What I did with my summer VISITING 39 MINNESOTA WINERIES Randy Gutzmann rwgutz@aol.com 651.261.0028
2016 USDA Specialty Crop Grant Annual grant to promote specialty crops- grapes, fruits and honey, grown for commercial wine making MN Farm Wineries Grant request made on behalf of Minnesota Farm Winery Association State Department of Ag, after their review, submits all applications to the USDA
Minnesota Department of Agriculture/Minnesota Grown recommended we apply after our 2015 promotion MN Wine Escapes Minnesota Farm Winery Association $2,500 cash Explore Minnesota Tourism $20,000 trade & cash Minnesota Grown $5,000 cash
2015 MN Wine Escapes Minnesota Farm Winery Association 1. Promote MN wineries as points of destination for travel and gathering, statewide and within regions of MN 2. Promote purchases of wine from the winery s tasting room and in conjunction with winery events
from the Wine Escapes page at www.exploreminnesota.com There s been amazing growth in the number of vineyards and wineries in Minnesota since they first opened in 1978. Check for tours, food and wine pairings and other special events, including live music, festivals and grape stomps during harvest. http://www.exploreminnesota.com/travel-topics/minnesota-wine-escapes/
2015 MN Wine Escapes Minnesota Farm Winery Association The program included a contest asking visitors to the site to submit an application, with contact information for later use, to win one of two MN Winery Weekends -Stillwater & Northern Vineyards -Alexandria & Carlos Creek Winery
2015 MN Wine Escapes Minnesota Farm Winery Association 4,100 Total Opt-ins name/address 6,526 Total Entries EMT e-mail 199,576 sent 47,283 opened open rate: 23.70% (Excellent!) Email clicks thrus: 9,659 CTR: 4.84% of total sends 20.43% of total opens
2015 MN Wine Escapes Minnesota Farm Winery Association March 2015-March 2016 13,435 Pageviews Peak months (May-Oct 2015) The majority of views were organically produced people were conducting searches for MN WINE ESCAPES on Google.
2016 USDA Specialty Crop Grant Minnesota Farm Winery Association Unable to meet EMT funding request and request for 20 Wine Weekends in 2016 (opportunity is there to partner again) -Listing at exploreminnesota.com is free -Minnesota Grown also hosts a winery listing http://minnesotagrown.com/product/wineries/
2016 USDA Specialty Crop Grant Minnesota Farm Winery Association Bellmont Partners Public Relations -Tell the Minnesota wine story to a larger consumer audience by increasing the energy and reach of the existing assets of the Minnesota Farm Winery Association
2016 USDA Specialty Crop Grant Minnesota Farm Winery Association MFEA website and Facebook page www.mnwine.org
2016 USDA Specialty Crop Grant Minnesota Farm Winery Association February to October 2016 website activity 18,000+ plus visits, 2,028 visits/month 78% increase in sessions, 4,200+ more website visits from 2015 42,400+ pageviews, 77% increase an additional 9,700+ pageviews over 2015 analytics.
2016 USDA Specialty Crop Grant Minnesota Farm Winery Association Eight Annual Celebration of Minnesota s best Wine, Food and Beer Saturday, April 29, 2017 Canterbury Park Event Center, Shakopee, MN
2016 USDA Specialty Crop Grant Minnesota Farm Winery Association More than 120 media mentions and more than 23 million impressions highlighting the quality of Minnesota wine and the happenings of the Minnesota wine industry
2016 USDA Specialty Crop Grant Minnesota Farm Winery Association 4/12/2016 Pioneer Press 26,678 Eat, drink and Savor Minnesota at annual event 4/14/2016 WCCO Online 926,572 Working For The Weekend: Records, Wine & The Farmers Market 4/14/2016 Echo Press 858 Carlos Creek Winery to participate in Savor Minnesota 4/15/2016 Mpls.St.Paul Magazine 3,090 Death and Taxes The Feed The Best of the Twin Cities Mpls.St.Paul Magazine 4/15/2016 WCCO Online 926,572 Sample At Savor Minnesota 4/16/2016 WCCO Online 926,572 WCCO Saturday Morning Links (April 16) 4/16/2016 WCCO Online 926,572 4 Things To Do For April 16
You are going to travel on gravel roads when visiting most MN wineries
Dawn and Bruce Rohl Aspelund Winery Kenyon High Country Spice Wine made from organically grown heirloom tomatoes sun ripen on the vine
The Winter Family Indian Island Winery-Winterhaven Vineyard & Nursery Janesville
The Peterson Family Winehaven Winery and Vineyard Chicago City
Aaron and Ashley Schram Schram Vineyards Winery and Brewery Waconia
Britta, Andy and Krista Kopperud Painted Prairie Vineyard Currie Sylvester the vineyard cat
Mike and Ann Tessneer North Folk Winery Harris
Linda and Marvin Seppanen Garvin Height Vineyard Winona Linda is the MNFWA President
Kim and Tami Bredeson Carlos Creek Winery Alexandria Tami is the MNFWA Treasurer
Mary and David Mohn Flower Valley Vineyard Red Wing Mary is the MNFWA Secretary
Penny Aquirre Richwood Winery John Wildmo, Kristin & Steve Twait Forestedge Winery
Robin Partch Northern Vineyards Jenny and Scott Ellenbecker Round lake Vineyards and Winery