Eagles Landing Winery, Marquette,IA

We took a cruise down the Mississippi River to one of our favorite areas to visit and it landed us at Marquette,IA. Everyone knows that Marquette,IA is most famous for their pink elephant.

I know its really for the river boat casino Isle of Capri, but we like the elephant. The casino has a nice large dock to park at and it has electricity. We went there specifically to visit an Award Winning winery called the Eagles Landing Winery. It is only a short walk from the dock you park at to town where the winery is located. The winery is a family owned business that was started on the family farm in 1999. It has a 3 acre vineyard and grows ten varieties of red and white grapes and also gets honey locally from a place called the Yellow River Apiary and some quality fruits which allows the winery to make as many as 24 different wines from dry to dessert wines.

We were unfortunately too late to witness the harvest so we just visited their gift shop which also has a gazebo with tables for outdoor seating if you wish to purchase a bottle and want to enjoy it immediately and relax. The winery gift shop has a tasting room that seats up to 50 people and is free of charge. Each person gets a list of their wines and you can choose up to 5 different varieties to taste, being that there was 2 of us we got to try 10 different wines. We started with the dry and worked our way down to the dessert flavors and I will tell you one thing for sure we got a fast understanding as to why these are award winning wines, they are great. We are not fans of dry wines or very sweet wines so we mainly stayed in the semi-sweet area, and we chose 3 different types: Plumtastic(Beth's favorite), Mrs. Sippi(Troy's favorite), and Summer Crush.

The winery markets their wine under the label "Marquette Maid". The winery chose this name because it symbolizes Emma Big Bear who was the last Native American that was living an Indian life in the Marquette area and her home is preserved by Eagles Landing Winery and she is shown on every label as the face on the glass. There is also an Emma Big Bear Foundation that is a non-profit organization that promotes the memory of one of Marquette's most famous citizens. We provided a link to Emma Big Bear to learn about her life's history. We were also invited for a tour of their winery production area and it was a great experience.

We also learned that there is a wine trail called the Great River Road Wine Trail, it features 10 different wineries from the north you start at Cannon Falls,MN and work your way south to Marquette,IA. The only winery you can get to by boat is the Eagles Landing Winery but if you like wine and want to see all the different wineries here along the beautiful Upper Mississippi River Valley you can see a detailed map by clicking the link we provided and you can cruise by vehicle of your choosing and you will love the scenery as we do and get a full understanding as to why visiting the Upper Mississippi River Valley should be on everyone's vacation list. Be sure to check the open dates for all the wineries because not all wineries are open all year long. When you visit your first winery you get a brochure with all the wineries on it and each time you visit one you get a stamp on the brochure and when you collect all 10 you get a Great River Road Wine Trail glass. No purchase necessary.
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