On April 17, 2002 the Pointe of View Winery was approved by the ATF as bonded winery BW-ND-1, making Pointe of View Winery the first federally bonded winery in North Dakota, the last state in the union to have one.

 

Ken, Cindy, Diana and Jeff

 

The Pointe of View Winery is a small 2 family operation; Jeff & Diana Peterson and Ken & Cindy Eggleston. We’ve enjoyed making wine on an amateur level since 1987 and now we’d like to share our craft with other wine enthusiasts.

First, a little history; One day sometime in 1986, Jeff was telling Ken that he had gotten interested in winemaking. Ken was fascinated and borrowed an old winemaker's book from Jeff. The two guys experimented with various winemaking techniques and made wine from many different fruits and juices. They and their wives (Diana and Cindy) would get together on Friday nights to compare notes and sample their creations. After years of honing their winemaking skills, Jeff said "Hey, let's make my 4-stall garage into a winery". Ken thought about this for several seconds and said "Well...OK"

So, two stalls of the garage were converted into production area, one became a tasting room, and one a barrel room and finished wine storage area. Incidentally, if I (Ken) become trapped in a blizzard, this is the room in which I wish to be trapped.

We somehow managed to convince our wives that winemaking was fun, and then talked them into doing all the really hard work. This is Cindy cranking on the old screw-press before we upgraded to a hydraulic model. Cindy is now our full-time wine lady and serves many samples in our tasting room.

In the beginning we used alot of primative equipment; A three position siphon bottler, a back-breaking screw-press, cartridge filters, and this heat gun for shrinkable capsules. Diana decided to dress up for this formal event.

Jeff appears to be enjoying his work in this shot. But then, maybe it's the wine.

A labor-intensive messy job that pays off in the tasting room.
One of the not-so-glorious parts of winemaking.
Jeff calls this photo the "Chariots of Fire" moment.