No need to travel to Napa or New England for cozy cideries, warm wineries, and lush orchards—we have plenty of stunning spots right here in Minnesota. Grab a glass right where the apples are grown and pumpkins are picked, find a fall event to hit, and wine and dine alfresco one more time while you can—the days are short and precious, so go forth.
Fall’s Keepsakes
The riches of a verdant valley create unmatched local flavors.
There’s a rustic magic to southeastern Minnesota farm country—the area around Northfield (Dundas, Nerstrand, Castle Rock, etc.) is a patchwork of berry fields and sheep pastures, dairy barns and apple orchards; a place where sun and water meet the fertile soil of the Cannon River Valley. If you hike a left off I-35 and drive a few miles down a sun-dappled dirt road, you’ll find one of the most enchanting of all these farms: Keepsake Cidery.
Park your car and hop out to stretch—the first thing you’ll notice is the autumn perfume on the breeze, that golden scent that comes when the earth has ripened but isn’t yet ready to slip into winter’s deep sleep. Then you’ll spot the orchard, where the trees are grown so close together their branches nearly intertwine; where the apples are red as rubies or lustrous as yellow gold. Much of the American cider industry is built on apple varietals from Washington state and other large producers, but Keepsake leans into older heirloom apples like Golden Russets, which are potently sweet and prized for cider making; bittersharps and bittersweets that trace back to England and France; and modern dessert apples developed by the University of Minnesota and other breeding programs, like winter-hardy Keepsake apples, the cidery’s namesake fruit.
Owners Tracy Jonkman and Nate Watters use a cider-making process called spontaneous fermentation—they don’t add any commercial yeasts or sugars to their ciders. They rely, instead, on the intricate mysteries of the wild yeasts that float through the air and settle on the apples, the branches, the equipment, etc. They press their apples using an old-fashioned rack and cloth and, from there, let nature’s built-in fermentation process take the wheel. At Keepsake, there’s no cider quite like another: The Farmhouse dry cider has high floral notes of prairie flowers and herbs; the Jewel is a semisweet cider aged with local cherries; the River Valley Reserve is as tannic as Minnesota’s many rivers, lakes, and streams.
So: Step inside and take your pick. Keepsake’s rustic tasting room feels a bit like a witch’s cottage you might stumble on in a forest, à la Hansel and Gretel (but a good witch, in this case): It’s stocked with bottles of cider in every shade of amber, jars of creamed honey, cheeses, fresh-baked sourdough, and other locally made wares. There’s a food menu, too, with bites like ham-and-swiss toasties, charcuterie, and deviled eggs.
Next, wrap a sweater around your shoulders and find a picnic table outside. “Friday Night Feasts” at Keepsake mean local chefs are dishing up barbecue or smash burgers en plein air, and there’s almost always live music, be it a local bluegrass, folk, or jazz band. (If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll be there for one of Keepsake’s monthly “fests,” like Oktoberfest, AppleFest, FiberFest, or the Thanksgiving Market.) There’s a simple pleasure in lingering at the farm as the sun slips below the tree line and lights the sky with lavender. Before you go, wander by the pasture to give the horses a soft stroke on the nose—then catch one last glimpse of this enchanted orchard, teeming with apples as timeless and sweet as autumn at its unabashed peak. 4609 E. 135th St., Dundas, 413-552-8872 —Justine Jones
Wine Country
Tucked on the western edge of town, a collection of vineyards celebrate wine Minnesota-style.
When was the last time a farmer invited you over to lounge and enjoy the big views of their rolling green hills? Sadly, one of the side effects of modern life in Minnesota is that our increasingly urbanized and screen-centric city folk just don’t know many farmers anymore. But there are a few local working farms that would love you to drop by—in Waconia!
First, you may ask, are winemakers farmers? Absolutely. Minnesota may only raise a few hundred tons of wine grapes a year—nearly 400 tons in 2021, the last year we have solid data for, on some 1,200 acres—but that little segment of the farm economy needs city slickers to come and hang out if it’s going to thrive and flourish. And we Minnesotans should celebrate winemakers as farmers! There’s been a vogue in the world of champagne lately to elevate winemakers who have their hands in the dirt and know where every grape comes from over the big houses that buy grapes in bulk to blend. When sommeliers talk about “farmer fizz” or “estate-grown” or “grower-driven” wines, that’s what they’re referencing: wine from a single bit of land carefully tended. That’s what wine folk recognize as the global gold standard, and it’s something that’s happening in Minnesota, too.
Sitting outside with a glass of that wine; gazing upon the growing vines; experiencing the wind they experience, the sun they love, the birds they rely on for pest control? That’s when a gold standard meets a little bit of heaven.
So, head west! Take Highway 7, 5, or 212 from the core downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and in less than an hour, you’ll be in Waconia, land of lakes; beautiful rolling hills; countless horse paddocks full of the prettiest ponies you ever did see; and three of Minnesota’s best, and most welcoming, wineries. Each is a quick drive to the next, if you want to speed-run the region, but I’d recommend building a nice day around each winery so you really have time to soak in how pretty, and how special, each is.
Schram Vineyards
No one has done more to turn their farm into a metro-wide entertainment destination than the folks at Schram. They have a full-service restaurant, Bonfire and Barrel, with skillet steaks and brick-oven pizzas for dinner and elaborate eggs Benedict brunches to anchor a weekend of fun. They have a whole lakeside casual destination hillside bar with terrific views. They have bocce courts; bocce leagues; a full on-site microbrewery; a big shady tree that at least one time hosted a bunch of little girls sitting on a picnic blanket, all wearing fairy wings and looking like actual angels; and a wine club that lets you get first dibs on the landmark events of the Schram season, like its October harvest bonfire. For Schram wines, don’t miss the very interesting partridge-eye-colored, apricot-scented Laketown Sparkling Rosé (made with rare cold-climate Brianna grapes) and the deep, dark, jammy, figgy, big, and bold Marquette. 8785 Airport Rd., Waconia, 952-492-1259
Parley Lake Winery
This working farm and winery is also an arts destination, with 125 acres, 200 (and counting) medals for its wines, an art gallery, gorgeous bronze sculptures, and a barn concert venue that looks like a Hollywood set decorator’s spare-no-expenses dream (there’s free music and ticketed events; The Belfast Cowboys, Vic Volare, and Mick Sterling, among many more, have played there). There’s also a concert stage out in the vines. Be sure to try the Frontenac Gris, a vinous white that tastes a bit like a famed vin jaune from the French Jura region, and the gold-medal-magnet inky red Marquette, which is muscular and smoky. 8280 Parley Lake Rd., Waconia
Sovereign Estate Winery
The most Napa Valley or Sonoma vibe in Minnesota wineries is to be found at Sovereign Estate, where mature oaks shade the vast and vastly pretty patio and you can reserve a private cabana for your group so that a winery employee can pour for you all while talking through a tasting so you can learn as you sip. After your guided tasting, order a couple flatbreads (the one with hot honey is awfully nice), summon your favorite wine by the bottle to share, and take a little stroll through the prettily planted flower gardens—that’s living! When you’re tasting, definitely ask for the racy, briny Itasca, a Minnesota-grown white that’s like a French Ugni Blanc but wilder, and the beach-plum and pepper big red Marquette. Also, be sure to hit the wine shop for a bottle of the figgy, plummy port-like Ignatius—it’s crying out to be enjoyed after a Christmas or Thanksgiving feast. This five-year-aged blend of wine made from Frontenac grapes and estate Marquette brandy just might be your new Minnesota-farm favorite—but you might need a bread pudding, a pecan pie, and a crowd to decide for yourself. 9950 North Shore Rd., Waconia, 952-446-9957 —Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
Vine and Dine
Grapes are only part of the story at Everly Farms.
Few Minnesota wineries have a food program that compares to that of Everly Farms, where a new restaurant, The Table, opened in summer of 2025. A stroll through the sun-drenched vineyards, where you’ll find grapes growing in clusters of golden green and deepest burgundy, is the best way to work up an appetite for chef Tom Grittner’s seasonal, ever-changing menu: Think roasted half chicken in a Nashville hot peach glaze, lobster-and-ricotta-stuffed ravioli, and sweet corn blondies in the lingering September heat; warm and hearty dishes for deeper autumn. Of course, if you’re in the mood to keep things simple, it’s hard to beat a pairing of smoky, lush Zinfandel with a wood-fired pizza—or go for oysters on the half-shell with the relatively dry La Crescent, the famous Minnesota white wine made from cold-hardy grapes grown yards out the door in the vineyard. Everly Farms also offers excellent ciders through its brand Easton Cider Co. (the blueberry blend, which is tart and bright instead of syrupy, is the best). The Table doubles as Everly’s wine tasting room, so feel free to slip onto a barstool if a late-afternoon pour is all your heart desires. 6530 Co. Rd. 26, Minnetrista, 952-808-6638 —J.J.
Past Meets Present
Minnesota, get ready for something new and apple-rich.
Sweetland Orchard’s Gretchen Merryweather is an absolute hero of innovating and advancing Minnesota’s orchard-to-table culture, and she has some big, big news to share this apple season.
But first, let’s define a term. Apple varietal: You know how at the grocery store you pick between, say, a Honeycrisp and a Granny Smith? Those are varietals. Historically, there were popular apple varietals bred specifically for cider—those were what George Washington and Thomas Jefferson used for ciders and apple brandies, for instance, far different from today’s lunch box staples. In 2010, when Merryweather launched Sweetland Orchard in Webster, just off I-35, not too far south of Lakeville, she had a dream of bringing the great apple varietal past to Minnesota’s apple present. This vision included exploring the potential of the ancient cider varietals still haunting Minnesota orchards and the possibility of planting some new trees for eventual harvest. Why? Because these ancient varietals could open up many food and drink horizons.
“When I applied for the permits for Sweetland in 2012, I included ‘distilling’ on the paperwork,” Merryweather recalls now. “Smartest thing I ever did.” Do you see where this is going? Minnesota, meet Humble!
Humble is the new brand for Sweetland’s orchard-to-table line of distilled spirits. Humble apple brandy is two-year-aged in different local spirits barrels, including those from Roknar rye. (Humble’s aged apple brandy is an American cousin of French Calvados; from a distance, it looks like bourbon or whiskey, brown with wood age.) Humble’s pommeau is made by taking a juicy, fresh-tasting Sweetland cider and arresting the fermentation with a shot of high-proof distillate—a European technique called mutage. (Fruity pommeau is traditionally served before a meal as an aperitif or with a cheese course.) Humble’s apple eau de vie is a clear, young fruit brandy made from distilling apple cider, then rapidly bottling it without long aging in wood.
“I’ve been working on these for years,” explains Merryweather. First, she had to get a self-supporting orchard up and going, then launch and experiment with Sweetland’s single-varietal apple ciders (Northern Spy, Redfield, and Golden Russet have been popular). After she succeeded, she had to plant more trees of the varietals that worked, wait for the trees to grow big enough to bear a lot of fruit, and then start the distilling process in a tiny 50-gallon still. (She also worked out a technique of running the distillate through dried apples for extra apple flavor, if you’re curious.)
Finally, for the main Humble brandy, she had to wait two years for the spirits to age in the barrels! And at long last, the wait is over.
So drive on down! These spirits are being made in the same sweet, adorable cidery that you know from past fall visits for eating-apples, apple cider donuts, and Merryweather’s grandma’s famous version of brown bread. But this year, you can also get Minnesota’s first orchard-to-snifter, orchard-distilled apple spirits in modern memory. Only 700 gallons exist, so move fast, and if you can’t road-trip, a few bottles are allocated for city connoisseurs at spots including France 44, Surdyk’s, and The Ale Jail. This is an accomplishment worth bragging about! Er, or being humble? Wait. Is a trip to Sweetland for brandy and apples this fall’s ultimate humblebrag? 26205 Fairlawn Ave., Webster, 651-252-4337 —D.M.G.
More Wineries and Cideries We Love
Alexis Bailly Vineyard and Winery: Minnesota’s first commercial vineyard (planted circa 1973!) is a rustic dreamscape tucked away in south Hastings. Grab a seat under the ivy-covered pergola with a glass of the signature Voyageur red, made from University of Minnesota–developed Frontenac grapes. 18200 Kirby Ave. S., Hastings, 651-437-1413
Cannon River Winery: Just a stone’s throw from the Little Cannon River, this small-town winery is breezy and casual, best fit for a fun group outing. Be sure to order at least one bottle of the Family Reserve white, which is beautifully light and bright with high tropical notes and is made from cold-hardy Prairie Star and La Crescent grapes. 421 W. Mill St., Cannon Falls, 507-263-7400
Mousse Sparkling Wine Co.: Mousse isn’t a vineyard—it resides in a historic wine tasting room in downtown Jordan. But it doesn’t lose an ounce of charm. Settle into one of the cozy booths for a glass: Here you’ll find the widest selection of gorgeously effervescent Minnesota- and Wisconsin-sourced sparkling wines, be they Champagne- or Charmat-style, as well as hard ciders and still wines. 115 E. 1st St., Jordan, 952-452-8162
Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery: Home of iconic Minnesota cider Loon Juice, Four Daughters sits on a vast Spring Valley estate where the vines stretch for acres. Grape or apple lover, you have your pick of stellar wines and ciders here, from fruity rosés to hazy Honeycrisp brews—plus, Four Daughters distills its own bourbon. 78757 Hwy. 16, Spring Valley, 507-346-7300
Milk and Honey Ciders: Bask in the autumn sun on the patio at Milk and Honey, where the nearby orchards are teeming with both heirloom and traditional apple varietals, which are fermented each year into highly unique ciders that lean dry, aromatic, and tannic. Check the event calendar for live music and even local theater productions. 11738 Co. Rd. 51, St. Joseph, 320-271-3111
7 Vines Vineyard: If you’re looking for a swanky Napa-esque experience within the metro, 7 Vines is the place. Don’t let a chilly late-autumn day deter you—you can cozy up around the big stone fireplace with a Cabernet Franc in hand. 101 Co. Rd. 96, Dellwood, 651-478-6300 —J.J.
Hand-Picked Magic
Aamodt’s treats and treasures speak to the kid in all of us.
There’s something about apple picking that restores the soul, that brings us back to those long-ago days when the greatest treasures were the ones we could pluck off trees with our own small hands. Aamodt’s Apple Farm, nestled out in the fertile St. Croix River Valley in Stillwater, is one of our favorite places to bring little ones for a day of fall fun: The orchard stretches for more than 50 acres, so you won’t be tripping over other families as you fill your baskets with Sweet RiverBelles and Zestars, which have just a hint of spice and brown sugar. Catching a ride on the “Honeycrisp Express” is a must, as is visiting the orchard’s small goat farm to meet some furry, mischievous friends. Before you pack up your apples and head home, stop by the bakery for some treats and sips to savor in the autumn sun, like Aamodt’s famous oatmeal apple cookies, apple fritters, apple cinnamon donuts, and, of course, apple pies (get one served hot and by the slice, with a scoop of fast-melting ice cream on top, or grab a few frozen take-and-bakes to bring home). 6428 Manning Ave. N., Stillwater, 651-439-3127 —J.J.
Get Out and Enjoy More Fall Fun!
Red Barn Farm: If Mother Nature plays her cards just right, we still have another month of homemade pizzas alfresco, with blankets in the grass and farm animals nearby and live music filtering through the breeze. Head down to Northfield on Wednesdays and Sundays to find all of the above—plus red wine made on-site and stunning fall views. 10063 E. 110th St., Northfield, 507-664-0304
Oktoberfest: There are plenty of places to don your lederhosen and down a pint or two this fall—and while most local spots celebrate in September, the big Twin Cities Oktoberfest on the State Fairgrounds runs October 9–10, and New Ulm honors its beer-soaked roots October 2–3 and 9–10. Want to trek slightly farther north? On October 17, 22 Northmen Brewing Co. at Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria hosts its Oktoberfest.
LuceLine Orchard: Find live music on a brand-new stage every weekend this month, pick your own apples (or just grab a bag before you head home), shoot the Apple Slinger, hop on a hayride, and grab a local beer and caramel apple sangria inside LuceLine’s on-site pub for a perfect day of fall fun. Bring your bikes and hop on the nearby Luce Line Trail to burn off those cider donuts. 2755 Rose Ave., Watertown, 612-817-6229
Utepils Brewing: Might we remind you that Utepils (just off Theodore Wirth Regional Park, if you want to take a crispy fall pre-beer hike) does cozy season right? Stop by for free meat and cheese raffles every Tuesday, Trivia Mafia Wednesdays, cribbage tournament Thursdays, and a spooky Halloween market October 30–31. 225 Thomas Ave. N., Mpls., 612-249-7800
Artisans’ Market at Rustic Roots Winery: Sip a glass of wine, browse local artisans’ booths, sip another glass—twist our arms, will ya? Find local makers (and live musicians) each month in the warmer seasons, and there’s still time to catch one final shop-and-sip on October 15. Plus, find bingo, cribbage, book clubs, trivia, and more each week. 20168 St. Croix Tr. N., Scandia, 651-433-3311
Surly Darkness Day: The colossal brewery on the edge of both Cities celebrates its biggest bash of the year on October 3 with a jam-packed live music lineup, beer releases, and more surprises throughout the day in honor of its beloved Surly Darkness, an imperial stout that only comes out to play in the chillier months. 520 Malcolm Ave. SE, Mpls., 763-999-4040
Autumn Brew Review: Haven’t crowned your own personal Beer of Fall just yet? Head to Boom Island Park in Minneapolis on October 10 for unlimited beer, THC, NA, cider, and seltzer samples from local establishments—plus live music, artisan and shop pop-ups, food trucks, and more.
(P.S.: Looking for more orchards? Visit our list of favorites.) —Madison Bloomquist
Dining and Cooking