4e Winery

Quality products, born of the prairie

Sangria

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If you have come looking for our signature sangria recipes, you have come to the right place. Enjoy.

SUMMER SANGRIA

1 bottle 4e Winery Rail Line Red
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lemonade
1/2 cup lemon lime soda
1/4 cup sugar (to taste)

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Garnish with slices of lemon and orange and serve over ice.

WINTER SOLSTICE SANGRIA

1 batch of Summer Sangria (without the soda)
Spices: 1-2 cinnamon sticks, 3-4 cloves, 3-4 cardamom pods. You may adjust these spices to your taste. You may also use a commercial spice mix made for mulling hot apple cider.

Combine all ingredients and bring to a very low simmer in a kettle or crock pot. Do not boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes or longer to let the spices infuse into the wine. Serve warm.

PRAIRIE PEACH SANGRIA

1 bottle 4e Winery Prairie Star
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lemonade
1/2 cup peach mango juice
1/2 cup lemon lime soda
1/4 cup sugar (to taste)

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Garnish with slices of peach and serve over ice.

4e Winery featured on WDAY

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WDAY showcased 4e Winery in a segment on March 6.

What started as a hobby for a local couple has turned into much more: a winery

Fargo, ND (WDAY/WDAZ TV) – What started as a hobby… has now turned into much more.

The second season of “4-E Winery” near Mapleton kicks off April 16th.

Barely a mile off of Interstate-94, you’ll find this historic Bonanaza farm.

“We get to welcome people to this wonderful little piece of the prairie,” said Lisa Cook.

Lisa and Greg Cook bought the farm a few years back and after renovations and additions, the couple turned this old 20th century farmstead into a winery.

Now it’s called the 4E winery to represent the four elements. Owners say they just want to get people back to their natural roots.

“What we need to do is educate people of North Dakota of its wines and how good they can be,” said Lisa.

Lisa and Greg have been making home-brew wines for more than 20 years.

Greg, who is a chemist at NDSU, says he has always been interested in how wines are made.

“I realized early on that its more art than chemistry in the wine cause it’s a natural living beverage,” said Greg.

4e Winery uses all natural ingredients in their 14-different styles of wine.

Some are hybrid grapes bred for cold climates, others are local berries and rhubarb.

“Now it’s not going to be chardonnay, we can’t grow those or Merlot grapes, but we can grow grapes that grow really well here and they are going to have that taste of the North Dakota prairie,” said Lisa.

Grapes are planted, picked, and then fermented for months.

The wine is transferred from tank to tank throughout the winter, to remove unwanted sediments.

Then, one of the final touches, adding any necessary sweetener.

“Then it’s filtered and bottled, all by hand,” said Greg.

The bottling will continue all throughout the summer, as some of the wines still need to finish fermenting.

The wine can then be purchased through the 4e’s tasting room, which is open every Thursday through Sunday, starting on April 16th.

“It’s more about the experience than it is necessarily the wine, you’re tasting what was grown and produced by hand right here,” said Greg.

The winery also hosts special events like tours and bachelorette parties.

Grape Crush 2015

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grape-crush-2015-2

FRIDAY ~ 5:00 pm
Saturday ~ 3:00 pm

We can’t tell you how absolutely excited – and nervous – we are to be getting our hands on locally grown grapes for the first time. Twelve thousand pounds of carefully nurtured and lovingly tended grapes are being picked at their peak of ripeness in Erskine, Minnesota and delivered to 4e Winery in two loads on October 2 and 3. These will be crushed, pressed and fermented to make next year’s wines.

We could use some help. The red wine grapes need to be crushed and put into fermenters. The white and rose wines need to be pressed and their juice put into tanks for fermentation. This is all done by hand one bucket at a time, one press at a time. No, we won’t be stomping grapes in a tub, but we will need help moving grapes and juice. So if you can pick up and carry somewhat heavy buckets of grapes and juice, we would welcome your assistance.

We are going to make a working party out of it. We anticipate the grapes arriving Friday between 5-6 and Saturday in mid afternoon.. We plan to work until the job is done. But we will break for dinner. We’ll feed you and of course there will be plenty of drinks and fun.

Dress for work – you will want to wear clothes that you don’t mind getting stained with grape juice.

 

PLEASE RSVP so we can plan for food and drink.

Thank you – see you at Grape Crush 2015!