If you're a wine lover, willing to spend your last dollar on a trip to Italy or Napa Valley, consider banking your money this year, and instead traveling to little Prairie du Sac to experience the Wollersheim Winery. I know what you're thinking, a winery in Wisconsin that's connoisseur-worthy? The proof is in the tour. And the tasting.
A short drive from Wisconsin Dells through some of the prettiest countryside in the state brings you to a most unexpected site: a winery that looks as though it was transplanted directly from Europe. You'll stroll up a tumbled brick path, with views to the Wisconsin River just over your shoulder, past some lovingly cared for gardens, to the limestone buildings circa 1858 that house the winery, tasting room, retail store and gathering room.
Julie Coquard, daughter of the winery's late founder, Robert Wollersheim, runs the winery today with her husband and winemaker Philippe Coquard. During our tour, she explained that the property had originally operated as a winery in the mid 1800s under the ownership of a Hungarian royal, and how the micro-climate of the Wisconsin River allows for the growing of a winter hardy French-American hybrid grape. The vines are meticulously maintained and lead to a grotto-like cave where wine was first aged more then 150 years ago.
While there is high-tech looking equipment imported from Italy in one building, just steps away is a cool, dark winding corridor with white French oak barrels, just what you'd hope to see. They make wine Labor Day through Christmas, with some very popular seasonal varieties. In 2006, the Wollersheim Winery reached a milestone, for the first time producing more than one million bottles of wine in a year. Julie Coquard added, "While we're sold only in Wisconsin, we're still working to meet that growing demand."
The Wollersheim Winery may be found on the web at www.wollersheim.com.
