Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Ledermann.
Hi Katie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My Grandparents, Florian and Aggie Ledermann, purchased 95 acres of farm land from my Grandpa’s brother in 1999. My Grandpa was anticipating his retirement from Veterinary medicine and needed something to do. He converted the farm land to restored native prairie, and in 2006 planted an acre of grape vines. He continued to plant grapes, started making his own wine, and became licensed in 2012.
During this time, I met my husband at the University of MN, Morris and we started helping at some events at the vineyard with my Grandpa and with harvests. We both love working with our hands and outside and thought he had something very special happening at the vineyard that we could help share with others. In the summer of 2018, we came for an “apprenticeship” and we never left.
Over the next five years, we learned how to grow grapes and make wine alongside my grandpa and started to grow a business. We started a sourdough wood-fired pizza night that became very popular. We renovated spaces, added more outdoor seating, and learned a lot about wine making. In 2023, we purchased the business from my grandpa, but continue to work with him.
We have a very unique property that people enjoy coming to and relaxing among the vines. We have 2+ miles of walking trails through the native prairie, ponds, and vines. We are growing, but still operate a small, family business. We are only open seasonally, Memorial Day Weekend through September. We, the owners, are also the grape growers, wine makers, pizza makers, and even the bathroom cleaners. We are only open Thursday-Saturdays and only make 70 pizzas per night and we sold out nearly all 45 nights this summer. Alongside the sourdough pizza, you can enjoy 12 different estate grown wines and a couple craft beers from a nearby brewery. One awesome accomplishment this year is that our wine won the Governor’s Cup at this year’s International Cold Climate Wine Competition. We also have a two year old son who has an amazing place to grow up!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Growing a business as young people for sure has its challenges. We did not come in with any money as this was our first job our of college, so we had to be smart about how we grew our business. We have always worked jobs outside of the winery, too, which has helped so that we could put our profits from the winery back into the business for improvements and growth.
Other challenges have included poor weather years, like late frosts that have killed the vines and left us without a crop for the year. We have also made our share of wine making mistakes, which can be costly, but also great teaching moments.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
– We are a small, family owned and operated vineyard and winery located near Brandon (12 miles from Alexandria), overlooking Burr lake, and nestled within rolling hills of a 95 acre property.
– We specialize in hand-crafted, warm-hearted wines derived from the cold-hardy grapes grown right on site in a simple and traditional wine making style.
– We make homemade sourdough pizza crust with a 20 hour fermentation process and bake it in an 850 degree wood-fired oven.
– We pride ourselves in being one of the smallest wineries in the state, allowing us to truly focus on quality of the grapes in the vineyard, and offer a unique family feel in the tasting room.
– We have limited hours as we balance growing grapes, tending to the land, serving guests, and raising our baby, too!
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
The uniqueness of our property and the ambiance of our pizza nights have set us apart. The reason we are so successful is because we have customers who return every week to enjoy pizza nights. Because of the amount of returning guests, we have been able to get to know a lot of our customers and they get to know each other, which creates such a unique feel. We also operate without servers and people are free to stay and relax for as long as they would like! People spend hours enjoying pizza and a bottle of wine while sitting along the vineyards and watching the chickens stroll about.
We also have been working hard to make this all possible. We hardly take a day off during the winery season for the last nine years as nothing ever stops growing! We are also lucky that our family is willing to help make this possible.
Lastly, we know that our size benefits us because of our quality control. We are able to make the wine that we want because we are the ones who also grow the grapes and control the quality in all aspects of our business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://burrvineyards.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burrvineyards/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=burr%20vineyards
