Our Visit To Door Peninsula Winery In Door County Wisconsin

>> Secrets To Building Expert Wine Cellers <<

California boasts more than twenty different winegrowing regions, each with distinctive personalities reflected in the landscape, the wineries and the wines, and even familiar spots have undiscovered back roads and spectacular but less-visited regions within the region. In fact, California now has 107 different American Viticultural Areas or AVAs, delimited winegrowing areas recognized by the federal government. Wine is a signature product of California and an important part of the cultural and physical landscape of the state. California is the fourth largest wine producer in the world and Golden State wineries produce 90 percent of all U.S. wine!

If you like wine, stop at the Door Peninsula Winery in Carlsville, Wisconsin the next time you get to Door County. The winery is north of Sturgeon Bay on Hwy 42. It is located in an old schoolhouse.

My husband, one of my grown sons, and myself stopped there during a recent trip to Door County. The evening before we had dined at Shipwrecked in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin (also in Door County), and had been given a coupon for a free tour of the winery and free wine tasting. It seemed like too good of a deal to pass up.

Great Wine Tasting picks!
	\| Wine Tasting Beach Party Invitations :: wine tasting search tours
California boasts more than twenty different winegrowing regions, each with distinctive personalities reflected in the landscape, the wineries and the wines, and even familiar spots have undiscovered back roads and spectacular but less-visited regions within the region. In fact, California now has 107 different American Viticultural Areas or AVAs, delimited winegrowing areas recognized by the federal government.

Even if you don’t have a coupon for the tour, it’s a bargain at $2 for each adult. And if you’re not interested in the tour but just in the wine tasting, the wine tasting is free to anyone 21 years of age or older.

We decided to take the tour and then taste some of the wines. The tour started in the front of the schoolhouse where our guide told us the building had been used as a schoolhouse for 100 years, from 1868 to 1968. At one point in time, the school had 60 students in 8 grades with only 2 teachers. The building was purchased and turned into a winery in 1974.

Great Wine Tasting picks!
	\| Wine Tasting Host Wine Party :: Wine Tasting Temecula Winery
California boasts more than twenty different winegrowing regions, each with distinctive personalities reflected in the landscape, the wineries and the wines, and even familiar spots have undiscovered back roads and spectacular but less-visited regions within the region. In fact, California now has 107 different American Viticultural Areas or AVAs, delimited winegrowing areas recognized by the federal government.

After being given some history on the building, we were taken to the basement of the building, which is where the wine is made. We saw how the wine was bottled, the vats it is made in, along with the barrels it is stored in for aging. Along the way we learned how the fruit juice the winery uses gets turned into wine. Then we headed back upstairs to the wine bar to start tasting the wines.

With over 50 wines being produced by the winery, it was difficult deciding which ones to try but we managed. The winery produces quite a few fruit wines from apple to blackberry to plum to cranberry to peach to strawberry, along with their signature cherry wine which is made with Door County cherries. The fruits for some of the other wines come from other places, such as California, but all the wine is made at the Door County facility.

The top selling wines at the Door County winery are the Strawberry Zinfandel, Blackberry Merlot, and Razzle Dazzle Raspberry. Our favorites were the Blackberry, Cranberry, and Sparkling Razzle Dazzle Raspberry. Other wines we liked included the Port Reserve, a sweet desert wine; Sweet Cherry, a sweet wine; White Christmas, one of the winery’s holiday wines; the White Zinfandel, one of the winery’s signature series wines; and Cranbernet, a wine made with a combination of cranberry and grape juices.

The winery also offers several non-wine products including cherry juice, sparkling juices, wine jellies, gourmet mustards, and Door Peninsula Wine Cheese Spread which we thought was so good that we bought two containers to take home.

The large shopping area in the winery also has hundreds of other items for sale including wine glasses, wine racks, gourmet foods, gift baskets, and wine butlers.

In addition to taking home some of the winery’s cheese spread; we bought a mixed case of wine to take with us. And we didn’t break the bank buying the wine. The wines at the winery are a good value. The wines start at around $8 for the fruit wines to a little under $30 for some of the winery’s signature series wines.

Wine Tasting Tips | Advice:

>> Expert Wine Making <<

September is the perfect time to take to the road or gather friends around your dining room table to experience the flavorful results of California’s winemakers’ labors and celebrate the 2006 harvest season just getting underway. With a special proclamation from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, designating September as the time to acknowledge the commitment of the state’s 2000 wineries and 5000 winegrape growers to “the highest standards of excellence,” special events abound in wine regions throughout the state, and many retailers and restaurateurs are putting the spotlight on California wine with promotions and seasonal menus.