It seems many stateoenophiles are following the footsteps of a 196-year-old Hungarian count.
Agoston Haraszthy settled in Wisconsin in the mid-1800s and founded the state’s first vineyard, the Wollersheim Winery. After a harsh winter killed his vines, he headed to sunny Napa and started Buena Vista, California’s first and still-thriving commercial winery.
Andy Carini trod a similar path. The 33-year-old Port Washington native spent years as a chef at Smith Brothers Seafood Restaurant and the Port Hotel. Then he moved to California for a job at a restaurant owned by Behrens & Hitchcock Winery, and Carini was introduced to the wine business. After spending his free time watching the winemakers, he founded Carini Winery in 2000.
“I’m self-trained for the most part,” Carini says. “I wanted to work by myself, doing something I enjoy.”
Joel Templin also followed a job out west before starting a winery. A UW-Stout grad and Fond du Lac native, Templin spent some 20 years in advertising before launching JAQK Cellars in October. “I’ve always had a passion for wine,” he says.
At his former firm, Templin developed branding for Robert Mondavi Winery and Foster’s Wine Estates. But even with this experience, he says, “I didn’t realize how hard it was to break into the wine industry. Ignorance is bliss.”
If so, it was even more blissful for Debra Mathey, a former teacher in La Crosse who bought California’s Dutcher Crossing Winery in 2006. “It’s a long way from my education background,” she concedes. To get up to speed, Mathey hired an Australian consultant and took classes in winemaking at UC-Davis.
But she has not forgotten her Badger roots. When launching her first tribute wine in August (a portion of one wine’s proceeds will benefit a charitable cause), Mathey didn’t hold the affair inside a swanky Napa restaurant. She took the party back to La Crosse. The benefit raised $150,000 for melanoma cancer research. “The Midwest gets behind causes like no other area,” Mathey says.
Other ex-Cheeseheads making California wines include Mike Westrick (former UW-Madison microbiology professor, winemaker at Sterling Vineyards); Ryan Zepaltas (Eau Claire native, assistant winemaker at Siduri Wines in Santa Rosa); David Trotta Barnes (Racine native, founder of Sturino Trotta Cellars); and Greg Wilcox (West Bend native and Lambert Bridge Winery partner).
