How many wineries are in Door County?

There are about ten wineries on the Door County peninsula route, from Von Stiehl in Algoma just south of the county line up to Lautenbach's in Fish Creek. The Door County Wine Trail covers the wineries of Door and Kewaunee counties.

Are Door County wineries open in winter?

Several are, with shorter hours from November through April. Door Peninsula Winery, Harbor Ridge and Von Stiehl stay open through the winter. Smaller wineries cut back to a few days a week, so check before you go.

What is Door County cherry wine?

Wine made from the tart cherries grown on the Door County peninsula. It is usually finished sweet. Door Peninsula Winery, Simon Creek and Von Stiehl all make well-known versions, and Von Stiehl was the first to make it.

Is there a Door County wine trolley?

Yes. Wine trolley tours run from spring through fall and stop at three or four wineries, picking up in Sturgeon Bay and the bay-side villages. Book ahead in July and August.

Which Door County wineries grow their own grapes?

Parallel 44 and its Door 44 tasting room, Anchored Roots in Egg Harbor, Red Oak and Simon Creek all farm their own vineyards. Stone's Throw makes its wines from California grapes.

What is the oldest winery in Door County?

Door Peninsula Winery, open since 1974 in the old Carlsville schoolhouse, is the oldest in Door County itself. Von Stiehl in Algoma, just south of the county line, is the oldest licensed winery in Wisconsin.

Door County Wineries: 10 Tasting Rooms Up the Peninsula

Door County grows cherries, and for a long time that was the whole wine story: sweet cherry wine in gift shops up and down the peninsula. It still sells by the case. But the wineries have changed a lot in the last twenty years, and the ten tasting rooms on the peninsula now pour estate-grown reds, sparkling mead and bourbon flights alongside the cherry. Door County wineries are also close together, which makes them the easiest winery weekend in the state.

This guide takes them in driving order, from Algoma in the south up to Fish Creek, the way most people do them. Nine of the ten are in Door County itself. The first sits just below the county line in Kewaunee County, on the way in, and it is the oldest of the lot. Nowhere else in a state with more than 100 wineries packs this many tasting rooms into one drive.

Before the bridge

Most people drive up from Green Bay. Highway 57 heads northeast toward the Lake Michigan shore, and Algoma, a small harbor town known for its charter fishing fleet, sits a short detour east of it. From there the shore road runs north into Sturgeon Bay, where bridges cross the ship canal onto the peninsula proper. The first winery of the trip comes before any of that.

1. Von Stiehl Winery, Algoma

Von Stiehl Winery

Von Stiehl is the oldest licensed winery in Wisconsin, and it was the first to make wine from Door County cherries. It sits in Algoma, 16 miles south of Sturgeon Bay, in a building from 1868 with limestone aging tunnels underneath. You can tour the cellars, and you should.

The tasting room pours traditional grape wines, fruit wines and the cherry wine that started it all. Von Stiehl now distills small-batch spirits too, and runs a cider bar on the riverside by the Algoma harbor with live music on summer evenings. Most people treat it as the first stop of a peninsula weekend, since it is right on the way.

Sturgeon Bay and Carlsville

North of the Sturgeon Bay canal, Highway 42 and County Road P head up the bay side of the peninsula. The first four wineries sit within about 10 miles of the city, three of them almost within sight of each other.

2. Parallel 44 and Door 44

Parallel 44 Vineyard & Winery

Parallel 44 is named for the 44th parallel, the line of latitude that also crosses Bordeaux and northern Italy, and it is one of the most awarded wineries in the state. The original winery is south in Kewaunee County. The tasting room you will find on the peninsula is its sister, Door 44, on County Road P just north of Sturgeon Bay, with a six-acre vineyard outside the door.

It is a wine-first stop. The staff are known for explaining the cold-hardy grapes the vineyard grows, like Marquette and Frontenac, and the flights can be taken indoors or out on the patio. Ask about the iced cider if it is on. Dogs are welcome.

3. Red Oak Winery and Bourbon Bar, Carlsville

Red Oak bills itself as the first winery you reach in Door County heading north on Highway 42, and it makes wine in two styles: French-style reds and German-style whites and fruit wines. It grows St. Pepin and Marquette on its own Door County vineyard and makes cherry and apple wines from local fruit. These days it is also a bourbon bar, with bourbon flights, cocktails and sourdough pizza on the menu. Red Oak keeps a short week, mostly Friday through Sunday, so check before you go.

4. Door Peninsula Winery, Carlsville

Door Peninsula Winery

Door Peninsula Winery is the oldest winery in Door County itself, open since 1974 in what used to be the Carlsville schoolhouse. It was one of the first wineries in the state after Prohibition to make wine from fruit other than grapes, starting with the local cherries, and it now makes dozens of wines and ciders.

The tastings are free, usually five wines, and there are free winery tours through the day. A distillery shares the building, with spirit samples for a couple of dollars. The shop is huge and sells cheese, fudge, infused olive oils and every cherry product you can think of. It is the busiest winery on the peninsula in summer, so go early.

5. Simon Creek Vineyard & Winery

Simon Creek Vineyard & Winery

Simon Creek is tucked into the woods on an old farm along the creek it is named for, east of Highway 42 on Bochek Road. It farms one of the larger vineyards in Wisconsin and is known for its Door County Cherry, a sweet wine made from peninsula cherries.

It has added a self-pour taproom for bourbon, beer and cocktails, which makes it the stop for groups where not everyone drinks wine. The guided wine tastings are still the main event, and there is live music most summer weekends.

Egg Harbor

Egg Harbor, about 15 miles north of Sturgeon Bay, has three wineries within a couple of miles of each other, and they are the newest and most varied on the peninsula. The village itself sits on the bay with a marina and a small beach, and it makes a good lunch stop between tastings.

6. Anchored Roots Vineyard & Winery

Anchored Roots opened in 2020, started by two Wisconsin natives, Eric and Amy Gale, who grow Marquette, Frontenac and Itasca on their own estate vineyard. It is the place on the peninsula for full-bodied reds. A red called The Summit has a loyal following, and the dry rosé is worth a taste. It is a small, unhurried tasting room with a patio, and it serves beer for anyone who is not drinking wine. It closes on Tuesdays.

7. Harbor Ridge Winery

Harbor Ridge Winery

Harbor Ridge pours in a log building on Rainbow Ridge Court, with a cheese shop next door and a soap shop in the mix. The move is to order a tasting flight, walk next door for cheese, then sit in the space between with both.

The wines run from dry to sweet, with ciders alongside, and a Cabernet Franc that surprises people. A tasting board lets you pick four wines yourself. There is live music on busy weekends, and the tables fill fast when there is.

8. Mixed Meadia

Mixed Meadia makes wine, mead and cider from fruit grown in the Wisconsin Ledge wine region, using native yeasts and minimal intervention. It specializes in traditional-method sparkling wines and in meads that change people's idea of what mead is: brut and sec meads, a cherry cyser, a dandelion mead and a lemon mead among them. It pours inside the Hatch Distillery tasting room on Highway 42, so you can taste whiskey and gin at the same counter. It is small and can get crowded, so aim for a weekday.

Baileys Harbor and Fish Creek

9. Stone's Throw Winery

Stone's Throw Winery

Stone's Throw has been making wine since 1997 at the crossroads locals call Peninsula Center, between Egg Harbor and Baileys Harbor. It makes its wines from California grapes, one barrel at a time, and pours them in a tasting room with a wine bar and tapas menu next door.

There are pretty grounds with outdoor seating and bocce. It is one of the more polished stops on the peninsula, and it adds a service charge for larger groups, so call ahead if you are more than five.

10. Lautenbach's Market, Winery & Cider Co

Lautenbach's Market, Winery & Cider Co

The Lautenbach family has grown cherries and apples outside Fish Creek for generations and added a winery in 1985. Today the place covers about 100 acres of orchard and vineyard, run by Bob Lautenbach and his two daughters.

It is as much a farm market as a tasting room. Taste the wines and ciders, get a wine slush, then walk the orchard, buy a pie and pick your own fruit in season. It is the best stop on the peninsula if you have children with you, and a regular stop on the wine trolley.

Bay side or lake side

Door County has two shores, and the wineries mostly sit on one of them. Highway 42 runs up the bay side, along Green Bay, through Egg Harbor and Fish Creek, and that is where most of the tasting rooms are. Highway 57 runs up the Lake Michigan side through Baileys Harbor, quieter and more wooded.

Stone's Throw sits at Peninsula Center, right between the two, which makes it a natural hinge for a day that starts on one shore and ends on the other. Simon Creek is off on its own on Bochek Road, east of 42. Everything else is on or near the bay-side route, which is why a winery day in Door County tends to run north up 42 and back down 57.

The Door County Wine Trail and the trolley

The Door County Wine Trail is the wineries' own group, covering Door and Kewaunee counties, with about ten members. It publishes a map of the member wineries and sells a trail pass that bundles tastings, which pays off if you plan to visit several.

The simplest way to do several wineries without anyone driving is a trolley tour. Wine trolley tours run from spring through fall and stop at three or four wineries with time to taste at each, usually with lunch built in. Book ahead in July and August, since they sell out.

Every summer the trail holds a wine fest, with all the member wineries pouring in one place. It has been held on the grounds of About Thyme Farm in Baileys Harbor, and tickets go early.

What Door County cherry wine is

Door County cherry wine is made from the tart cherries the peninsula has grown for more than a century. The fruit is sour on its own, so most cherry wine is finished sweet, which gives it the flavor of a cherry pie filling. Some wineries make drier, sharper versions, and a few blend cherry with grapes.

If you only buy one bottle to take home as a gift, this is the one people expect. Door Peninsula Winery, Simon Creek and Von Stiehl all make well-known versions, and Lautenbach's sells cherry everything, including the fruit itself in season.

If you want to taste what the peninsula's grapes can do instead, head to Parallel 44's Door 44 tasting room, Anchored Roots and Red Oak, which grow their own.

Cherry season and harvest

Two seasons shape a Door County winery trip. Cherry picking runs for a few weeks in July, when the orchards open for u-pick and every farm stand has fresh fruit. Grape harvest comes later, in September and into October, when the vineyards at Parallel 44, Anchored Roots and the others are picked and the tasting rooms pour the new releases.

If you can only come once, come in late September. The summer crowds are gone, the leaves are starting to turn along the bay, the patios are still warm in the afternoon, and the wineries have time to talk.

Between the wineries

Door County is more than a wine trail, and the best days mix both. A few things fit naturally between tastings.

Peninsula State Park sits between Fish Creek and Ephraim, a short drive from Lautenbach's, with bluff-top roads, a lookout tower and a beach. It is the classic stop for a walk before or after an afternoon of tasting.

On the lake side, Cave Point County Park has limestone cliffs where Lake Michigan crashes into sea caves, and it is a good leg-stretch on the way between Stone's Throw and Sturgeon Bay.

And eat a fish boil at least once. It is Door County's signature meal, cooked outdoors over a wood fire with a dramatic boil-over at the end, and several restaurants in the bay-side villages put one on most summer evenings. A bottle of cherry wine from earlier in the day is the local pairing.

Planning your day

Four wineries is a full afternoon. The peninsula is long and the speed limits drop in every village, so choose a stretch rather than trying to do all ten.

On a first trip, start at Von Stiehl on the drive up, then take Parallel 44, Door Peninsula and Simon Creek, all within a few miles of each other north of Sturgeon Bay. The next day, do the Egg Harbor three and finish at Lautenbach's in Fish Creek.

If you want quieter tasting rooms, go on a weekday, go in the morning, or go in June or late September when the summer crowds thin. And plan who is driving. The roads are two-lane, busy in summer and dark at night.

Visiting outside summer

Several Door County wineries stay open through the winter, including Door Peninsula Winery, Harbor Ridge and Von Stiehl, and Parallel 44 welcomes off-season visitors too, though most shorten their hours from November through April. Smaller places like Red Oak and Anchored Roots cut back to a few days a week.

Winter on the peninsula is quiet in a good way. There are no crowds, fireplaces are lit, and you can talk to the person pouring for as long as you like. Check each winery's hours before you set out, since the off-season schedule changes month to month.