Last week Chuck and Kim Corliss took some time out of their very busy day to talk about their North Shore Winery business. They will put out 50,000 bottles of wine this year, nearly doubling their output from last year.
What can we do in Cook County that will be different and not compete with businesses that are already here and allow us to make a living?
That was the question on the minds of Kim and Chuck Corliss as they thought about making Cook County their full time home. Chuck had a ski pass at Lutsen Mountains for the last 33 years, and through the years Kim had been staying at Sea Villas on her visits to the county.
After stopping at Castle Danger on the way up the shore the couple noticed how well the brewery was doing. That got them to thinking. They both liked to make wine as a hobby. Maybe they could take it a step further and make that their business?
Sounds crazy, right? Look high and low and you won’t find a grape vineyard anywhere in Cook County.
Didn’t matter. Once the seed was planted, it wasn’t long before North Shore Winery came into existence. That was two years ago.
The first year Chuck and Kim Corliss produced 15,000 bottles of wine in their small winery on the Lutsen Ski Hill Road. The next year they expanded their wine making space and upped it to 30,000 bottles, and this year, they have hit their capacity with 50,000 bottles of red and white wine.
The addition of 20,000 bottles of wine caused the Corlisses to bring in Precision Wine Bottling, an automated system.
“Until this year we bottled all of the wine by hand,” said Kim. “But Precision can do in six days what it would take our small crew two months to do.”
Located in Kasota, Minnesota, Precision Bottling, a business of Chankaska Creek Winery in Kasota, Minnesota, is a neat mobile operation.
Precision Bottling manager Josie Boyle drove a large enclosed trailer up on Thursday, May 31. Inside the trailer were bottle filler, filtering, sparging, corking, and labeling equipment. “Our staff will unload the bottles onto the line that moves through the trailer,” Kim said, “and the finished product will come out the other end so we can load them back into boxes for storage.”
Where do the grapes come from?
Red grapes come from Lodi, California, while some of the white grapes come from Isanti, Minnesota as well as Waconia, Minnesota and also some white grapes come from California, Chuck said. Apples come from Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
Grapes come in 1,000- pound boxes and are mashed by a large press, which crushes and de-stems the grapes. When asked if they ever use the old foot-stomping method to mash up the grapes Chuck smiled and replied, “Yes. To make Syrah we stomp grapes and my feet turn purple.”
Red wine is aged for 8 to 20 months. White wine is fermented in wooden barrels for 3-8 months before bottled. Minnesota-grown apples are turned into hard cider in the Sawtooth Mountain Cider House.
When asked which wines sell best, Chuck and Kim looked at each other and Chuck replied, “sales are about even,” as Kim nodded her head yes, then added, “sales of cider are a bit higher because it is sold on tap in bars.”
Amazingly, almost all of their wine is sold in the county. “We have been well supported by area restaurants and bars who carry our products,” Kim said. “About two percent of sales are made online,” added Kim.
Red wine selections include Boundary Waters Blend, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Syrah, and Zinfandel. White wine selections are Borealis Blend, Caribou Blend, Cascade Blend and Riesling. Winter’s Spirit is a dessert wine and Celebration is a sparkling wine.
Four types of hard cider are fashioned at North Shore Winery, one, Herbie’s Blend, uses Caribou Creme Maple syrup in the ingredients, a local product produced just a few miles down the road in Lutsen.
As the business has grown so has the need for space. The place where the wine is stored is new. It is filled with five stainless steel jacketed tanks, a 10-barrel bright tank for making cider, and numerous smaller stainless steel tanks and holding vessels.
“Our barrel room has 64 French and American oak barrels,” said Kim. Next door, the wine tasting room can seat up to 75 people.
About three times a month the wine tasting room is used for parties or social gatherings. Six days a week the wine tasting room is open from noon to 7 p.m. with the exception of Thursday night—date night—when it is open to 9 p.m. The tasting room is closed Wednesdays.
Last year Chuck and Kim, who own a home across the road in The Heritage Townhomes, brought in Mary and Jeremy Hanson as co-partners. The Hansons, who are on vacation, also live in The Heritage.
Beside the owners there are three full-time and two full-time seasonal workers employed at North Shore Winery, plus one additional part-time worker.
As the Corlisses talked Jessie Boyle and a crew of three hard working men kept the bottles moving steadily down the conveyor through the steps that included adding nitrogen (keeps the wine fresh) then adding the wine, corking it and labeling the bottles as they came to the belt’s end and were placed in a box containing one dozen bottles.
“It might not seem possible but we are going to clean this place up and have a groom’s dinner in here tonight,” Kim said as we walked past a long table filled with bottling equipment in a room surrounded by wooden barrels filled with aging wine.
No, it didn’t seem possible with all that was going on that a groom’s dinner could be held there in a few hours, but then, it was no more impossible than turning a well-known northern Minnesota ski hill destination into wine country.
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