Saturday September 13, 2008 - Cara Artman from WLUK Fox 11 Joins Steve in the Vineyard to talk about the Harvest. Click here for the video
Thursday July 31, 2008 - Kirk Parker from WFRV channel 5 joins Steve at the vineyard to talk about our "Terroir" concept of Wisconsin wine production Click here for the story and video.
Thursday July 10, 2008 - Angela Kelly with Fox 11 news visits the vineyard and talks with Steve about the grape crop this year and our Saturday Night Music events. Click here for the video!
Wednesday June 27 - Angela Kelly from Fox 11 takes a tour of the vineyard and winery and gets the story on our origins. Click Here to watch the video.
Article from the June 2008 issue of Milwaukee Magazine - Move over beer, wine is here. As more people go for the fruit of the grape, wineries are springing up across Dairyland. A tasting guide. by Dawn Reiss - From the parking lot, the lemon-colored ornamental building with scalloped windows and arched walkways looks more like a mosque rising out of the Wisconsin farmland than a winery. But a short walk to the main entrance of Parallel 44 Vineyard & Winery reveals a Tuscan-styled patio overlooking nine breathtaking acres of vineyard – a little Napa Valley among the cornfields of Kewaunee, Wisconsin. Tiny by California standards, Parallel 44 is a dream come true for Steve Johnson and his wife, Maria Milano, two lawyers from Green Bay. It took them six years to find the property, a former quarry, and another year to clear away the boulders so they could plant a vineyard. "I was looking for a different way of life," says Johnson, 42, who still practices law to help support his family. "I think I'm just a farmer at heart, and I was just enamored with the place. It seemed like the perfect way of life … something that is part creative, part business and part agriculture." New at winemaking, Johnson and Milano planted 5,000 grapevines – at $112,000 an acre – in 2005. Two years and close to a million dollars later, they bottled their first vintage from a 2006 imported crop of grapes and opened their doors in May 2007. This year, they will bottle their first estate wines, made from cold-hardy Frontenac grapes harvested last September. "Our friends thought we had flipped," says 39-year-old Milano, who gave up her law practice to manage the business end of the winery while taking care of the couple's three young children. "I guess it is kind of crazy. But I knew we were just going to do it and tell everyone about it after it was done." The couple took the name Parallel 44 from the 44th latitudinal parallel, which reaches from Green Bay and Kewaunee to Bordeaux, France, and Tuscany, Italy – two of the world's finest wine regions. Indeed, Milano and Johnson – who honeymooned in Napa – both seem to have wine in their blood. Each was raised by parents who were closeted winemakers, using their garages and basements to ferment batches of homemade wine. Milano's father was a farmer from Italy who eventually immigrated to Stevens Point. Likewise, Johnson's parents were Wisconsin farmers in Brown County, and today they help out at the vineyard. Stay informed of all the exciting developments happening at Parallel 44. We post all current press releases on our website. Visit us often for updates. If you would like to contact us, please call (920) 388-4400. Thank you.
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