Why Blind Horse Sourced Grapes From Wisconsin For Its Sparkling Wine

Blind Horse Winery sources grapes for many of its wines from California and Washington. But when it decided to venture into the world of sparkling wine — a style known for being produced in California — Master Winemaker and General Manager Tom Nye decided to stay a little closer to home.

The new Blind Horse Sparkling Wine that will be unveiled at a party at the vineyard this weekend was sourced from a vineyard in the winery’s home state, representing the final product of a project that began more than four years ago, Nye said.
“Wisconsin-grown grapes naturally have desirable attributes to create a sparkling wine rivaling any great French Champagne or California Sparkling Wine,” Nye said. “The chemistry just made sense to start exploring, researching and testing the production of a world-class wine from locally grown grapes.”
The Blind Horse 2019 Brut is made in the traditional French style using 100%Wisconsin LaCrosse Grapes locally sourced from Whitetail Vineyards in Plymouth, Wisconsin.
The Sparkling Wine will join Blind Horse’s Ice Wine — introduced in 2018 — as its only two wines made with grapes from its home state, and both are made with wines sourced from Whitetail Vineyards.
Nye expects it to be a hit in Wisconsin. He believes Wisconsinites will want to support products made locally.
“The Blind Horse Sparkling Wine will be a big, big wine for Wisconsin,” Nye said.
Made in the traditional French method for producing Sparkling Wines, Nye said a lot of work went into producing the Brut.
“We decided to use this process because we felt the best way to learn about making sparkling wine was to do it all by hand every step of the way,” said Nye. “It is extremely time consuming and takes many hours to complete the process. The process is 10 times more labor involved than traditional wine making. It takes us one hour to disgorge, top off and cap 30 bottles.”
The Blind Horse Sparkling Wine will be available for purchase starting November 13, 2021. Guests can sample and purchase by the bottle and by the glass at The Blind Horse Restaurant & Winery and Granary.
Wines are also available for purchase online at www.theblindhorse.com/winery.