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HILL CITY | Prairie Berry Winery and Miner Brewing Co. Tuesday announced the death of co-founder Ralph Vojta, who died last Thursday following a battle with cancer. He was 81.

Vojta grew up picking wild “prairie berries” with his grandmother in Mound City, according to a release from the company. There he learned his family’s tradition of winemaking, handed down from his great-grandmother, Anna Pesä, who arrived in the Dakota Territory from the Czech Republic in 1876.

The entrepreneur began experimenting with winemaking in his Mobridge basement. In 1998, he and his daughter, Sandi Vojta, and her husband, Matt Keck, turned the family winery into a commercial venture. Prairie Berry Winery became South Dakota’s second commercial winery.

The business moved to its current Hill City location in 2004. In 2013, the “three amigos” as they were called, opened Miner Brewing Co. in Hill City. A year later, Prairie Berry East Bank in Sioux Falls opened, the release stated.

“My dad’s inspiration will live on through our wine and beer,” Sandi said in the release. “Dad made sure our family’s traditions were passed down and without it our company wouldn’t be where it is today.”