FIAT FREAKOUT SPOTLIGHT 2025
Winery Tour
Your third option on Thursday is the Winery Tour. This cruise takes you to 3 differnt Wisconsin wineries and a ride on the Merrimac Ferry across the Wisconsin River. Lunch will be on your own in the Baraboo Bluff area.
The tour starts off by heading to the Fawn Creek Winery about 8 miles north. Fawn Creek features wines made mostly from grapes grown in Lodi, CA (any CCR fans out there?) but fermented, created, and bottled on site. Fawn Creek has 3 buildings, 3 decks and 6 tasting rooms.
Driving south from Fawn Creek, the tour will stop for lunch in the Baraboo area before moving on to Balanced Rock Winery. Relatively new on the Wisconsin wine scene (2015), Balanced Rock uses Wisconsin grapes and is working to producing all their own grapes on site.
The name "Balanced Rock" comes from a nearby rock formation on the south end of Devil's Lake.
Moving on from Balanced Rock, the tour completes the winery portion with a visit to the Wollersheim Distillery and Winery in Prairie du Sac.
Wollersheim began operations in the 1840s! Way back then, a Hungarian nobleman, Agoston Haraszthy, planted some grapes and founded the winery. In 1849, Haraszthy founded the village of Sauk, Wisconsin's first incorporated town. When Haraszthy left for California during the Gold Rush of 1949, a German man named Peter Kehl bought the winery and took over production. He slowly converted to American grapes and built the buildings still used by the winery today.
The Kehls also started production of brandy. Brandy was frequently used by vintnor to fortify their wines, raising their alcoholic content.
An extremely hard winter in 1899 killed the grapes and the winery was converted to farmland, primarily used for dairy operations.
Fast forward to 1972. The Wollersheim family purchased the property and reestablished it as a vineyard in 1973. In 1984, they imported Phillip Coquard from France. Coquard became their winemaker in 1985. In 1989, he intorduced Wollersheim's Prairie Fume wine.
Wollersheim's Prairie Fume has gone on to become Wisconsin's most popular wine.
In 2010, following a change to Wisconsin's Prohibition-era laws, Wollersheim began producing brandy again. Wollersheim currnetly prodfuces a variety of wines, brandy, gin, whiskey, bourbon, and absinthe.
You will have a wine tasting at Wollersheim.
The tour has one more highlight saved for the trip home: crossing the Wisconsin River on the Merrimac Ferry.
The Merrimac Ferry is the only free ferry operating in Wisconsin.
To register for Fiat Freakout 2025, go here:
https://fiatclubamerica.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=152684&module_id=699652
Fawn Creek Winery
Balanced Rock Winery
Wollersheim Distillery and Winery
The Merrimac Ferry
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Tazilon Brenner
DFW Chapter Leader
FCA Board of Directors