National Wine Day: A Perfect Excuse To Support Wisconsin Wineries

WISCONSIN — If you're looking for a reason to support Wisconsin's wineries as the weather warms, Wednesday will present a convenient excuse: It's National Wine Day.

Between the cherry wines hailing from Door County, vineyards outside of Baraboo, mead from Highland, and of course Wisconsin's most famous wine pairing, cheese, there are plenty of tastes to check out in the Badger State on National Wine Day.

Americans in 2021 drank their lot of wine, about 1.1 billion gallons in total, with 869 million gallons of that being table wine. That rounds out to on average 3.18 gallons per person, according to the Wine Institute.

Wisconsinites also drink their fair share of wine. In 2019, before the pandemic, per capita wine consumption in the Badger State was 0.39 gallons per person, according to an NIH study.

The Top 10 states for per capita wine consumption were:

1. District of Columbia, 1.01 gallons per capita.
2. New Hampshire, 0.82 gallon per capita.
3. Vermont, 0.75 gallon per capita.
4. Delaware, 0.71 gallon per capita.
5. (Tie) California and Massachusetts, 0.61 gallon per capita.
7. (Tie) Connecticut and Nevada, 0.60 gallon per capita.
9. Hawaii, 0.59 per capita.
10. New Jersey, 0.55 per capita.

Alcohol consumption in general appears to have gone up during the pandemic, according to a preliminary report from the National Institutes of Health. The report credits the increased stress of isolation, the easy availability of alcohol, either from at-home liquor cabinets and wine cellars or delivery services, and boredom.

The wine industry is responding to changes wrought by the COVID-19, according to the State of the US Wine Industry 2022 report written by Rob McMillan, founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s Wine Division.

Those changes included a shift to remote workplaces, migration from cities to suburbs, and a resulting shift in where consumers buy their wine.

“The country will more than likely never fully go back to the traditional office or completely recover the amount of business travel, which impacts both restaurant and airline wine sales,” McMillan wrote. “There have also been enduring changes to online sales, with more consumers using online as an option to purchase virtually anything instead of walking into a shop in a metropolitan city.”

If you want to do your part to reverse that trend, Wisconsin grape growers and wine producers present plenty of options. Travel Wisconsin has a full list of wineries to check out.

Wisconsin is known for Marquette grapes, a cold-hardy wine variety that is largely grown in more northern states. Our region is also home to plenty of berry wines and fruit ciders, according to WineFolly.com. One may also recognize Wisconsin for its wines that make use of cherry.

If you're looking for somewhere to celebrate local wineries anytime soon, here are some spots to check out this summer from Travel Wisconsin.

• Cedar Creek Winery: N70W6340 Bridge Road, Cedarburg, 262-377-8020.
• Aeppeltreow Winery & Distillery: 1072 288th Avenue, Burlington, 262-878-5345.
• Pieper Porch Winery and Vinyard: S67W28435 River Road, Mukwonago, 262-349-9092.
• Water 2 Wine Custom Winery: 17135 West Bluemound Road, Brookfield, 262-784-9463.
• Baraboo Bluff Winery: E9120 Terrytown Road, Baraboo, 608-237-1379.
• Door Peninsula Winery: 5806 State Highway 42, Sturgeon Bay, 920-743-7431.

Drinking wine in moderation, especially red wine, can produce positive health results, according to medical experts.

In moderation, wine may be heart-healthy. Although the links between red wine and fewer heart attacks isn’t completely understood, the polyphenol antioxidant called resveratrol may help prevent coronary artery disease, the condition that leads to heart attacks, according to Mayo Clinic.

The antioxidants in wine may prevent oral cancer, according to a study from the University of Missouri School of Dentistry.

Another study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in April 2000, found that women who drank one to three glasses of wine a day had a lower risk of developing osteoporosis, an age-related bone thinning related to calcium loss.

Yet another study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, made a similar conclusion, finding that mineral density was 12 percent to 16 percent among moderate wine and beer drinkers compared with nondrinkers. However, hard liquor seemed to have the opposite effect.

The health benefits of white wine are similar to those of red wine. It contains the same heart-health antioxidants as red wine and is generally lower in calories.

In fact, a glass of wine may help with weight loss, according to scientists at the University of Washington, who found the same antioxidants in grapes and berries that assist with heart health can convert excess white fat into calorie-burning beige fat.