne and Kari Rigge and John and Laura Rigge) for four generations.
Now, after visiting this winery, I understand their enthusiasm.
The winery and its vineyard.
But it’s not just the great homemade pizza and the wine that appeal to me. It is the geographic surroundings, the pronounced pastoral loveliness of this peaceful place positioned within the southwestern Minnesota prairie.
Entering Belview from the north upon returning from the winery. Grandview is nearly six miles north of this small town.
Pause to read the Boiling Spring historic marker.
Another marker notes the Knutson family farm.
To get there from nearby Belview, follow Redwood County Road 7 north, winding past farm places, past historical markers for Boiling Spring and the Knutson family farm, where my Aunt Iylene grew up.
Turn onto this gravel road just off Redwood County Road 7.
This is good pasture land.
Inpressive aged bedrock.
And then, shortly after the markers, turn east, your vehicle kicking up dust as you pass more farms, cattle grazing in pastures and mammoth bedrock heaped in hills along tree-hugged gravel roads leading to Grandview.
Almost there.
Arriving at Grandview Valley Winery.
Nearly six miles from Belview, you reach vineyard and winery.
Dine inside or outside on the patio to the left.
Solitude embraces with the type of comfort that comes from being in a locale where you feel cocooned from the world, sheltered from the worries and stresses and rush of everyday life. For me, it was the “I could live here” thought. Or at least escape here for a few hours. This marks the perfect place to sip a glass of valley made wine with delicious homemade pizza.
The nearly full parking lot.
Not that Grandview offers quiet dining. Quite the opposite. The gravel parking lot on this late May evening, is already nearly full. Inside the winery, diners pack tables while several groups gather on the patio. It’s almost a surprise to see so many here in this rural location, although I’ve been warned about the busyness and sometimes long wait for pizza.
The bacon cheeseburger and BBQ pulled pork pizza.
But on this Saturday evening, probably because of area high school graduation parties, my husband, a sister, my older brother and his wife, and I need not wait all that long for our two pizzas—halves of German, BBQ pulled pork, buffalo chicken and bacon cheeseburger. To my surprise, I find the sauerkraut-topped German pizza to be especially tasty and my favorite of the four.
The guys order beer, my brother choosing Goosetown, a German craft beer from August Schell Brewing Company in New Ulm. Goosetown is an historic nod to an ethnic New Ulm neighborhood where primarily Catholic, German-Bohemian immigrants began settling in the late 1800s. They kept gaggles of geese. My husband opts for Grain Belt’s Nordeast, another Schell’s made beer, because Goosetown is not on the beer list he’s been handed and he doesn’t hear my brother’s order.
I failed to photograph the wine. But I did photograph the wine list.
I choose a semi-sweet white wine made from Frontenac Gris grapes and finished with hints of peach, apricot and green apple. Rockin’ Coyote holds the promise of summer and the wild side of this land where I’m certain more than a few coyotes range.
Our conversation flows with the ease that comes from dining among those you love, those who know your history and your quirks and don’t care.
We laugh. And I am teased mercilessly for my gullibility as my sister-in-law reveals that crawdads will not be served at her daughter’s wedding as she previously told me.
Grandview feels like home to me, my connectedness as solid as the aged bedrock lodged in this land.
FYI: Click here for more information about Grandview Valley Winery.
© Copyright 2014 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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