Prairie Home Vintners

FREE ARONIA Berries for winemaking

• WHEN: Late August or early September
• WHERE: A farm near Woodstock IL.
• Hand-pick many pounds of ripe aronia berries, leave half for the farm
• and take home the other half for FREE .
• Bring a bottle of wine and pack a lunch, for a great time together
• Bring crates or garbage bags to take home what you pick.
• There are over 6,000 aronia bushes here, plenty for everyone!!

Please contact me to be added on our contact list

Steve Helsper (Allinonewinepump)

steve@allinonewinepump.com

630-333-3479

Drumlin Ridge would like to offer club members a chance to purchase fresh local grapes, or juice, at harvest time in the Fall.

So far it looks like we’ll have extra:

• Frontenac Gris
• Frontenac Blanc
• Marechal Foch
• Petite Pearl

People would need to bring their own totes or buckets.

Given the dynamics of harvest, we can give one- or two-days’ notice.

Harvest season for us runs the last week of August to the last week of September; with picking decisions based on brix levels, labor, tank space, and coordination with other growers.

Currently, the going rate is about 90 cents per pound. Given 12 pounds to make a gallon of pressed juice, this would come out to $10.80 a gallon.

Let me know by getting me your Name, Phone Number, and which Varietal(s) you are interested in.

Thanks,

Glenn Weaver (see the directory for contact info)

Wisconsin Vintners Association (WVA) is headquartered out of Milwaukee. They are doing a club grape crush, and are offering members of PHV the opportunity to participate. Below is their announcement letter.

Contact information has been redacted from this public news post, but PHV members should have received it in email. Reach out to Rod if you need another copy.

Greetings Winemakers,

The Wisconsin Vintners are scheduling a grape crush this fall, which is expected to take place in early to mid-October. Our supplier will be Kendall Farms from Washington State.

Varieties: Due to much feedback from 2024-25 award-winning winemakers, we have chosen to bring in Syrah and Grenache grapes and both Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier juice.

Minimum Quantities for the Club: The grapes are shipped in 800-1000 lb. produce boxes, and the minimum is one box. Juice is shipped in either 320 gallon or 270-gallon totes or, if we don’t meet that volume level, 55-gallon drums. If you order grapes, please do so in 50 lb. units, i.e. 150, 200, 450 etc. The volunteer members weigh all grapes in 50 lb. portions, so we want to help them out. Juice is measured in gallons and the same parameter applies, order in gallon quantities.

Prices: We don’t know what our freight costs are at this time but anticipate a total cost of about $1.45/lb. for grapes and $ 15.45/gallon for juice. That includes the product, packaging materials and shipping. Our first payment to Kendall Farms is August 1, when half of our amount is due, the remainder, right after delivery.

The UW Extension will be putting on a couple of free grapevine pruning workshops soon. These workshops are for beginners and experienced commercial growers as well as home gardeners, and they will be covering pruning techniques for both new vines and mature, established vines.

There are two location options:

Peninsular Agricultural Research Station (PARS)
Friday, March 7 (11:00 am - 1:00 pm)
4312 Hwy 42, North Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235
Register at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfZu4rFt4qmHXmKMH54fzSa_KJGEIauNgGrdC-NHI1ntHzPA/viewform

West Madison Agricultural Research Station (WMARS)
Saturday, March 15 (10:00 am - 12:00 pm)
8502 Mineral Point Rd, Verona, WI 53593
Register at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfrDSipEfpvi_Fi1GoT_aeEhmc3pSao7-pK2lqXN7HOTEOb2w/viewform

See below for the details of some wine competitions that may be of interest to our club members.

PHV Group Shipping: Chris Kazmerzak is our club wine shipping coordinator again this year! The first one to consider is the Winemaker Magazine Competition. If you are interested in entering the Winemaker Magazine competition, please let Chris know. The WineMaker deadline for receipt of bottles is March 7th. To allow time for shipping, she needs all PHV wine to her by Feb 27th. More information about that competition is available here: https://winemakermag.com/competition/2025-winemaker-competition

PHV Annual Club Competition

https://phv.wildapricot.org/event-6065341
Entry Deadline: April 5th 
Drop-off: at February or March regular club meetings. See event details for other options.
Judging: April 13th

Bottles should be registered online before drop off. See event for more details.

Wisconsin State Fair Amateur Wine Competition

https://wistatefair.com/competitions/amateur-wine/
Entry Deadline: Feb. 19th
Drop-off date: March 21st
Drop-off location: Wine and Hop Shop, 1919 Monroe St, Madison WI 53711 608-257-0099 www.wineandhop.com
Judging: April 4th & 5th
Fair: July 31st to Aug. 10th.

Winemaker Magazine International Amateur Wine Competition

https://www.winemakercompetition.com/
Entry Deadline: March 7th
Shipping: Battenkill Communications, 5515 Main St., Manchester Center, VT 05255. (802) 362-3981
Judging: April 11th-13th
Conference: May 15th-18th

Between the Bluffs Amateur Wine Competition

https://app.box.com/s/tf6vwszle3kre2lzzga6hwpt7uio0i29
Entry Deadline: March 21st
Shipping/Drop-off: Lost Island Winery, 575 Lester Ave, Ste 208, Onalaska, WI 54650. *

*Fermented Friends club members are willing to accept drop-off entries at Wollersheim Winery on Feb. 22nd.

Judging: April 5th
Festival: April 26th

If you have already renewed your membership, thank you! If not please do so soon. You should see a link in the bottom right of any page on this website when logged in if you need to renew, or look for our email.

Thanks!

The Wisconsin Vintners Association has invited our members to join them at one of their upcoming events:

Through a generous donation, we are able to bring Daniel Pambianchi to Burlington for an all day workshop. It will include lunch and materials. Folks can bring their own wine too. The cost is only $60.  Anyone is welcome. Registration is available on our website https://www.wihomewinemakers.com/ under events or directly: https://wihomewinemakers.org/product/workshop-with-daniel-pambianchi/

In this seminar, Daniel will help guide you into making consistently flawless wines.

Daniel is an avid and seasoned winemaker both as an amateur and professional. He is the author of the bestselling book “Techniques in Home Winemaking” and has served in the past as Technical Editor and author for WineMaker Magazine. He has lectured at conferences on a range of subjects from wine analysis and chemistry to advanced winemaking techniques.

Chris Kazmerzak has volunteered to do the shipping of wine to the various competitions for our club members this year! Here is a message from her:

Hello club members.

I have volunteered to do the shipping of wine to the various competitions. 

The first one to consider is the Winemaker Magazine Competition.  If you are interested in entering the Winemaker Magazine competition, please let me know.

Your entries must be postmarked, shipped by March 15th.

The Winemaker magazine's last issue had the full details of the competition and the forms.

Here is a link to that information on their website...

2024 WineMaker Competition - WineMakerMag.com

thanks 

Chris Kazmerzak

The UW is looking for vintners interested in purchasing grapes grown at the West Madison Agricultural Research Station (WMARS). They grow these grapes in research vineyard plots. The revenue from selling them helps offset the cost of maintaining those vineyards to be able to continue doing research to support the grape and wine industry in Wisconsin.

The blocks are very small (only for research), so they don’t produce a lot of fruit. Last year they had a hard time finding someone interest in purchasing them. They currently anticipate harvesting:

• 3,000 lb Petite Pearl 
• 600 lb Brianna
• 600 lb Frontenac
• 300 lb Marquette
• 300 lb LaCrescent

If interested contact Amaya Atucha at atucha@wisc.edu

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2023 PHV club wine competition Sunday, March 19th at Bristol Town Hall! There were a total of 94 entries. We reorganized the four categories this year to have more of an even amount of bottles in each category. As you can see with the results, it was more evenly divided. There were two cases registered in the Vinifera Grape and the Fruit/Berry category. Three cases were registered in the All Other Grape category and 10 bottles were registered in the Speciality, Sparkling, & Novelty category.

We had a great turn out for the event with 18 judges, 6 stewards, a handful of help washing glasses, and several individuals helping to set up and clean up. I appreciate those that brought a dish to pass with the potluck that kicked off the event this year. A big shout out to Sherry Parrish for gathering the raffle prizes which sent some lucky members home with wonderful prizes. It was nice to have the support of some members that came for the day to hang out and socialize. Overall, it was a great success and I could not have done it without all of your help. Thank you!!!

Congratulations to James King, winner of Best of Show! Also a big shout out to Ellen Weaver, Andrew Karleigh, and David Kolhwey for winning the Best of Class!

- Tammy Andorfer

For the complete list of awarded wines, click here.