In the News

The visit was part of a statewide agricultural tour that included ag experts from 20 different countries and the European Union.

Joe and Melanie Cihlar, founders of Rolling Forks Vineyards, were honored last Thursday as the recipients of the Pope County Salute to Business and Industry award given each year to a business or industry by the Glenwood Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Welcome Center and sponsors of the event.

Joe and Melanie Cihlar always knew they wanted to find a way to come back to the area and work in agriculture, and when the perfect property came up for sale, they soon called it home. They both grew up on family farms but lived in the Twin Cities. They began thinking of ways to diversify so they could farm something on smaller acreage. They landed on grapes.

“’Live Wide Open,’ to me, means community and fellowship and togetherness. When we lived down in the metro, it was a lot of hustle and bustle and here our kids can play outside, roam around, enjoy the things our outdoors have to offer. The schools are great. We just, we really, really enjoy living in this area.”

Hi Melanie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers. When I met my husband over 15 years ago, he was dabbling in home wine-making and grape growing. As time went on, it became clear that we wanted to move back to Joe’s hometown, Glenwood, MN, and get back to our agricultural roots – both of us coming from farming families. We lacked access to land for farming on a big scale, and decided that growing specialty crops would be the route we would take. As fate would have it, the farm site that had been Joe’s boyhood dream went up for sale a couple of months after we were engaged and the rest is history.

Joe & Melanie~ We're the Cihlars, founders of Rolling Forks Vineyards. Rolling Forks Winery has been a dream of ours since we first started dating in 2007. We got married, started a family of three boys and found the perfect location to make our dream a reality. Join us here to celebrate the love of good wine and great company amidst the beautiful rolling hills of Lake Minnewaska.