Jonas and Ben Schrodt at the Gnaw Bone location. photo by Paige Langenderfer
time. I could not believe that you could make a living doing something that was so much fun.”
Dave based his wine list from the fact that most people from the region were not familiar with wine.
“ I decided to make wines that were very simple, fun, country wines. They tasted good, were fun to drink, and had a wide ranging appeal,” he said.“ People didn’ t quite know what to do with wine, so we began offering free tastings. They would say it was the best wine they had ever tasted.”
Very early on, Dave took an interest in making a variety of fruit wines, including blackberry, plum, and cranberry.
“ Not all of those first decisions were good ones, but we still sell several of the first wines,” Dave said.“ The fruit wines became our flagship. People love them because they are flavorful and aromatic.”
Experimenting with different flavors has been one of Dave’ s favorite parts of the job.
“ It’ s fun to try new things and see what people think,” he said.“ We really get instant feedback and can change things so that our products are what people want. And I tend to agree with them most of the time.”
Cynthia started working full time at the winery in 1994.
“ We were making enough sales that we could afford for me to quit my job,” Cynthia said.“ I took over the business side of things. He was in the back making wine and I was in the front selling it.”
Cynthia said the customers have been her favorite part of the job.
“ We get people from all over the United States and from different countries. We have customers who have been coming back for 25 years. It has been a lot of fun meeting people and connecting with them as they come back every year,” she said.“ People are usually in a good mood because they are on vacation and wine is an easy sell to make.” Cynthia said she believes there is one main reason people continue to come back.
“ We want people to have a good experience every time they visit us. We try to make the wine tasting very approachable so that people feel comfortable,” she said.“ We tell them to trust their taste buds.”
The winery has grown considerably from the days in the rented garage.
Dave and Cynthia built the current winery location in 2000 and have added to it twice since.
In 2021, the winery sold 30,000 gallons of wine. That is 150,000 bottles.
Continued on 20 Jan./ Feb. 2023 • Our Brown County 17