One side of agriculture that doesn’t get as much attention in Wisconsin as it should is the wine industry. To get an idea of how the harvest season goes for a vineyard, I stopped at Parallel 44 Vineyard and Winery in Kewaunee and talked to one of the owners, Steve Johnson. Johnson and his wife Maria started the winery back in 2005 and then opened Door 44 Winery in 2013. As most success stories go, this wasn’t their original plan.
Johnson and Maria met in graduate school in 1991. Fast-forward a few years and the couple got married, and went on their honeymoon in 1995. The destination, Napa. While out there, Johnson explained that they were in a vineyard and thought to themselves, “Why can’t we do this in Wisconsin?” That’s when the idea started. After the honeymoon, they practiced law for awhile and then one day they decided it was time to start a new adventure. That’s when they planted the vineyard we see today at Parallel 44.
Johnson was explaining how harvest season goes for them. “The harvest is sort of the highlight of the year,” Johnson said. The harvest normally goes from the middle of September to the middle or end of October. He said harvest season’s very hectic because you’re working everyday, normally late into the night harvesting, pressing, and fermenting wine. He said yes, you get exhausted, but you do it over again the next day for six weeks straight. During that six week period, they handle over 100 tons of grapes from their vineyards and from other growers that they work with to make the wine.
From the time the grapes are starting to grow, until they’re made into wine, the process is a lot of science. “We’re trying to process the fruit as quickly as possible so that there’s no native fermentations that take place in what we pick,” Johnson went on to say, “We want to basically cool that juice down and do slow, cool fermentations, which is basically the conversion of the sugar in the grape into alcohol and carbon dioxide.” They have to pay close attention to the fermentation process. After that, they’ll start to filter the wines and do some chemistry to figure out what blends they want to put together. Once that’s done, the wine rests for a couple of months to make sure it’s good to go.
Johnson said that the 2020 harvest has been good because this year was a little above normal when it came to growing degree days. The trickiest part for him is that it’s really up to mother nature. “She’s crafting the quality of the wine through the growing season and we’re trying to tend to that, to assist in that…in the end, my job as a winemaker is to not screw up what nature’s thumbprint is on that particular vintage,” Johnson said. He went on to say that you learn that lesson very early and get reminded of it every harvest.
He said that Wisconsin’s wine industry needs young blood, it needs the younger generations. Johnson said that it takes years to reap any benefits, but once you get to that point, the return is worth it. The wine industry in Wisconsin’s grown from 33 wineries ten years ago to over 100 today. He mentioned that the state needs more growers in order to keep up with demand. “We have over 800 acres planted in Wisconsin, but we could quadruple that and still not meet the demand for wine that’s being produced in the state,” Johnson explained.
He said that being a part of the wine industry here in Wisconsin can be a challenge some days, but it’s worth it. It’s a lot of work, but he said it all makes sense when he sees people enjoying their wine. He said he loves that wine helps bring people together to enjoy special moments in life. “Knowing that you’re a part of that, makes the hard days worth while,” Johnson said. All in all, Johnson knows that Wisconsin has great potential for wine. “We’re learning as we go, but we have really accelerated on the learning curve here and figured out how to make excellent wines that win gold medals in worldwide competitions. So, there’s a long way to go, but we certainly have a good foothold on, I think a region that’s gonna be worldwide known.”
