The Vintage & Handmade Market 
We’ve already established that decent wine can come from about anywhere. It’s made in every state and on every continent except Antarctica; a Houston manufacturer even offers its fare to astronauts at a discount. If that catches on (and NASA is reportedly girding for internal deregulation amid upcoming budget cuts), who knows what future sales might bring. “The sky’s the limit” could well fade into obscurity. And that would be a extremely good thing.
For now, though, a guy in Duluth is content to dabble in his own take on vintnering. As a matter of fact, his core ingredient depends on a limitless sky for its survival. Ray Reigstad makes his wine from worms—more specifically, army worms, maybe better known to y’all as forest tent caterpillars. They travel in packs, look like little green snakes and infest tree bark in northern climes, scarfing leaves to supplement their diet of assorted fruit. Reigstad says their eating habits pretty much nail down the flower and fruit components of good wine—they’re ripest on the sunniest days in mid-June, when Reigstad gathers them by the gallon, boils them to death, extracts the liquid and adds fruit to taste. Reigstad considers this a white wine and makes it at a place he calls the RNR Estate Winery.
One tiny problem: Reigstad can’t legally sell his beverage, so if you’re curious, a trip to Duluth is about the easiest tasting option. You might want a T-shirt in support of his venture, however—one is available, along with lots more info, at www.armywormwine.com. And who knows—maybe the experience will give you a few ideas of your own. Marijuana, after all, is California’s largest cash crop, and it didn’t get that way without its merchants’ ingenuity.
Write to marty@edarts.info and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
