Living Wisconsin, Drinking Wisconsin.
For better or for worse, I recently made the decision to follow my boyfriend to Wisconsin for his job. Having never before lived outside the state of Washington, I knew I was in for a wake up call. I have been very blessed to have access to all of the fantastic wines being grown in Washington and I knew I would soon miss them. Thankfully, I was able to continue in my position with American Winery and my ongoing education in wine is persevering.
Before the big move, I did my research and found out that Wisconsin, home of beer giant Miller Brewing Company, is also the source of 47 wineries!
With a number of fruit wines, and a good mix of varietal wines at my disposal, I was excited to absorb more wine knowledge. The first winery I came to know was Cedar Creek Winery. Located just 30 minutes east of my new home, it was quite well distributed in the area. Over the summer I tried a few bottles of Cedar Creek and found the Pinot Grigio to be a fast favorite because of its lovely aromatics and crisp, refreshing flavors. Little did I know that grapes are not easily grown in Wisconsin. The only wines Cedar Creek produces that are actually made from Wisconsin fruit are their Marechal Foch based wines, while the rest are made from grapes grown in Washington and New York! While surprising, I couldn’t actually blame them for using Washington grown fruit as it is of very high quality.
The further I probed into Wisconsin wine, the more instances I found of fruit being trucked in. Stone’s Throw Winery brings in most of its fruit from California, while Red Oak Vineyard uses fruit from Oregon, California, and Washington. The best wines made from out of state grapes are the wines of Door Peninsula Winery. They make a number of holiday-themed wines, including an apple-based Hallowine, Christmas (Red) that is a white wine blended with sweet cherry wine, and also a semi-sweet White Christmas wine, all of which are very popular.
While I was a bit nonplussed by the usage of West Coast fruit, I was still fairly impressed with most of the wines I tasted. Perhaps what they say is true. . . good wine begins in the vineyard!
