Our Story
Curt and Dawn Richter have been making wine on the home level since 2008.
It all started when Curt was brewing beer and Dawn asked him to make wine since she is not a fan of beer. Curt liked the process of making wine. They started to visit more wineries in Minnesota and got the idea of starting their own winery.
In 2012 they planted their first vineyard at Dawn’s mom’s house about 7 miles west of Long Prairie. 900 vines were planted that included La Crescent, Frontenac, Sabrevois, Marquette, Oseola Muscat, Frontenac Gris, Frontenac Blanc, King of the North, and Valiant.
In 2013 they purchased their land just south of Long Prairie on 210th Street and the winery building was built. In 2014 the vineyard at the winery started. It includes Petite Pearl, Marquette, Oseola Muscat, Itasca, Louise Swenson, and Prairie Star.
Curt and Dawn, along with their son, Jayden, were very excited to open their Tasting Room to the public in July of 2017. In November of 2018 they became even more busy and welcomed their baby girl, Arya. They would like to thank all their family and friends for all their hard work and support that went into making the winery dream possible.
One of the most common questions we are asked is of how we came up with our name, Dragon Willow Winery. Curt likes to joke that the name is a martial compromise. Most places are named after some landmark or region. Dragon Willow Winery is combination of Curt and Dawn as they have worked together of the years to make this dream a reality. Curt, being more of nerd in liking The Renaissance Festival, Game of Thrones, building and flying drones, and also doing IT for a living, he is the Dragon. Dawn, who grew up in the Long Prairie area on a farm, enjoys fishing and hunting, loves the outdoors, is the Willow. The Dragon Willow is an actual tree, however, we are too cold to grow it at the winery. They have planted some weeping willows around the property to tie it into their name.
