Winery Review – Parallel 44 Winery

Another winery review! Wineries can be hit or miss… luckily for you, I’m here to tell you whether or not you should spend your time and money here. Keep reading to find out the answer! (Hint: the answer is going to be yes).

Parallel 44 is part of the collection of 44 Wineries, which include Parallel 44, located in Kewaunee/Stangleville and Door 44, located in Sturgeon Bay. While I haven’t been to the Sturgeon Bay location, the Parallel vineyard was near our Kewaunee motel so we decided to give it a shot. If you recall from my last winery review, there’s more to wine than just the taste. We are not Napa and we never will be. Or will we??? Yes, you heard that right, I’m propping us up to potentially be getting some future recognition in the wine category. Why not? No one said Wisconsin had to focus on only beer and cheese. At a later date I will be doing a post dedicated to the Wisconsin Ledge. The Wisconsin Ledge is an American Viticultural area, which is fancy talk for saying it’s a particularly good grape growing region of our state. The eastern section of our state has some unique geology, soils, and climatic conditions that are better served for grape growing than the rest of the state. Parallel 44 (and 23 other wineries) is located in this region. What does all this mean? Well, it means at some point in the future, if we do things right, we can be on par with Napa. Anyways, that’s the teaser, more on this in the future.

We visited Parallel 44 on a sunny October day, just a little under a week after peak fall foliage for the area. While the Wisconsin Ledge might not have the rolling hills and sweeping valleys of the Driftless Region, the views were no less spectacular. I felt like I was in an Italian villa with the architecture of the building and patio, and the grape vines in the background. The burnt oranges, reds, and yellows of the distant trees rounded out what I would consider one of the best views I had in 2024. No I’m not exaggerating, and unfortunately, the pictures never do it justice. Just like with Wild Hills Winery, I could not get over the views.

On the day we showed up we struck gold as they had live music as well. We got a couple bottles of wine, a mix-and-match charcuterie board (one of the coolest options I’ve seen so far. If this is common I apologize and need to get out more, but being able to pick your own cheese, meats, pretzels, fruit, nuts, etc. was an ingenious idea and it needs to be used more), grabbed a table in part shade part sun, and enjoyed the music and the views. It was a quite relaxing evening. The singer even did a cover of ’39 by Queen which I thought I was the only person who knew that song existed. The atmosphere and vibes were phenomenal, the wine was great. If you find yourself in the remote region of the state in between Green Bay and Kewaunee, you’re missing out if you don’t give this place a shot.

Winery Checklist:
– Good Wine? Yes. I’m becoming more and more of a fan of Wisconsin wines and these were some of my favorite in the state so far
– Good Views? You betcha! Despite missing peak fall foliage by about a week, the colors were still good enough for a great background in an incredible location.
– Good Atmosphere? Yup. The Italian feel, the remote location, the live music… a perfect way to spend a fall day.
– Overall Vibes? Top tier. Underrated location and underrated wine.
What winery should I visit next? Let me know in the comments and I’ll make it happen!