Patty Loew:
What better to go with our famous Wisconsin cheese than a little Wisconsin wine. It's harvest time and while our state is known for cherry and cranberry-based wines, more and more grape vineyards are now dotting the state's rural landscape. As "In Wisconsin’s" Andy Soth discovered, it could mean a boom in tourism for places like Greenleaf.

Andy Soth:
It's a sunny fall day and dozens of people have turned out for an annual grape harvest.

Steve Debaker:
These people come as volunteers. They sign up during the year. They just want to be part of our extended wine family.

Andy Soth:
That family is headed by Steve Debaker.

Steve Debaker:
That's a nice cluster of grapes right there.

Andy Soth:
Owner of Trout Springs Winery in the unexpected location of northeastern Wisconsin. When he first planted vines in 1995 Debaker says his neighbors thought he was crazy.

Steve Debaker:
You're out there with your little drill auger and augering them down in and you're planting all these grapes and people next to the road would stop and go what in the heck are you doing? And when you tell them we're planting grapes, they look at you like you're from another planet. You are doing what? What are you, nuts?

Andy Soth:
Now neighbors show up to bring in the harvest.

Steve Debaker:
Part of what they do is in that wine. Without these people that are helping us today, there is no way that we could -- there is no way we could get all this stuff done to make the wine.

Andy Soth:
It's labor these volunteers give in exchange for a meal and the pride of having their own local winery.

Steve Debaker:
You know it's funny, since we started people will say -- they'll bring other people and say this is our winery, it's right in our backyard. It is like they're claiming it as their own.

Andy Soth:
The opportunity to have a winery in your backyard is increasing in Wisconsin.

Andy Soth:
There are over 30 wineries across the state that make up the Wisconsin winery association. And of those, more than half had their start after the year 2000. Many state wineries specialize in fruit wines using Wisconsin-grown apples, cherries and cranberries. Some make traditional wine but use grapes imported from California or other more established growing regions. But an increasing number are, like Trout Springs, making wine primarily from Wisconsin-grown grapes. Something Glen Spurgeon has done since 1981.

Glen Spurgeon:
We're producing wines for Midwestern states.

Andy Soth:
He has done well by catering to Wisconsin's taste for sweeter wines. Becoming one of the state's largest wineries. They distribute their goods to restaurants and liquor stores throughout the region. Trout Springs is much smaller, selling primarily on site in its tasting room. Both wineries are benefiting from a recent consumer trend.         

Glen Spurgeon:
One of the key things nowadays is buy local. A lot of people are doing that.

Andy Soth:
Quivey’s Grove in Fitchburg features a number of Wisconsin wines.

Craig Kuenning:
More and more people are being aware of buying local and buying local products and staying closer to home. And just realizing that wow, if we can make wine here and it's good, why not drink that rather than something that is brought in from Argentina?

Andy Soth:
Most of the local wine Quivey’s serves is from the nearby Wollersheim Winery, the only state winery located in an officially recognized wine-growing area. The Lake Wisconsin AVA. Names like Napa and Sonoma are the most famous California AVAs. Wisconsin has just one. Debaker would like to see his region receive an AVA. Trout Springs sits a geologic formation called the Niagara Escarpment which extends from Lake Winnebago to the shores of Lake Huron. It is a wine growing region in Ontario and upstate New York. That geology contributes to the wine's flavor.

Steve Debaker:
Because we sit on the Niagara Escarpment there is dolomite rock and porous soils. When they talk about where grapes are grown that's when you're experiencing. You're experiencing those minerals and that special soil that's here. That's what you're experiencing.

Andy Soth:
Being in an official viticultural region allows wine makers to sell what is known as an estate wine.

Steve Debaker:
Making an estate wine is grapes that are grown on site, processed on site, they never leave the site. Even though we do that here, until we have our AVA, we can't put that on our bottle.

Andy Soth:
Being officially recognized as a viticultural area won't only benefit Trout Springs but other current and future northeast Wisconsin grape growers.

Steve Debaker:
We definitely want to see it spread. There are two or three new wineries that have sprung up in our immediate 30 mile vicinity in the last couple three years so we definitely want to see it grow.

Andy Soth:
In the opposite corner of the state Glen Spurgeon also sees opportunity with more wineries open.

Glen Spurgeon:
If you have one winery you have a place where tourists will stop in. When you get a region with two or three or four or several wineries in that region, then you become a destination.

Andy Soth:
While it's still a small industry, Wisconsin wineries are raising a glass to a hopeful future.

Steve Debaker:
Every winery and every wine maker has got their own style so it's fine. There is room for everyone.

Patty Loew:
Since that report, Steve Debaker says he's made progress in having his growing region recognized as an official American Viticultural Area. He predicts that within the next year or so, 12 northeastern wineries will also be able to claim the Wisconsin ledge as their wine growing home. Wisconsin wine makers finished harvesting their grapes a few weeks ago. The cool summer weather had some worried and delayed the harvest from one to three weeks.

Steve Debaker:
I would rather see a few fall than have them not ripe. That wouldn't be good if they weren't ripe.

Patty Loew:
Grapes don't need to be harvested before a hard freeze but once there is one the vine isn't making any more sugar. In addition to it being a good year for grapes, the cherry and apple crops used in fruit wines are also in excellent shape.