Advertisement It was Thanksgiving morning and Philippe Coquard was taken back by the expansion project that was under way at his Wollersheim Winery on the west-facing hillside below.
Coquard had helped plan the $1.5 million, 15,000-square-foot project and watched its progress up close for nearly five months. The view from afar, with the Wisconsin River as a backdrop, put the project in perspective.
"It was kind of emotional for me," Coquard said. "It was breathtaking. There was the old lady and the new one."
Almost 150 years after the construction of the main building on the property and which for years was used for tours, tastings and the store, the business has taken another step in its growth as the largest winery in the state.
It now has more space for tastings, a larger retail store, an events room and more office space. A grand opening with tours and tastings is scheduled for June 14 and 15.
Wollersheim, at 7876 Highway 188, last year produced about half of the 450,000 gallons of wine made in Wisconsin by more than three dozen wineries. Founded by Bob Wollersheim in 1972, Wollersheim produced 15,000 gallons in 1987 and saw that number grow to 225,000 gallons in 2007. Its growth matches what has been happening to the wine industry statewide.
When Coquard came from France in 1984 to be the Wollersheim wine maker, Wisconsin had six wineries. In 2004, there were 15. Today, there are almost 40 and many have plans to grow.
"The growth has really been explosive," said Susan Rees, executive director of the 34-member Wisconsin Winery Association, which has seen its membership double in the last five years. "Wine is becoming a much more popular drink. "
New in New Glarus
At the New Glarus Primrose Winery, founded in 1990, Bob and Peg Borucki buy grape juice from Spurgeon Vineyard in Highland and last year made about 4,000 gallons of wine in 13 varieties.
On Memorial Day weekend, the winery opened its new store at 500 First St., which will give it more visibility and a better chance at growth. Its old store, which also includes the production facility, remains a few blocks off Main Street and will now be used primarily for production.
"We need to develop our Web site and put an emphasis on wholesaling as well as additional retail business," Bob Borucki said. "I would like to see a 50 percent annual growth for a few years. "
At Botham Vineyards near Barneveld, production in 2007 was more than 30,000 gallons. In 1997, the winery, which has 10 acres of grape vines, made about 8,000 gallons of wine. The company's production facility, constructed in 2002, could accommodate about 50,000 gallons a year, said Sarah Botham.
A new wine will be unveiled this summer and there are plans for an indoor seating and event room to augment the tasting room.
"We are always in expansion mode to accommodate current and anticipated growth via on-site and online sales as well as sales via our two distributors," Botham said.
Expanding business
At the Parallel 44 Vineyard & Winery near Kewaunee, about 20 miles east of Green Bay, its first harvest in September had a yield of about 13,000 pounds of grapes. That amount could more than triple as the business has plans to expand its 8.5-acre vineyard to 25 acres.
Tim and Sara Abel will open their LedgeStone Vineyards on June 14 in Greenleaf, between Appleton and Green Bay. Its first harvest in 2006 netted about 300 gallons of wine, which has already been bottled. The 2007 harvest of the 15 acres of grapes resulted in about 600 gallons of wine, which is still aging in oak barrels, Tim Abel said.
He would eventually like to harvest 50 tons of fruit and make about 5,000 gallons of wine a year. There is also talk of a creating a wine trail linking five wineries within a 40-mile radius of his business.
"We're all friends," Abel said of his fellow wine makers. "We want to be a destination."
That goal has already been accomplished at Wollersheim, which is near Prairie du Sac, about 18 miles from the Far West Side of Madison.
Hungarian Count Agoston Haraszthy, who later became known as the founder of the California wine industry, selected the property for a vineyard in the 1840s but left in 1849 after several years of winter damage to his vines.
German immigrant Peter Kehl then took over the site and made wine on the grounds until 1899. It would be another 73 years until Bob Wollersheim purchased the property and resumed the business.
Wollersheim's winery
The first major expansion totaled about $500,000 and occurred in 1994 with a 9,000-square-foot addition that included a fermentation room, bottling line, case room and offices. In 2002, a $500,000 project added warehouse space and a temperature-control system while in 2006, a $750,000 project added tanks and a new bottling line.
While those projects focused on the wine, the latest project, which opened to the public on the Memorial Day weekend, was planned with the winery's estimated 100,000 annual visitors in mind.
There are now four tasting bars, including one made from the oak strips of an aging barrel. The retail store allows for easy access and has plenty of room for the winery to display its more than 30 brands of Wollersheim and Cedar Creek wines. The addition includes exposed wood beams on the inside while the exterior was designed with arches and stone work to match the neighboring building constructed in 1858. The iron railing on the outdoor balcony matches the design of the iron gate on the wine cave that was dug into the side of the hill above the courtyard.
"We really did put a lot of thought into the details," said Julie Coquard, the daughter of founder Bob Wollersheim, and who married Coquard in 1986. "Our main goal is the customer experience and customer comfort. "
The project also includes a second-story room, which can be used for meetings and special events, while the company offices are adjacent to the store and on the first floor.
But Philippe Coquard said that even though the winery has grown and offers more to the customer, he doesn't want to lose the focus of the business. And that involves making good wine.
"The quality of the wine is based on the attitude that we have had for many years," Coquard said. "The investment doesn't drive the quality of the wine. The quality of the wine drives the investment. "
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