They can grow grapes in South Dakota? Really!!!

You wouldn’t even know you changed states when you cross from North Dakota to South Dakota.  The scenery is the same, lots of corn that is drying up and sunflowers.  We found a winery that will allow us to spend the night if we will taste their wines!  Yep, we are in and we brought the Garvey’s with us!  You might ask, Wine from South Dakota?  Do grapes grow in the snow?  ChrisaMari winery is owned by  Randy and Nita who are fulfilling Randy’s dream of being able to work the land and do something he loves.  Nita supports him and helps him in his dream everyday!!!

ChrisaMari Winery

Two RV’s show up on a Friday night.  Randy & Nita meet us and invite us to sample many of the wines they are producing or experimenting with.  The most unusual was the coffee wine.  It was wine but definitely tasted like coffee.  Not my favorite but then I am partial to Starbucks!

Well do you like?

Of course we bought a couple bottles!

We learned a lot from Randy who has definitely developed a passion for sharing his love of wine making.  He takes very hard to grow grapes, fights freezing winters, experiences 2 years without a crop because of spring hail storms and makes wines he is truly proud of.  They are definitely not California wines but then as he says “California is a perfect wine growing region.  They have the perfect weather, perfect climate and perfect soil.  They better be making perfect wines”    We enjoyed our stay at ChrisaMari, enjoyed a very cool evening storm and moved on to Rapid City the next day.  We will enjoy the wines we bought along the way and remember our evening at the winery in South Dakota.

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