The best red wine made from cold and hardy grapes in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Northern Vineyard’s are excellent examples of the wide variety of cold hardy red wine. St. Croix is a dry, barrel aged red wine made from the St. Croix grapes grown in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.  This wine is medium bodied and incredibly smooth, and is evocative of an earthy bonfire with notes of oak and smoke. In addition there are notes of leather, tobacco, pine, and a finish of black pepper.  The best red wine pairing for St. Croix is beef stew or red meat. St. Croix Reserve is a dry, barrel aged, red wine made from the St. Croix grape grown in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.  This wine is medium bodied and made from press run juice which gives it more tannin, giving the wine a fuller body. It has oak and smoke flavors with cherry and black current fruit hints.  Most similar to a Cabernet Sauvignon. Rivertown Red is a dry, barrel aged red wine made from Frontenac grapes grown in Minnesota. 

A juicy red with tomato aromas it has some tart cherry flavor with an oaky finish.  A good food pairing for Rivertown Red is with Italian red sauce and we recommend it with pizza. Downtown Red is a dry, barrel aged red made from the Marquette grape grown in Minnesota. A lighter juicy red it has flavors of blackberry and notes of oak, vanilla, and spice.  This wine pairs very well with Parmesan cheese. Minnesota Old Vines is a dry, full bodied red made from Marechal Foch grapes planted in 1976 in Welsh, MN.  With a bit of an oak flavor and some spice, which is rounded out with a strawberry jam finish.  This wine is most similar to a Shiraz and is our staff’s favorite red. 12.5% alcohol Currently Sold Out Main Street Red is a semisweet red blend made from unoaked Frontenac and barrel aged St. Croix grapes grown in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  This unique wine has an earthy start with prominent flavors of oak, and a smooth cherry finish. This wine can also be served chilled. 

Red is one of our house wines and is a semisweet, unoaked red made from the Sabrevois grape grown in Hudson, WI.  The wine is very smooth and fruit-forward with notes of plum and raspberry. It makes an excellent dinner wine for a diverse group of wine palates. THE FACTSPairing the right wine with a meal can round out flavors and stimulate conversation. But can it really help digest the meal, as suggested by a host of authorities through the ages, even the Bible? (“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake.”)Millenniums later, scientists are still working on that one. Some have found that alcoholic beverages speed the emptying of food from the stomach and stimulate gastric acid, while others maintain there is little effect. One study by German researchers, in the aptly named journal Gut, may explain the discrepancy: it found an effect from fermented drinks (wine, sherry and beer) but not from drinks that were fermented and distilled, like rum, cognac and whiskey.

“The alcoholic beverage constituents that stimulate gastric acid output and release of gastrin are most probably produced during the process of fermentation and removed during distillation,” they concluded.Other studies help explain why red wine and red meat pair so well. Protein softens the wine’s tannins, and red wine also helps counteract potentially harmful substances — oxidized fats called malonaldehydes, or MDA — released when meat is digested.A 2008 study found that a serving of dark meat from turkey elevated levels of the substance in subjects’ blood. top selling wine 2014But when they combined it with a glass of cabernet sauvignon or shiraz, the increase in MDA was “completely prevented.”font for wine bottleTHE BOTTOM LINEIn more ways than one, a glass of wine may aid digestion.sweet red wine oliver

Beef Medallions and Mushrooms in Red Wine Sauce Recipe by Charlotte J Do not over cook the meat. The Beef Industry has recently started cutting the ‘beef medallion cut’ in the last two years. It is the second best cut after the beef tenderloin. The tenderloin comes from the T-bone the small portion from inside the bone and the medallion comes from a shoulder cut. Top Review by Phoenix Wright This was simply amazing. I mixed cultures and made this with creamy asparagus risotto. It was to die for. The mushrooms were awesome! I used some Cabernet Sauvignon as the wine. If you are a wine lover, who enjoys drinking in moderation, it’s a good bet that you are enjoying good health as well. All the wine lovers I have met are usually in the pink of their health, irrespective of their age. These are people who enjoy sipping their wine, savoring its body and taste, they drink it moderation, more to enjoy its flavor than to get inebriated with it. Something told me wine was good for me, even as a youngster when I first tasted it.

I fell in love with the taste of wine with my first sip, and to later learn that it’s medically proven to have health benefits only improved my sense of wellness. There is something about wine that defines a sense of well-being. No wonder it’s a popular gift given around festivals. In several cultures it’s considered courteous to bring a bottle of wine over when you go to someone’s place for dinner. It’s rare to find people who don’t enjoy the taste of wine; even the relative non-drinkers like to have a glass of wine occasionally. The question being asked was whether wine is good for health? And much to the joy of wine drinkers, it’s been validated through several scientific studies that red wine has several health benefits when taken in moderation. In this article we will discuss the health benefits of drinking red wine in particular. White wine is known to be beneficial for health too, but is not as potent as red wine because white grapes have less anti-oxidant compounds than red grapes.

It has been found that red wine contains several anti-oxidant compounds called polyphenols, along with essential vitamins, minerals and sugars, that have a very positive effect on the physiological functions of the body. The presence of anti-oxidative polyphenols seems to curb the growth of three destructive bacteria namely – H.pylori, E.coli and Salmonella. These bacteria are known to cause several digestive malfunctions, and can result in diseases like stomach ulcer, diarrhea and other gastro-intestinal infections. You must remember that it’s the presence polyphenols in red wine that helps digestion, not the alcohol content. Alcohol does not necessarily have any beneficial effect on digestion, but can curb the digestive process when taken in excess. Also note that white wine is not as beneficial as red wine when it comes to helping with digestion. This way red wine also helps in losing weight. Many fried foods, and food products manufactured for long-time storage, contain damaging compounds called the – lipid hydroperoxides (LOOH) and malonaldehydes (MDA).

These compounds can cause several digestive issues, and are toxic to the body in general. Studies have indicated that drinking red wine, with such foods, helps neutralize the LOOH and MDA compounds in the food by up to 60-70%, thus making the food more wholesome for digestion. If you like to eat red meat, you will find that drinking red wine with it helps you digest the meat better. It’s has been found that red meat, and some other non-vegetarian foods, have the capacity to release some harmful chemicals in the digestive tract during digestion. Red wine has the tendency to neutralize these harmful chemicals before they can do any harm to the body. This capacity to neutralize toxins comes from the presence of beneficial polyphenols in the red wine. Red wine helps regulate the cholesterol levels in the blood, by reducing the low density lipo protein (bad cholesterol) and increasing the high density lipo protein (good cholesterol). It has been studied that drinking wine in moderation helps prevent the formation of plague, or blockage, along the arteries and thus protects against cardiovascular diseases and conditions such as coronary atherosclerosis.

A research conducted in by University of East Anglia and Harvard University, suggests that drinking red wine in moderation can help treat impotence. Red wine is a mild sedative and can help people with nervous disorders, or those who suffer from anxiety and stress. It can also help you sleep better, when taken in moderation. A study conducted by Harvard Medical School discovered that resveratrol present in red wine activates a protein which promotes health and longevity. It has also been noted that resveratrol can help prevent a host of aging related diseases in humans. It has been found that the presence of anti-oxidative compounds in red wine can help prevent cancer formation, by neutralizing dangerous free radicals in the body. A glass of red wine contains close 100 calories, and there is no such thing as a diet wine; so red wine for weight loss is not really a reality, but as mentioned above, red wine is excellent for controlling your blood cholesterol levels and protects you from the hazardous effects of “fried” foods.

Who hasn’t heard of the “French Paradox”? The French are notorious for their consumption of food rich in fat content but have reported very low rates of coronary disease, and in fact are known to be a very healthful community. The secret to their health was found to be their habit of drinking red wine on daily basis. The role of red wine in aiding digestion is in itself a big plus point, but that’s not all. There are several other benefits of drinking wine, in moderation, owing to the presence of compounds like resveratrol and anti-oxidative polypenols. Red wine has been known to be a medical aid to the body even back in the ancient ages. Hippocrates, who lived around 450 B.C, is known to have documented the use of red wine for several curative purposes including treatment of digestive disorders and as a diuretic. It’s great to have such a delicious beverage be a healthy addition to our diet. I for one needed no scientific evidence to prove the health benefits of red wine.