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TIMELINE

Timeline Building
1840s
timeline_eastview

The winery property was first planted with grapevines by Sauk City founder Agoston Haraszthy in the 1840s. When Haraszthy left, he sold the property to his vineyard manager Peter Kehl.

1858 – 1867
peter kehl
presshouse

Winery is Built by Peter Kehl Family. The building has 3 floors: dance hall, carriage house, & wine cellars.

1850s – 1899
property

Kehl Family made wine from native grape varieties and fortified the wine with brandy to bring the alcohol content up to a table wine. The wine was sold as far away as the state of Maine.

1900 – 1971
Full Property

The vineyards froze in the extra cold winter of 1899. The winery property was then used as a dairy farm with cows & pigs. No vineyards were left.

1972
timeline_paradebarrel
timeline_presshouse2

Bob & JoAnn Wollersheim family purchased the winery property from the 4th generation of the Kehl family.

1973
timeline_bobjoann

Bob & JoAnn Wollersheim opened the winery for tours and began making wine again. They experimented with grape varieties to determine which would grow in Wisconsin.

1984 & 1985
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Philippe Coquard arrives from Beaujolais, France. And in 1985, Philippe becomes winemaker.

1989
timeline_wine

Prairie Fumé wine is born. Later to become the winery’s (& Wisconsin’s) most popular wine.

1994
timeline_new-build

New Addition built which allowed the winery to increase its wine production and included Fermentation room, Offices, Bottling room, & Case room.

1997
timeline_new-build-2

Big Room was built. Houses large 5000 to 5400 gallon stainless steel fermentation tanks for holding wine until needed for filtering and bottling.

2008
timeline_new-build-3

Building on Tradition – 150 Years after the first winery was built, a new winery expansion is added which includes a Winery Store, Offices, Visitor Tasting areas, and a new room for tours and events.

2009
timeline_wine-2
timeline_wine-lineup

Wollersheim Winery continues to grow and celebrates 20 Years of Prairie Fumé.

2010
timeline_tests-brandy

Winery receives distillery license and starts creating Brandy again.

2012
timeline_winery-of-year

Winery named “Winery of the Year” at San Diego International Wine Competition in San Diego, CA.

2013
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2013-FullCave

Our first brandy, Coquard Brandy, is released and the historic cave (which was the first structure built on the property in the 1840s) is restored.

2015
timeline_distillery

A stillhouse and distillery store for brandy and other spirits is built on the property. Working with several traditional copper stills, brandies, gin, absinthe, whiskey and bourbon are created on-site.

2016
2016-1876PressHouseBrandy

1876 Press House Brandy is released.

2018
2018-RoundTop
DryRieslingBestWhiteWine2018

Our first whiskey is released and Dry Riesling is named “Best White Wine 2018” at the Pacific Rim Int’l Wine Competition.

Wollersheim Winery & Distillery Today