Door County’s Stony Creek Vineyard Tour
Welcome to our inaugural season of vineyard tours! Step into the peaceful countryside of the Schmiling century farm, located six miles north of Algoma in the south end of Door County. The Stony Creek Vineyard was named for the meandering waterway it overlooks in 1997, when the first vines were planted by father/son team Bill and Aric Schmiling. This is one of the oldest vineyards in Door County, managed by the oldest licensed winery in Wisconsin.
You will learn about the history of the land, the development of our first vines, and how our practices have changed over the years. See the three varieties of French-Hybrid grapes that we grow. These cold-hardy vines were designed in the University of Minnesota to survive our challenging Midwestern winters. Hear about the Wisconsin Ledge terroir, how it affects the vines in their current stage, and understand how the characteristics of the vineyard show up in our wines.
The tour will continue to Algoma through our production facility and historic cellars. You’ll taste special vintages as you tour, and it will finish in the tasting room with a traditional wine tasting.
A truly great way to spend time with friends and family, these tours will be offered at 11am and 2pm on three select Fridays of summer.
Admission is $49.00 per person, with a maximum capacity of 16 individuals per time slot. Reserve your spot(s) by visiting our Events Calendar to select a date and time. Come for one to see a snapshot of our Door County Vineyard, or sign up for all three to see how the vines and grapes change throughout the growing season. Either way, we can’t wait to give you this special tour!
Tour Location & Directions
Stony Creek Vineyard is located ½ mile west of County Road S on Rosewood Road.
6584 Rosewood Road, Algoma, WI, Coordinates: 44.68291° N, 87.40981° W
Turn into the grass driveway on the west side of the large white shed.
Tour are rain or shine, but may be rescheduled for summer storms.
Cabernet Tasting & Education Class
Saturday, March 16th, 11am & 1pm
$40/person in advance
What better way to celebrate the world’s most planted grape varietal than to visit the winery and attend our Cabernet Class on Saturday, March 16th!
Come celebrate and be educated on six of our cabernets! Anthony, our GM, and Sommelier, will take you on a tasting tour of the different AVA’s and styles of our cabs. You will learn how to pair this varietal with various foods while enjoying small-bite pairings.
With limited availability and only 20 guests per session, be sure to order online and reserve your seats!
Saturday, January 20th, 1pm – 6:30pm
$285 / person
Join us inside our production facility for an afternoon of wine and barrel education. At our Winemakers Experience event on January 20th, you will be joining our winemakers for an unforgettable winter day at our production facility. Here, we’ll celebrate not only a few von Stiehl wines, but the many flavors that can come about from four unique barrels as well.
We’ll begin with a seated tasting of Zinfandel wines, each aged in four different brands of barrels. This seated tasting becomes less of a wine education and more of a barrel immersion.
Next, meet barrel-cooper, Joe, to learn about barrels, all while watching one being built before your eyes.
You’ll then be guided through a blending education, where you will follow a wine’s progression from barrel aging to bottling. And just to keep the barrel of fun rolling, the winning blend from the blending class will then be aged in Cooper Joe’s custom barrel, made just for the event.
Finally, enjoy a buffet dinner catered by Steel Belly BBQ and balanced by various von Stiehl wines.
The grand finalé will be a barrel auction where all proceeds will be given to the Algoma School’s Wolf Den. Admission includes too many take-home gifts to write into this description!
Submitted By: Lynne Finndell; Baileys Harbor, WI; Family Plan Member Since 2018
There are many moments in life that are cause for celebration. These events may go down the line from engagements, marriages, 21st birthdays, pregnancies, and even ‘Sweet 16’s’. But, what about retirements? Have we all been missing the planning and attending of retirement parties? Speaking from experience, I have yet to attend a single retirement party. You may think that this fact is due to my baby-faced age of 29, but I don’t see how the two are related… Regardless, retirement is yet another monumental achievement.
Take, for example, our Old Vine Zinfandel. “old vine” zinfandels are not necessarily very common. As the vines age, they essentially meet their retirement as well. However, this aspect only makes the wines they produce more defined. Despite not producing as strong of a grape yield, the small number of grapes that are gathered have a high range of complex flavors. For those who may not be familiar with the average grapevine age that produces some of the best wines across the world, grapevines are normally grown, pulled, and regrown every 30 years. So, what defines “old vine”? Well, in the grapevine world, grapevines generally tend to stop bearing grapes altogether between 60 and 90 years old (depending on location and weather). Therefore, the unofficial “old vine” age amongst winemakers is any vine that exceeds 50 years.
These facts are what make our Old Vine Zinfandel one of the smoothest and easy drinking dry red wines that we have at the winery. This ruby-red beauty has intense dark berry and stone fruit notes, combined with light hints of cinnamon and clove. The grapes from these 71-year-old vines were fermented slightly cooler to retain fruitiness and to enhance the spicy notes of clove and cinnamon. The subtle earthy notes from the vine’s 71 years of maturity lead this wine to pair best with various meals of venison, lamb or grilled steak.
As you can see, this wine is still living out its best days to come. You can find this wine present at fancy galas, family reunions, and yes, even at those heartfelt and gratifying retirement parties. So don’t arrive empty-handed! Bring a bottle that exhibits the same amount of acquired wisdom, complex skills, and works just as hard as the individual you are honoring. Here’s to 50 and older! Cheers!
Who said Halloween and coloring are just for kids? Definitely not us!
Can you color inside the lines? Better yet, can you color and think outside of them? … 🧐 Then let’s put these skills to the test!
Von Stiehl is conducting its first-ever Halloween-themed design contest. So, turn up the surge of creative electricity in those Frankenstein neck bolts and extend those witchy fingers to pen and paper.
Oh, and did we forget to mention?… The winner of our contest will have their design be the inspiration for a limited 2024 Halloween-themed wine release. Sounds too good to be true? Well, no need to pinch yourself, you are not entering the Twilight Zone. However, just as with any great Halloween film, there are a few rules to follow:
Don’t cross the streams.
Don’t let a virgin light the candle.
Don’t seek help from a guy whose name doubles as a bug and a beverage.
Don’t buy murderous vegetation from a little shop.
But most importantly…
NO DEPICTIONS OF WEAPONS.
NO BLOOD OR GORE. (The only spilled shade of Crimson we approve of is our own.)
Please deliver your designs via email to vonstiehl@vonstiehl.com, drop off in person, or mail your designs to von Stiehl Winery, 115 Navarino St., Algoma, WI 54201.
Please have your design submitted by November 2nd.
The winning design will be announced November 30, 2023.
Is dry, red wine just not your thing? If you are like some sweet wine lovers, you may secretly find yourself comparing the feeling of dry, red wine on your tongue to that scene in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade. Yeah, you know the one I’m talking about. The film wants you to think it’s just a cursed chalice, but you know that the bad guy probably snuck in an open bottle of red zinfandel before entirely drying up into a crisp. At least that’s your theory, anyway.
Or do you love the dry red selections? In fact, the drier the better! How else are you supposed to enjoy your steak? In your mind, all that sugar is what your pairing of three candy bars is for. Sure, maybe three bars of chocolate sound a little excessive, but hey, you’re only human! Regardless, you get the point.
Sweet vs Dry. Packers vs Bears. Noodles In Chili vs No Noodles In Chili. We’ve seen it a thousand times! So, is there an answer to this age-old question of indifference? Actually, age has quite a bit to do with it. Many studies have shown that with age and more wine experience, wine preferences tend to lean more toward dry reds. Whereas, with younger individuals with a lack of wine tasting experience, the preference for sweet wines tends to be more prominent. If you were to think about your stance on leafy greens or sushi as a child vs how you feel about these items now, this aspect of changing taste preferences with age and experience starts to make a lot of sense.
But before you start to justify your “wine experience” by insisting on sharing an entire bottle of dry, red wine, or deny being any age over thirty-two just because you reached for a bottle of the sweetest wine you could find, it’s important to note that all wine preferences are still personal and unique. Our taste buds like what they like, and having others around us who have different preferences keeps us constantly learning and experiencing new wines. – Because, who hates the idea of friends offering free wine? Amiright?
So, if you are the sweet wine lover who stops into the winery to purchase an entire case of Crimson Royale or Late Harvest Riesling, there is no high-nosed snobbery to be had! Our only comment may be that you also stop at the bakery downtown or make an emergency chocolate pickup at the local grocery store to complete the pairing. For the dry, red wine drinkers, our doors are also always open! Stop in and buy a bottle (or five) of our Barbera or Alicante Bouchet! There are even great local diners that would love to present a hearty meal to accommodate your full case of Sierra Foothills Cabernet Sauvignon. What we are really trying to say is that no matter where you are in your wine journey, enjoy the process, and always feel free to stop into the winery to ask questions and create new experiences, whether new or old.
Saturday, November 11th, 11am & 1pm
$35/person in advance
Our winemakers have selected five red wines to pour for you at a tasting that you won’t want to miss!
The wines are:
The last one, you guessed it, is a secret!
All these selections will be available to purchase the day of, with the exception of the “Secret Cellar Red.” It will also be the only day these wines can be purchased until released in 2024.
So, with limited purchase availability and only 20 guests per session, be sure to call the winery at (920) 487-5208 to reserve your seats!