Sunset Point Winery

About

We are hoping to attract people from around the city as well as around the state to downtown Stevens Point. We offer a relaxing environment with a variety of wines; including traditional varietals as well as fruit blends and dessert wines. In the tasting room you can not only taste our wines you can also enjoy a glass of wine, beer or soda. We carry crackers made in Madison, toffee made in Sturtevant, cheese made in Antigo, and cranberry products from Wisconsin Rapids. As well many of our gift items are Wisconsin or USA made.

Location Description

Location in downtown Stevens Point.

Additional Information

  • Meeting / Conference Facilities:
  • Caves:
  • Wedding Facilities:
  • Picnic Facilities:
  • Dog Friendly:
  • Winery Tours:
  • Wine Tasting:
  • Art or Architecture:
  • Organic / Biodynamic:
  • Awards:
  • Wine Club:
  • Lodging / Bed & Breakfast:

Average Bottle Price

$ 15

History

The story of the winery begins in March of 2014 on a rainy day after I had a less than great week at work. I started researching winery business plans and through the research found that we were lacking a winery in the Stevens Point Area and the surrounding area by about 50 miles at that time. I also knew the owner of Great Northern Distillery, Brian thought it would be an excellent addition to the area and so we started. After a full business plan and many meetings with lawyers and bankers we were secured in the building as well as a winery.

The building was purchased with a small group on October 6th, 2014; including myself and my husband, my Dad and lastly a silent investor. The ground floor had recently been an office space so we needed to renovate to get it back to a manufacturing facility. There were lots of surprises and unknowns; the largest being a 20’ by 8’ section of rotten flooring. So we replaced all the floors and beams and rated it to hold 18,000 pounds. This floor now holds 8 of our 250 gallon stainless steel tanks. After inspections and approvals and permits at the federal, state, county and city level. We started making wine in April 2015. Our soft opening followed shortly after over the Riverfront Rendezvous the weekend of July 4th, 2015.

The logo and name: The name of the winery is a combination of two great locations! My husband and I were married in September of 2013 on Sunset Lake in Amherst. And we both graduated from UWSP with Paper Science degrees, then we both taught at UWSP for the Paper Science Department and lastly we both live now in Stevens Point. So Sunset Point Winery was born. The logo also has special meaning: We are a blended family with five kids, yes – five kids; and because of this there are seven rays in the sun that is setting. The logo was designed by Jennifer Lingard, a high school friend of mine.

The support: No doubt we could have not done this without some AMAZING support! My father, Gary Johnson, manages the winery during the day while we continue with our full time jobs in the paper industry. He literally quit his job to move into our house (away from my Mom) to be our construction manager, winery expert and chief “kid taxi cab” and chef. Without the support of our families, on both sides, including our siblings we couldn’t have done this. There are way too many friends to throw on this list as well; and we are truly blessed by great people in our lives. Friends had shown up to wash walls before opening, help us crush grapes the first time and wash the first round of bottles. Many helped us with working long hours ripping down insulation, scrapping tile floors, scrubbing deposits off the floors, and getting our pillar light cleaned and glowing again. And lastly, Great Northern Distillery, who gave us our first order for bulk wine; they will be releasing brandy in August of 2017.

Last but by no means least our staff: We have had GREAT staff! They are a wonderful team of talented individuals who jumped in with us and have supported us through our short growth period. Everyone we’ve had the pleasure of working with has contributed in some way to our successes so far and for this we are deeply grateful.

When you step into our tasting room we want you to relax. This should feel like your living room away from home. We carry products for everyone, you don’t need to love wine to enjoy the atmosphere and the 2nd story view of the river and city. Closely located to the parks and the city square we offer not only wine, but craft beer and soda as well. Enjoy snacks made from other Wisconsin businesses. Enjoy shopping for the perfect gift in our retail space; we carry a variety of novelty towels, cutting boards, natural honey products and wine related items.

Practices & Techniques

The process starts for wine making in the primary fermenter. We have 2 jacketed primary fermenters that we can use to keep the temperature regulated. When a batch starts the grapes are crushed and placed into the primary fermenter with yeast. The yeast digests the sugars in the grapes (or other fruit) and turns the sugar into alcohol.

The next step is called secondary fermentation, after about a week in the primary the wine is taken off the top and the residual, skins, pulp, yeast cells are left on the bottom of the primary and removed. During secondary fermentation the wine finishes to its final alcohol content.

Following secondary fermentation is clarifying. This step is critical to the clarity of the wine. During this stage the wine rests for up to several months while the pulp settles to the bottom.

Once the wine is cleared, it can be aged in barrels or if it’s a fruit wine it can be bottled.

Prior to bottling the wine is filtered and stabilized to prevent re-fermentation.

Our bottling line is pretty small we can fill four bottles in 23 seconds, we then hand cork each bottle using a pneumatic corker or with a hand operated corker.

Our labels are made at Spectra Print locally and applied on a very small machine one at a time.

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Hours

Tuesday – 12pm to 8pm Wednesday – 12pm to 8pm Thursday – 12pm to 8pm Friday – 12pm to 9pm Saturday – 11am to 9pm Sunday – 12pm to 4pm

Address

1201 Water Street
Stevens Point, Wisconsin 54481
United States

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