Two very different wines — a bubbly and a sweet red — wowed the judges at the 2016 Wisconsin State Fair Professional Wine Competition.These wines — and their winemakers — reveal a lot about our state’s ever-improving wine industry.The top honors went to Sparkler from Door 44 Winery in Sturgeon Bay for Best Wisconsin Wine and to Sunset wine from Chippewa Fall’s River Bend Winery for the overall Best in Show award.Winemaker Steve Johnson and his wife Maria Milano own Door 44 and its sister winery, Parallel 44, in Kewaunee. They’ve made a habit of raking in medals. Parallel 44’s Petite Pearl, for example, won Best Wisconsin Wine in 2015.And while Johnson is not a fortune teller, he does like to look to the future, divining what might be possible for our state’s wines.He sees “great potential for sparkling wine” in the chilly Upper Midwest, which yields slightly underripe grapes that lend bright acidity and nice aromatics, qualities that work well with bubbly.Cold-hardy Frontenac Gris and La Crescent are two of the best grapes for these wines, he believes.

He’d love an uptick in competition: “I wish more people would produce these types of wines so we’d have a critical mass, so we’d start to develop a regional style that makes sense of our climate. What can we do best? We have to take what Mother Nature gives us.”Identifying and developing a regional style won’t happen overnight — “It takes several generations to get on the map.”Johnson makes two sparkling wines, both “more like Prosecco than Champagne.”Sparkler is a drier-styled pink, and Bubbler, from Parallel 44, is a semisweet effervescent white. Both retail for about $21 and are available at the winery and at some retail shops around the state, including in the Milwaukee area.One of his reds also won big. Door 44’s 2014 F2 (pronounced F squared) triumphed among Wisconsin reds, winning double gold and best in division. This top scoring Wisconsin red retails for $19 and is available only at the Door 44 tasting room.It’s made from Marechal Foch and Frontenac grapes, and Johnson notes that he submitted the same vintage of F2 last year and came up with a lesser award;

he couldn’t remember if it was bronze or silver.But the point is, according to Johnson, that reds made with Wisconsin-grown grapes, because of their high acidity, taste better after some bottle aging.“This confirms what I’ve been thinking, that we market the wines way too soon. buy fruit wineIt takes the acidity awhile to mellow out,” he said. beer and wine blog“This shows how much change is occurring over a year.”dry white wine storageIt’s quite a different story with River Bend’s Sunset, which topped all the other wines in this year’s competition, which included just over 125 submissions from just over 20 different wineries.where to buy blue fish wineWhat’s surprising here is that this sweet red is made with Concord grapes purchased from New York State.Yes, the kind of grapes that go into the jelly you put on your peanut butter sandwich.best wine cooler deals

But don’t forget there are quite a few wines — notably Lambrusco — made from Concord grapes, also known as Vitis labrusca.And many of the cloyingly sweet wines from New York State are made with Concord grapes.But don’t imagine that Sunset is anything like those “jug” wines.“top 10 red wine indiaIt’s a totally different style,” said winemaker Donna Sachs, who co-owns the winery with husband Al. “It’s not heavy, not syrupy.”As she describes it, “Sunset looks like a red and drinks like a white. And we like to serve it chilled.”River Bend does have five acres of vineyards with cold-hardy hybrid grapes such as Marquette, Frontenac and Brianna, but Concord grapes don’t grow well in their vicinity. “We don’t have a warm micro-climate here.”According to Sachs: “There are not nearly enough grapes grown in the state to support the industry. And most wineries in the state bring in other fruit, so the competition has a category to showcase wines made from those out-of-state grapes.”

The judges also gave a big thumbs up to the River Bend LaCrescentcq one word here, a semi-sweet wine that won as best Wisconsin white, taking double gold and best of division.“These two wines are our best sellers,” said Sachs. “It validates what we’re doing — our customers like them and the judges like them. Both wines retail for about $13 and are available at the tasting room and at a handful of shops around the state, including in the Milwaukee area.The Professional Wine Competition puts the emphasis on wines made with 75% or more cold-hardy, Wisconsin grown grapes. This year they awarded medals in 11 different divisions including reds, whites, blush, dessert, sparkling and non-grape. Judges use a 20-point scale to evaluate the wines.One of the eleven divisions is for wines made with out-of-state fruit. .Anne Schamberg is a freelance writer who lives in Waukesha. The Finger Lakes wineries have a well established reputation for great white wines, but what is only recently becoming known is that they make some great dry red wines too.

The trick is you have to know where to go. Not all the Finger Lakes wineries specialize in making dry red wine so it helps to have some guidance from the local innkeepers who have taken the time to do the research. So here are our innkeeper's recommendations for the best Finger Lakes wineries for dry red wines. If you are looking for the best winery in the Finger Lakes for Dry Red wine, I recommend Shalestone Vineyards on the east side of Seneca Lake. In fact, Shalestone is the only winery in the Finger Lakes that produces only red wine. That's quite a feat since the growing conditions here are far more conducive to grapes that go into white wines. I especially enjoy their Merlot. ~ Donna Cunningham - Yale Manor Bed and Breakfast Red is all they do, and with good reason ... They excel at it! Rob Thomas, the owner and winemaker is like the wine whisperer, he knows how to get those little red grapes to be their best. He's an interesting character too, so enjoy the experience while he is pouring at the tasting bar.

~ Steve and Kathy Wirt - Wine Country Cabins Bed and Breakfast As I don't like dry red wine and that's what my son prefers, I asked him for his recommendation. He said, hands down, Shalestone Vineyards on the East side of Seneca Lake is the VERY best. ~ Glenda Nash - Gentle Giants Bed and Breakfast Bully Hill Vineyards - Walter S XXXXX's Meat Market Red would be our choice for Dry Red Wine matched with a sizzling thick grilled steak. Located on the southwestern hill overlooking Keuka Lake. ~ Nancy and Al - Gorham House Bed and Breakfast Keuka Overlook Wine Cellars - on the east side of Keuka Lake, has by far the best selection of dry red wines in the Finger Lakes.  There are three Private Reserves - a luscious Cabernet Sauvignon with rich tannins and hints of cherries, a dynamite Cabernet Franc, and a Merlot, which is so dark in color and abounding with that varietal Merlot plummy character, that it could be cellared for years to come.  But in addition, the winery's signature wine, Triumph, the Meritage Blend (Cab Sauvignon, Cab Franc and Merlot in a proprietary blend) is back.