Today we’d like to introduce you to Irving Geary.
Hi Irving, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started making wine as a hobby in 1998. It progressed to using local grapes and then to starting my vineyard in 2003 just outside of North Branch. This vineyard sold to local wineries as well as fueled my hobby and quite frankly led to my interest in starting a commercial winery. In 2010, I helped start Wild Mt Winery in Taylors Falls MN. I was the head winemaker there until the end of 2016 when I went back to grape growing and working as a consultant to other wineries and vineyards. In 2018, I was introduced to the owner of the Chateau St. Croix and began negotiations.
I purchased the Chateau in June of that year with a business partner to make the best wine in the upper Midwest. The Chateau had a history of making great port wines so I expanded my skills to include port production. With the purchase of the Chateau, I also took over the lease on a second vineyard in Lindstrom MN as well as replanted the vineyards at the winery to bring our total vine count to just over 8000 producing cold climate hybrids. We utilize UM, Swenson, Plocher, and French hybrids in our vineyards with a total of ten different varietals.
Beyond these vineyards, we purchase grapes from several local growers as well as West Coast growers. Our wine production runs from 10000-14000 gallons per year and consists of approximately 2/3 local fruit and 1/3 west coast fruit. In the cellar, all of the whites and roses are stainless steel fermented and aged while all of the reds and ports are barrel aged from between 12-36 months with ports going out to ten years. My goal of producing world-class wines in the St. Croix River Valley is starting to become recognized with the recent Gold Medals at the East Meets West wine competition where my Thoroughbred Red scored a 90 and my Chateau Dry Rose’ scored a 93. This makes nine wines in the past couple of years to score 90+ points.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Nothing in grape growing and winemaking is smooth. When I started I had a buddy who had the adjoining acreage. He and I were going to just grow grapes. We had several acres planted when he moved to Australia. I ended up pulling out half of that vineyard as it was too big for me to manage by myself. As I learned how to make commercial wine, I did it by reading textbooks and articles as well as going to weekend courses and seminars.
This is probably the most difficult path one can take, but I had a full-time job, and a family and was unable to go out of state for classes. As such my education took many years and many harvests to find the combinations that worked with our local grapes. In 2016, I decided it was time to part ways with my first winery which was very difficult to do. I had a lot of time and effort invested there but it was the right thing to do. It renewed my passion for working with the vines and relearning that truly great wine is made in the vineyards. Right after we bought the Chateau St. Croix, COVID hit which was quite scary from a business standpoint.
We had to adjust and figure out how to do wine shipping on the fly. Like so many things with making wine and growing grapes, we had to learn as we went and create creative solutions to the problem. All things considered, we did better than many over the COVID years by always thinking outside the box.
And then there’s Mother Nature. She has a cruel sense of humor. After the 2018 great harvest, we had one of the worst polar vortexes which was very hard on our vineyards killing many vines to the ground. Likewise, this past summer we had a wonderful first crop on our estate vines, and then on July 27, we had tennis ball-sized hail wipe us out. Thankfully, we have our vineyards spaced into different towns so had good harvests there. At the end of the day, it’s all farming which is a risky business.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I set my standards for wine to be good or great. If my wine is neither good nor great, I won’t put it in a bottle. I want the Chateau to be known for its high quality which is starting to become a reality. I have people visit weekly and tell me they had given up on local wines but were impressed with ours. Further, our wines are scoring Gold Medals and 90+ scores from wine competitions from around the country. Ironically, wine critics in New York and San Francisco like our wines more than some local wine professionals. I specialize in making big, bold red wines as well as top-notch ports.
I recently have come into creating some new white blends that have taken off and are becoming quite popular. I think what sets me apart or makes me unique is that I blend my local grapes with West Coast grapes to create a brand-new profile that is becoming popular. An example of this is my Chardonnay which has local Frontenac Blanc blended into it. It took a Platinum and scored a 94 at the SOMM Challenge last fall beating all Chardonnays from Napa.
Likewise, we are making world-class ports from our local grapes. The key to a top-notch port is aging. I age my port a minimum of 3 years for the white port. Two years ago it went to the San Francisco Chronicle and beat all ports from California. To which I tell people, the effort shows in the bottle.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Growing and creating world-class wines is just part of the equation. You must also give people a reason to come visit your winery which is why we have created the Chateau as a true event destination. We have expanded our food options to include top-notch brisket and pulled pork smoked right at the winery.
Our meats and cheeses are all local from world-renowned Louie’s Finer Meats and Burnette Dairy. Further, our music lineup is expanding to include artists like Tony Andreason and Charlie Parr. People come for the wine but stay for the food and entertainment.
Pricing:
- Entry-level wines are sub $20
- Upper-end wines are $50
- Foods from $7-$29
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chateaustcroix.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chateaustcroix
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irving-geary-4576133a/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@user-yv3qy1fl8h/featured
