Where tobacco once ruled in Wisconsin, grapes may soon prevail

By

Posted 7:46AM on Wednesday, February 13, 2002

MADISON, Wis. - As a wine producer, Wisconsin's Coulee region isn't likely to threaten the Napa Valley anytime soon. But grapes could soon supplant tobacco as the chief crop in the area, agricultural experts say. In a region long dominated by tobacco farming, 21 small commercial vineyards have already been established in western Wisconsin. And the Northern Wisconsin Tobacco Exposition has received $36,000 in state grants to explore the possibility of growing grapes where tobacco was once farmed. Higher taxes, government quotas and slowing demand due to tobacco's harmful effects contributed to a gradual decline in the tobacco crop, farmers say. In the area of La Crosse, Eau Claire and Onalaska, tobacco revenues slid 95 percent, or about $15 million, from 1980 to 1999, said Tim Rehbein, secretary for the tobacco exposition and Vernon County agricultural agent. Farmers began looking for a substitute that used similar production methods and had enough of a profit margin to support smaller farms. They landed on grapes: wine grapes, juice grapes and table grapes for jam. While the crop isn't foreign to Wisconsin -- the state has more than a dozen established wineries, mostly in the south and east -- its arrival is a significant development in the western part of the state. For 44 years, tobacco growers there brought their samples to the tobacco exposition, where judges awarded prizes for the highest-quality tobacco. The tradition ended after the 1999 exposition because there weren't enough tobacco growers left, said Alvin Christianson, 77, who is primarily a dairy farmer but has had several acres of tobacco for more than 50 years. While the vineyards established so far are small, interest has been high, said Christianson. A few tobacco acres helped support the rest of his farm, he said, and that's what farmers are hoping to do with grapes. Grapes are best grown in temperate regions with warm days, cool nights and long growing seasons. But there are hybrid varieties that can withstand Wisconsin's winters and make good wine, said Peter Botham, owner of Botham Vineyard and Winery near Barneveld. Still, he warned that Wisconsin winters can be hard on the grapes and many vines barely make it, even in the southern part of the state. Only a few of the state's wineries grow their own grapes. "For the most part, year in year out, the weather makes it so that we just barely get by," Botham said. "The farther you get toward Minnesota, the worse your prospects look." Botham said the profits mostly come from the finished product, not the grapes themselves. "If you can take your product and harvest it and turn it into wine, your value goes up dramatically. That's where the money is. It's not in the growing."