Art of the Vine

“This is city girl meets country boy,” quipped Cheri Peterson, pointing a finger between herself and her husband, Kevin. However, such a coupling can work swimmingly when the pair gets to share a sophisticated yet bucolic life as owners and operators of the WineHaven Winery and Vineyard, outside Chisago City. The Peterson partnership, which manages to be simultaneously complementary and polar, works like this: Cheri, born on the East Side of St. Paul to world-traveler parents, loves art and functions as the winery’s hostess and curator; Kevin, on the other hand, is a Chisago City native and veteran beekeeper who now spends much of his time working the Peterson’s fifteen acres of six vineyards (he and son Kyle share the “winemaker” title). Cheri’s prized possessions include the painstakingly detailed, grape-patterned quilt from Pennsylvania’s Amish country; a custom-made wrought-iron trellis; a collection of wine-themed paintings on display to the public in the tasting room; and her brand-new trio of bronze deer sculptures, which were commissioned from the Napa Valley artist Miles Metzger and now welcome visitors to the Peterson’s Deer Garden vineyard. Although Kevin plenty appreciates Cheri’s art collection, his taste tends toward utilitarian and agrarian objects such as a vintage bee smoker (used to distract the workers while humans steal their honey) and especially the expensive Kubota tractor he recently picked up, but only after trading in a forklift and his ’40 Ford pickup.