Max smiles as he tells the story now, looking over his 15 acres and nearly 6,000 healthy plants loaded down with quickly-ripening grapes. Which isn't to be confused with zero work. There's a lot of that, and Max and his son Rob are the entire staff. But physical work is a wonderful stress reliever, he says. Max Rittgers pours up a sample of Dakotah wine.
Visitors can get a free taste of any of the wines or grape juice.
On the porch of the large showroom is an old plow that was used by four generations of his family in Iowa and South Dakota. Max never expected to make his living from the soil. It's just offering a little different product than typically grown around here. The father and son have also taken a different approach to their farming - they don't use pesticides. Max explained the muscadine grapes are grown because they are a Florida native grape and resistant to the diseases that plague many of the imported varieties.