Wine professional looking to relocate (Milwaukee, Madison: home, buy, construction)

[Winegal]

I manage a wine and beer department for a large grocery store in Seattle, and I am looking to relocate to Madison later this year. I am wondering what the general wine culture in Madison is, do people generally enjoy wine with dinner, do people buy most of their wine at the grocery store or at wine shops, do people tend to drink more domestic or imported. Any insight that anyone can offer would be much appreciated.

[tchemgrrl]

The wine culture in Madison? Someone putting beer in a wine glass because they ran out of steins.

I'm sorry, I'm sure there's an actual answer to your question (I'm not enough of any kind of drinker to know), but Madison is so much a beer town that it's a little funny to think of it having a wine culture. Lots of breweries of various sizes, and many very vocal adherents. I didn't hear a similar conversation about wine the whole time I was there.

Cafe Monmartre is a place with a greater-than-average focus on wine, you might want to take a look at their list or get in touch with them to see what people are drinking.

[gallon]

I like New Glarus breweries Belgian Red (thanks Drover.)
I am told good wine can taste like this.

[Dairylander]

Madison's casual wine drinkers are served by the standard liquor/grocery stores.
The "connoisseurs" flock to Barriques - a locally owned chain of wine shops that has the market pretty well cornered.
As far as wine culture, I think Madisonians like good wine, but we don't get uppity about it.
Most of the people I know drink French and South American reds.

[Milwaukee City]

Not trying to recruit you to Milwaukee but with a larger population you will find more specialized wine stores other than your local pick n save grocers. Jazz In The Park is a Jazz and wine festival held every Thursday in downtown Milwaukee at Cathedral Square but this year their talking about not letting people bring in their own wine bottles, so you'' have to pay the standard 12-15/glass price. A lot of the wine stores in Milwaukee and I'm sure this is the same in Madison, offer wine night or tastings or fests that wine groups put together.

[Tenn.Sunshine]

Wisconsin Wineries: Wollersheim Winery, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Wineries - Cedar Creek Winery, Cedarburg, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Winery Association - Wonderful Wisconsin Wines!
Wisconsin Wineries WI

I think these links might be helpful... personally - I love wine! And it is as much a German tradition as beer is.

[quijote]

As far as I can tell, the wine market in Madison is pretty similar to other well-to-do college/capital towns: the market is fairly small, but good, quality wines have something of a following among the academic and political sorts. Barriques (Barriques Market - Home Page) is probably the main, independent store serving that niche, though a couple of others exist, too. Supermarkets such as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods also cater to the small but dedicated group of wine aficionados.

There are many good restaurants in Madison with well-developed wine lists, and there are also a couple of trendy wine bars such as Eno-Vino (Eno Vino Wine Bar and Bistro). There are a couple of other wine-related businesses in the area, most notably Import Wines, which brings many fine wines from Europe to the Heartland. But in spite of all this, serious wine remains the darling of a small yet dedicated population in the area. A somewhat larger segment of the population goes for table wine, and as others here have noted, Beer is pretty much King in Madison.

As MilwaukeeCity mentioned, you should also consider Milwaukee. The proportion of serious wine lovers is probably the same, and the stats on table wine and beer are probably quite similar, but there's been an uptick in interest in wine over the past several years in Mke. Many independent wine stores have been around for years (Downer, Grapes and Grain, Ray's, Discount Liquor, etc.), and new ones have cropped up in the past few years, especially downtown (Thief Wine, Vino 100, and others). Many wine bars have opened (Balzac, Indulge, etc.), though some have closed as the trend has developed. There are many good restaurants with great wine selections (Dream Dance, Sanford, Lake Park Bistro, Pizza Man), and there are many supermarkets (TJs, Whole Foods, Sendiks, etc.) with a strong wine program.

But still, compared to the coastal cities, wine hasn't hit full stride in Wisconsin. Both Madison and Milwaukee have engaged and demanding yet relatively small fine wine markets; bulk wine and beer really do much better here.

On a personal note, I've never had problems finding wonderful, traditional and modern wines in either Madison or Milwaukee. The selection and market don't blow me away, but I'm definitely not bored with what's around either (and I love my wine!). (And Chicago, esp. Sam's Wine and Spirits, is just down the road.)

[Madtown RM]

Winegal, Please move to Madison! We could really use a wine expert here. There is a growing population of well-to-do folks here and we need more wine choices! Barriques and Trader Joe's is just the beginning...

[Winegal]

Thank you guys for the helpful posts. I'm sure that Milwaukee is a great place, but I'm looking at Madison because my boyfriend is from there and he wants to move back, so Milwaukee isn't really getting much talk around the dinner table. But thanks for the feedback!

[MidwesternBookWorm]

With your background in retail beer/wine management, you might check out the new Hy-Vee grocery store that's currently under construction on East Washington to see if they plan a beer/wine/liquor department. I have no idea whether they plan to hire management-level staff here in Madison or import them from their other locations (they're big in Iowa, I believe) but it could be worth checking into.