We were lucky to catch up with Melanie Cihlar recently and have shared our conversation below.

Melanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Rolling Forks Vineyards was co-founded by my husband Joe and me. We both were born into farming families and had been living in the Twin Cities metro area when we met. We knew that someday we wanted to get back to the more rural parts of the state when fate would have it and Joe’s boyhood dream farm went up for sale shortly after we were engaged. In order to be farmers on a small amount of acres, we had to choose a specialty crop to make it all cashflow. We could have picked anything, but we decided to grow grapes. The University of Minnesota was developing and releasing new grape varieties that were meant to grow in our climate with our cold winters and beautiful summers, and the property was hilly and perfect for growing grapes. Joe’s background was in setting up manufacturing lines and I had many years of experience in retail, so the natural progression from growing grapes was to move into the wine business.

After growing grapes and selling them to commercial wineries, we broke ground on Rolling Forks Vineyards in 2019 and opened our doors during the COVID pandemic in July of 2020. Through that experience we were forced to be adaptive and creative! But we made it to the other side and are now beginning our 4th summer.

We currently offer 13 different wines, with 95% of our fruit grown right here in our home county. We grow 18 acres of hybridized grapes on two different sites and craft them into delicious wines that people enjoy here on our property or at their home with friends or family. Our wines can be found here at the winery, on our website www.rollingforksvineyards.com, or in over 100 retail locations here in MN.

Our winery overlooks the beautiful Lake Minnewaska just a few short miles outside of Glenwood, MN, Joe’s hometown. We have an outdoor patio that seats over 150 people that people have come to love. It’s peaceful, relaxing, and the sunsets are unforgettable.

We have 3 young boys Henry (11), Vincent (9), and Oliver (6) who help out around here when they are able, and we employ over 35 people during the busy summer season.

And although our winery is relatively young, we have received some accolades from international wine competitions that we are very proud of including double-gold medals on our 2020 Marquette and La Crescent wines from the San Fransico Chronicle Wine Competition, Best of Show Rose’ for our 2019 Blush from the International Cold Climate Wine Competition, and a Platinum award for our 2021 Ruby Rhubarb.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

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 three-year anniversary in July 2023. There is so much to celebrate!

One key takeaway was the community we live in is amazing! People in Glenwood and the surrounding area are generous and supportive. We are also so thankful for our local bank and their willingness to work with us through the ever-changing mandates — they were always in our corner and wanted to do what they could to help us succeed.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Our families were always really involved in helping us establishing our vineyards and listening to our dream of opening a winery someday. In 2017 my dad was diagnosed with triple-hit Lymphoma and spent 9 months of that year in the hospital undergoing multiple rounds of chemotherapy in Sioux Falls, SD and then a full stem-cell transplant at the Mayo Clinic. It was through that experience when Joe and I decided it was either now or never with the winery. With how involved my dad was in all of this we decided to go both feet in and have our families be a part of the 2nd phase of the dream and watch us breathe life into the winery dream.

In our business and our marriage, Joe handles the outside work and maintenance, and I take care of the inside work and the money. So, it was my responsibility to work on the business plan and figure out how we were going to make this happen. I worked for MONTHS to put together our business plan, met with our local Small Business Development Center to help with putting together business projections, wrote an extensive marketing plan, and put it together in a 3-inch 3-ring binder.

We live in a smaller community – roughly 2,500 people, so everyone knows pretty much everyone. I’m not a local so some people were still not real familiar with who I was. But when I was ready and confident, I walked into our local bank and asked to talk to the president (as if I had any clout), but he was unavailable. I was put in touch with a commercial banker and set this very large binder on his desk and told him that we wanted to open a winery, talked about our story a bit and told him everything he needed to know (or didn’t need to know) was in that binder. To this day I’m not sure he ever had a chance to read through the whole thing, but I think it worked out. We received a small business loan through SBA in conjunction with financing through our local bank.

One thing Joe and I are really proud of is that we do not have any outside investors. It’s just him and I, and the bank of course. This allows us to make decisions quickly and re-invest our dollars back into the business in areas that we feel are important. We knew going into this, that the winery was a long-term investment and would require a bit of sacrifice, but we are really excited to see what the future brings to our family and our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rollingforksvineyards.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rollingforksvineyards/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rollingforksvineyards
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rolling-forks-vineyards-glenwood
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@rollingforksvineyards

Image Credits
Stacy Kron Photography Thuen Studios