Our Wines

These are the wines made from fruit (not grapes) and “prairie berries,” as Sandi’s great-great-grandmother dubbed them–chokecherries, buffaloberries, wild plums.

They’re some of our favorites because they’re so uniquely South Dakotan.

Many of our wines are made from fruit that grows wild in South Dakota, in canyons, road ditches, and creek banks.

We get some of our fruits from small, family farms, or from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We know the names of all of our fruit providers. And the names of their kids.

Nearly all of the fruit we use is hand-picked. We couldn’t do what we do without a lot of hard-working South Dakotans.

From Cabernet to Zinfandel, Frontenac to LaCrescent, these are the wines that traditional wine-lovers love.

Our favorite grapes are the ones that have been developed to withstand the frigid temperatures, the drought, the heat and the unpredictability of South Dakota’s climate.

Our partner at family-owned Lewis & Clark Vineyard, near Yankton, S.D., grows Frontenac, Brianna, St. Pepin, LaCrescent, and Frontenac Gris grapes for us.

More traditional varieties—Merlot, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Cabernet, Concord—don’t like our South Dakota summers or winters, so we have to bring them in from friendlier climates.

Whether the grapes are from Yankton or California, every drop of wine is made right here near Hill City, by our fifth-generation South Dakota winemaker.

In the simplest of terms, a wine with “Fusion” in its name means all the fruit in the wine was co-fermented. Prairie Berry has released many Fusion wines over the years.

Just as layers of paint influence each other on a canvas to create a final painted picture, different fruits in fusion wines co-ferment to create new flavors and textures.

When setting out to make a Fusion wine, Sandi, lets her senses guide the process. For example, she says the smell and taste of Merlot grapes fermenting has always reminded her of black raspberries.

Co-fermenting black raspberries with Merlot grapes made this feeling stick and from that experiment our Black Raspberry Fusion wine was born.

The fun of fusions is that they allow our winemaker to experiment with new flavors and textures. But the best part, of course, is sharing the final creations with you!