Grapes in Wisconsin

There are several vineyards in NW Wisconsin, and quite a few in south and central MN. You should talk to John Marshall at Great River Vineyards, in Lake City MN. It's a bit south, along the Mississippi. I've been getting Frontenac grapes there for the past several years; they grow other varieties, too. Also, you might talk to the folks at Northern Vineyards in Stillwater. I believe they are a cooperative, making wine from grapes grown by the member vineyards (more than a dozen, apparently). Some of the people running those vineyards are bound to be good sources of information (and vines).

Doug

Doug, What grapes that grow in Wisconsin do you think make the best wine?

Thanks,

Bob

Doug wrote:

Bob, Are you familiar with the Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac (near Sauk City, north of Madison)? I believe they grow Marechal Foch grapes, it's a French-American hybrid. They took a hit a few years ago with the weird weather, but were planning on replanting. Darlene Wisconsin

Bob - I haven't done much of a study, really -- I mostly just like to visit wineries. :-) A lot of them buy grapes from other places (e.g., California) as well as growing some locally, and they aren't always eager to tell you which is which. I guess I think the whites tend to be a little nicer than the reds, as far as what is grown locally. I believe there is some actual Riesling grown, along with Seyval and probably a few others I can't remember. The reds mostly are French-Americal hybrids (Foch and Leon Millot, most often) which are OK but not especially interesting, IMHO. So far I haven't seen as much interest in the newer, Elmer Swenson cold-hardy varieties among the Wisconsin wineries as there is among the Minnesota wineries. Elmer was a Wisconsinite, after all. Perhaps the MN wineries are just that much further north, on average, and Minnesotans tend to feel they are just a little south of the Arctic Circle; it's part of our collective identity, I think. Completely bogus, geographically. Minneapolis is almost exactly half-way between the equator and the North Pole, but in the middle of January, you'd find it hard to believe . . .

Doug

Speaking of growing things....

Has anyone ever heard of a grape that will make it in Alaska?

Thanks, A. J. Rawls Anchorage, Alaska, USA

Darlene,

I'm not a big Foch fan. First off, the clusters are too small. I know that seems crazy but I like big clustered varieties. Secondly, I'm not going to claim I've had the best Foch around but, the Foch I have tried , I didn't like. Thirdly, I'm not a big re-planting fan. Just the fact that you just said that, I'm even more convinced. Thanks for the info. I'm looking for grapes that make good wine and will be there when I'm long gone. I may never find the grape I'm looking for ;).

Bob

I think it would depend a lot on exactly where you are in Alaska - looking at the USDA hardiness map for Alaska, it looks like you can go from one zone to another pretty quickly, as you move inland from the coast. I know that Frontenac is hardy to at least -30F, which is really pretty good (through zone 4a). The Elmer Swenson varieties are similarly hardy, and I believe the Univ. of MN has several more promising cold-hardy varieties that should be released in the near future. Those should work pretty well from a cold-hardiness perspective. Not sure whether there would be issues with the growing season being too short, though. In central MN, Frontenac ripens somewhere in the second half of September, normally.

Doug

We seldom have temps as low as -30F here... Or summer highs rarely reach 70F... I usually put in my garden after Memorial Day (last weekend in May) and rarely have frost after that.

We do have up to 20 hours of sunshine in mid-summer and plants seem to like that.

A.J.