Wollersheim Winery

A few posts back I talked about my visit to New Mexico and encouraged you to look into wineries on your travels to nontraditional wine country – realizing there are now wineries in nearly every state.  We decided to do just that – in our own great state of Wisconsin.

Wollersheim Winery ( http://www.wollersheim.com/ ) is located in scenic Prairie du Sac near a gorgeous stretch of the Wisconsin River and boasts an interesting and prominent position in the wine industry of the United States.  The winery property was founded in the mid-1800’s by Agoston Haraszthy who traveled from Hungary.  Finding our wonderful winters a bit too harsh for survival of his grapevines he moved west.  In California he spent a great deal of time around the wine industry and earned a few adhoc titles… Father of California Viticulture and Father of Modern Winemaking in California.  I’ve always found it curious how those in California never mention that he stopped in Wisconsin first!

Following Agoston’s departure another immigrant, Peter Kehl from Germany took control.  During this time Peter operated the winery, followed by his son (Jacob) who continued with the winery until his death in 1899.  At this time the property was revamped to conventional Wisconsin crops.

In 1972 Robert and JoAnn Wollersheim purchased the property, restored the winemaking capacity and have been moving forward with the help of French winemaker Philippe Coquard ever since.

Realizing that Agoston was pretty astute in regards to winemaking, it still holds that the grapes we all think about when we think about grapes grown for wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Syrah, Pinot Noir, etc.) won’t survive Wisconsin winters.  Therefore Wollersheim purchases grapes from vineyards in the states of Washington and New York for their varietally labled wines.  For some of their other wines there are some French-American hybrid varietals that are cold resistant and grow well on the 25 acres under vine at Wollersheim.  These varietals are (for red) Marechal Foch & Leon Millot and (for white) St. Pepin & La Crosse.  There is plenty written about them elsewhere and I encourage you to look into them (although it’s tough to find info… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grape_varieties ).

So Loreen and I had a great visit – a tour and tasting.  We got to stroll through the vineyards, visit the fermentation room and the barrel cellar.  We tasted through the entire portfolio – including two great imported wines- one from Beaujolais (produced by Philippe’s uncle) and one from Lombardy Italy (a Bonarda produced by Philippe’s brother).  The wines are a great representation of what’s going on in locales other than CA, OR and WA.

If you’re a wine drinker and have thought about visiting wine country – take a shorter trip and visit Wollersheim.  The process, equipment and care taken in the production are pretty much identical to the big boy West coast wineries and you’ll find it a great primer for visits to other areas.

Thanks for reading and please say hello to the folks at Wollersheim!

Keep Drinking and Thinking!

Ron

 

G. Gauthier – 2003 Los Carneros Pinot Noir

If you have been around Cafe le Grand much, you’re likely aware that Loreen and I have been at the helm for about 4 1/2 years – growing our wine selection from about 8 wines in January of 2004 to about 550 today.  During the early days of CLG (and to this day) we were not only growing our inventory, we were growing our palates.  So, as I sit sipping the G. Gauthier 2003 Los Carneros Pinot Noir I can’t help but think about how both have grown.  We came to open this bottle today as we have slipped away for a few days of alone time and brought a varied selection – in fact, I was going to make this entry Eight Wines in Four Days, but didn’t want to disappoint you if we didn’t actually open all of them!

This Pinot comes from G-Squared Cellars, named such for Greg Gauthier who is heavily involved with Bouchaine Vineyards as wine production advisor and VP of sales and marketing.  Greg’s history is pretty interesting, but I won’t regurgitate it here… instead, check out http://www.bouchaine.com/index.html as well as http://www.gauthiercellars.com/default.htm where you can read all sorts about him, the wineries and current wines.

When we first tasted this wine it showed bright fruit and that zesty/zippy character Loreen has dubbed “frittzy.”  We really enjoyed the fruity, sweet-like (no residual sugar) sensations.  It was, like our palate, pretty young.  The note on the back of the bottle suggests that Greg sought the Carneros fruit to demonstrate the perfume, flavors and texture – revealing a bouquet of cherry blossoms with hints of rosemary and allspice.  He refers to flavors of smoked cherries, raspberries and strawberries, with hints of tangerine and toffee.  It was the hit around the house for a while.

Today this wine is a different wine than when first tasted.  First, the color… originally a bright, medium intensity, red/ruby it has retained those hues better than I would have expected.  Pinot is one of those varietals that will change color sooner/younger than others - often quickly going garnet to near tawny. On the palate it still retains some of the raspberry/strawberry notes, however, it has matured and become darker in the fruit spectrum – perhaps a bit of dried fruit.  And gone is the frittzy young Pinot zip – replaced by a well integrated, mouth watering medium acidic, coffee-cigar-fruit-spice profile that really demonstrates what a few years in bottle will do to a wine.

Although I still enjoy the young Pinot taste, I am pleased that my palate and this wine have matured/evolved.  I highly recommend hitting this wine – whether as a re-visit or as a first timer.  It’s a great example of Carneros Pinot and is holding strong.  Check it out in the Pinot section at CLG!

Thanks for reading… keep drinking and thinking!

Ron