Alexis Bailly Vineyard, Minnesota’s oldest winery, lies in the lush Upper Mississippi River Valley. Founded in 1973, this small family-owned vineyard and winery near Hastings has won national acclaim for its table wines, thus earning Minnesota unlikely fame in in the wine drinking world.Nan has been the winemaker at Alexis Bailly Vineyard for 35 years, starting with her apprenticeship in the Loire Valley in France where she first learned her craft. Her winemaking experiences have been honed by stints in the Cotes du Rhone of southern France and in the Finger Lakes of upstate New York, all leading back to Minnesota where she carries on the romantic notion of making wines in the world’s most difficult wine making region.