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WINERIES AND GRAPE GROWERS HAVE NEW MARKETING TOOL
WPR News - Wineries and grape growers have new marketing tool
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Monday April 23, 2012
by Patty Murray
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Wineries and grape growers in Northeastern Wisconsin have a new marketing tool available to them starting today. They can now market their product as coming from "The Wisconsin Ledge." It's a federal designation based on the unique geological features of the area.
Steve De Baker owns and operates Trout Springs Winery in Wayside, about twenty miles south of Green Bay.
He shows off an impressive array of wine-waiting-to-happen inside what used to be a horse barn. But the real stars of Trout Springs are out in his five acre vineyard.
De Baker's been growing grapes since 1995. After trial-and-error, he began bottling in 2005. Then he decided it was time to pursue an American Viticultural Area, or AVA, designation for his own winery and 15 others that operate in the large chunk of Wisconsin known as the Niagara Escarpment.
Beginning today the region of almost four-thousand square miles can be called "The Wisconsin Ledge." But wine makers may only use that name if at least 85 percent of the grapes used in a bottle were grown in the designated area.
"Obviously the new designation Wisconsin Ledge puts us on the same level as Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, the Finger Lakes," he says. "You recognize those names as areas where grapes are grown and we hope to establish that for Northeastern Wisconsin."
De Baker says the AVA is not intended by the federal government to indicate the "quality" of a region's wine. Instead it is based solely on unique geology.
"The dolomite soil and rock bedrock karst feature that's in the soil right now provides a lot of minerals and the water is very important too," he says. "So the grapes take on that essence and so you get that flavor specific to that area which makes that grape important to that region and the wine important to that region."
So, does he feel he has a unique product deserving of the AVA designation?
"Absolutely, and so do the Feds."
The designation was approved by the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. It only covers grape wines so it can't be used on the well known cherry and other fruit wines grown and made in Door County.
The Wisconsin Ledge runs roughly from Dodge and Fond Du Lac counties in the south up along the Eastern Edge of Lake Winnebago into Door County. Washington Island, however, is excluded.
Still, supporters say the AVA can be a marketing and tourism boon. Eric Fowle runs the Niagara Escarpment Resource Network which helped in the application process.
He says the Wisconsin Ledge can become a 'wine corridor' for tourists.
"This really is something that's derived from the landscape the unique quality of the landscape which further promotes that and sends the message we want to see which is stewardship of the lands along the escarpment," he says. "In my opinion the ability to grow grapes well might change someone's mind on building subdivisions, grow grapes instead."
Only one other AVA , Lake Wisconsin, is fully contained in the state. It's located in the South Central region. Wisconsin Ledge winemakers are planning a public kick off celebration in August.
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