Wisconsin Wine Country

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🤓 Did You Know?

Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac is Wisconsin's most celebrated producer and one of the oldest continuously operating wineries in the upper Midwest, established in 1972 on a site where German immigrant Agoston Haraszthy had made wine in the 1840s before moving west to become the "father of California wine."

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About Wisconsin Wine Country

Wisconsin wine country is the upper Midwest's most developed and most diverse. Seventy-one estate wineries from the Door Peninsula's Great Lakes shores to the Mississippi River bluffs of western Wisconsin make cold-hardy hybrid wines, fruit wines, and increasingly serious vinifera in a state where wine culture has historically played second fiddle to the craft beer scene. That's changing.

Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac is the state's most important wine institution — not just because of its age (established 1972 on land where German immigrant Agoston Haraszthy made wine in the 1840s before moving west to become the father of California wine) but because of its consistent quality. Wollersheim's Prairie Fumé, made from Seyval Blanc, is one of the Midwest's most recognized white wines.

Door County has developed into the state's most compelling wine tourism destination, combining the peninsula's natural beauty — cherry orchards, Lake Michigan views, historic fishing villages — with a genuine wine trail. The Door Peninsula Winery, Parallel 44, and a cluster of smaller producers have demonstrated that Marquette, Pinot Gris, and cold-climate varieties can thrive in a lake-moderated peninsula environment that closely mirrors Michigan's Old Mission geography.