In the News

“’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.

Sip Local is more than a slogan at College City Beverage. We are privileged to distribute wine that has been grown and bottled in our area. These wineries not only offer a great selection of delicious wine, but they also use their expertise to create jobs and support the local economy. Rolling Forks Vineyard is a great example. Based in Glenwood, Minnesota, Rolling Forks offers the complete wine experience with tastings, dining, and a wine shop. They are only 25 minutes from Alexandria and 45 minutes from Willmar, but if that’s too far, you can find their bottles at your local liquor store!

With the challenges and turmoil of the past year, what’s been a bright spot for your organization? 2020 will be a year for the history books. Our business, like many, was tested in so many ways. Because we were a new business in 2020, we didn't qualify for much of the Covid relief money, so on top of being forced to close our winery for tastings and indoor dining during our winter months, we also didn't receive the funds that were supposed to off-set the closure. Thankfully, we had supportive customers and understanding bankers who helped get us through those difficult months. Because of that, we were able to make it out on the other side of the closures and mandates, and celebrate our one-year anniversary in July 2021. There is so much to celebrate!

Rolling Forks Vineyards is a beautiful vineyard in Glenwood, Minnesota. It's about 135 miles northwest of Minneapolis, or 70 miles west of St. Cloud. Tucked away into an area full of rolling hills of farmland, it is absolutely gorgeous.