Wine tip:

If you are a novice wine drinker and are overwhelmed at the choices at the store, here are some consistently reliable and inexpensive wine labels ($5 to $8) that we recommend:

Columbia Crest
Chateau Ste. Michelle
Lindemann's
Banrock Station
Fetzer
Local attractions Make sure when you stay with us to visit Tenba Ridge Winery (May through December) and Buzz & Brew, a shop in Black River Falls for home wine and beer-making enthusiasts.

Also nearby is Garvin Heights Vineyards in Winona, MN and the Sand Creek Brewery in Black River Falls. Both are open for tours and tastings.

If you're heading to La Crosse, be sure to stop at The Wine Guyz a full-service wine bar on King Street downtown for some excellent wines.

 

Great River Wine Trail

we're located in the middle of the Great River Road Wine Trail, which features nine wineries with a passport program that allows guests to earn a wine glass once they have visited and received stamps from each of the wineries. No purchase is necessary, and completed passports may be turned in at any time.

Wineries on the trail include the Seven Hawks in Fountain City, Wisconsin. Vernon Vineyards in the scenic hills of Vernon County in upper Newton Valley.

Other Wineries on the trail are           Valley Vineyard in Prescott, WI, Vino in the Valley in Maiden Rock, WI, Maiden Rock Winery and Cidery in Maiden Rock, WI,      Danzinger Vineyards in Alma, W,   Garvin Heights Vineyards in Winona, MN, Scenic Valley Winery in Lanesboro, MN and   Eagles Landing Winery in Marquette, IA

Visit the website for more information, printable brochure, maps and more!

www.greatriverroadwinetrail.org

 

Wine enthusiasts

Brambleberry is a great bed and breakfast for wine lovers. Your innkeepers Chris and Sherry are enthusiastic wine connoisseurs. We write a weekly wine column in the La Crosse Tribune and Chippewa Falls Daily Herald. We offer a selection of great tasting, quality wines for guests to enjoy. We also make our own wine from organic fruits we grow, including Raspberry Rhapsody, Bodacious Blackberry, Sinful Strawberry and Racy Rhubarb.
For wine novices wanting advice, Chris and Sherry will guide you to wonderful selections at affordable prices that you can find in your own local grocers or wine store.
Big, bold, earthy Italian reds and French Bordeaux are among Sherry's favorites. She detests white zinfandel, thinking it a very poor excuse for a wine. There are many, much nicer affordable wines like gewurztraminer, riesling or muscat.
Chris also enjoys the hearty reds and is particulary fond of petite sirah and Italian red.
Most people who regularly read our "wine of the week" column have come to realize that Sherry is the more discerning of the wine tasting duo. Chris pretty much likes ANY wine that someone else has paid for. But when it comes to discerning beer taste, Chris has the leg up.
We enjoy sharing wine, but state law restricts us to serving one glass per guest, so feel free to bring your own wine and cocktails too. We have openers and glasses you may use.

Our weekly column introduces people to the different varieties of wine that we ourselves would drink. We rate each wine on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, but never feature a wine below 2.5 stars, because if we wouldn't drink it, we won't write about it. The wines we feature are mainly between $7 and $15. ( To read our columns starting in 2007 go to the Wine of the Week archives. For a newspaper archive search of some of our wine columns, go to Wine of the week).


A must visit on weekends May through December is the Tenba Ridge Winery. John Gill offers a variety of award-winning and unique wines. For a story Chris wrote about Tenba Ridge when the winery opened in 2002, click here.
Click here for a video tour of Tenba Ridge.
 
   
 
Guests on the their way from Madison or Chicago along I-94 should stop at the Burr Oak Winery at N5873 Hwy. 12/16 located between New Lisbon and Mauston. Also stop at Carr Valley Cheese along Hwy. 12/16 in Mauston for some of Wisconsin's best artisan cheeses.

 
The historic and beautiful Wollersheim Winery near Prairie du Sac is Wisconsin's largest and is credited for launching the state's wine industry. For a feature story written by Chris about Botham and Wollersheim, click here.

Featured wine of the week

Matchbook Tempranillo 2006

 Tempranillo is the noble grape of Spain that has long toiled in obscurity as a jug wine in California under the name valdepenas. More winemakers have discovered its virtues and have planted more tempranillo acreage in the past 20 years.

There are still less than 1,000 acres of tempranillo planted in California compared to more than 100,000 acres in Spain, but vintners hope to capture some of the elegance of the Old World version.

Matchbook sourced its tempranillo from vines in the Dunnigan Hills north of Napa that were planted from Spanish cuttings. Smaller amounts of petite sirah and graciano were added to this vintage, which displays plenty of earth and spice.

Sherry: “Deeply fragrant, floral bouquet with very dry raspberry and licorice flavor.” (3 stars)

Chris: “Floral perfume, raspberry and blueberry flavors and a dry, mint finish.” (3.5 stars)

Available locally for about $11.

Coming next week: Peter Lehman The Seven Surveys

 

 

 

Visit our Wine of the Week archives

Another fine Wisconsin winery in the Madison area is Botham Vineyards located west of Madison near Barneveld. For a feature story written by Chris about Botham and Wollersheim, click here.

 

Garvin Heights Vineyards near Winona, MN offers a sampling of four wines and has other cold-climate varieties they grow for sale.