Episode Details

What is one of America’s oldest winery buildings doing on a hillside above the Wisconsin River? This episode was recorded on location at Wollersheim Winery & Distillery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. Host Noah Tetzner sits down in the estate’s 1800s stone winery with Philippe Coquard, a 13th-generation winemaker from Beaujolais who came to Wisconsin as a young exchange student and has stayed for more than four decades.

Philippe’s family has made wine in Beaujolais since the 1580s, when his ancestors won the right to own a grape press. He holds degrees in winemaking, viticulture and wine marketing, and he arrived from Beaujolais in 1984 and became the winemaker in 1985. He married Julie, the Wollersheims’ daughter, in 1986, and today he co-owns the business with Julie. His Prairie Fumé is a semi-dry white made from 100% Seyval Blanc custom-grown in New York, first produced in 1989. It went on to become the most popular wine at the winery and in Wisconsin.

Philippe traces the estate’s history in three stages. It starts with Agoston Haraszthy, the Hungarian count who planted vines here before heading west to found Buena Vista Winery in California. Next come Peter Kehl’s hillside vineyards of Concord and Catawba, and then Prohibition’s long silence until Bob and JoAnn Wollersheim revived the winery in 1972. Philippe recounts the lean years when Wollersheim nearly closed and the white wine that saved it. He pours the estate’s Domaine Reserve from 53-year-old Maréchal Foch vines and explains why the property’s eroded slopes and glacial flats produce entirely different wines. He also describes how Wollersheim brought brandy-making back to the site with a Cognac-style spirit made entirely from local grapes and aged entirely in Wisconsin oak. He closes with his no-nonsense philosophy: the two tools every winemaker needs, and the two words on a label that tell you who actually made the wine.

In this episode:

• How did a Hungarian count’s failed Wisconsin vineyard lead to California’s Buena Vista Winery?
• How did one white wine save Wollersheim from closing its doors?
• Why do Wollersheim’s hillsides and flatlands make completely different wines?
• What does a Cognac-style brandy look like when it’s made entirely in Wisconsin?
• What should you look for on a wine label to know who really made the wine?

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Wollersheim Winery

00:49 From a Hungarian count to California’s Buena Vista

01:54 Inside one of America’s oldest winery buildings

04:42 Peter Kehl and Wisconsin wine in the 1800s

07:17 Prohibition and the Wollersheims’ 1972 revival

08:29 Bob Wollersheim: from engineering professor to winemaker

11:25 Thirteen generations of winemaking in Beaujolais

14:21 Arriving in Wisconsin on a Greyhound bus

16:46 Who’s drinking wine today and how the market has changed

19:18 Wine as culture, and why it belongs with food

20:59 Near-collapse and the birth of Prairie Fumé

23:54 Tasting the Domaine Reserve

25:40 Prairie Fumé and the taste of memory

28:33 The terroir of the Wollersheim estate

32:23 Reawakening Wisconsin brandy and the Wisconsin oak program

36:34 Staying connected to France

38:24 Pruning shears and a wine glass: a winemaker’s two essential tools

40:48 Favorite pairings from the winery bistro

42:10 Keep it simple: why “produced by” matters on a label

44:49 Closing thanks

Links and resources:

Wollersheim Winery & Distillery: https://www.wollersheim.com/

Wollersheim’s history timeline: https://wollersheim.com/about-us/timeline

Prairie Fumé:

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