Advertisement His retirement lasted about a week before he began to ponder his next career.
"I was home for seven or eight days, did everything a retired guy would do and drove my wife crazy," Gill said.
Gill said he and his wife, Kiyoko Fiedler, wanted their rural Blair farm to generate some sort of cash. But instead of livestock or crops, they decided to start a winery.
After a year of applications to receive federal, state and local approval, Tenba Ridge Winery began serving customers in May.
The winery, which is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, offers samples and retail sales.
The journey from a mechanical engineer to winemaker included several other stops along the way. But Gill's life experiences added up to one philosophy that he and his wife share.
"We both agreed to raise our sense of ‘gracious living,'" Gill said. "Good wines raise a sense of gracious living. Also, we want to introduce other people to our wines to raise their sense of gracious living."
More so than making money, the couple wants to share the beauty they have found at Tenba Ridge.
"I enjoy sitting with friends, sipping on some homemade wine," he said.
The couple named their farm Tenba Ridge after the mound on which their house sits along Joe Coulee in eastern Trempealeau County. It was named after the Japanese term "flying horse." The farm is home to four horses.
From an aerial view, the ridge resembles a dragon. Built following the philosophy of Feng Shui, the house was strategically placed in the belly of the dragon — a calm, peaceful and protected place.
Family heritage
Gill said he made his first batch of wine during chemistry class when he was a high school sophomore. Gill is following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather John Francis Gill, who ran a family wine and sheep business in the Alsace-Lorraine area of Germany in the late 1800s before coming to America.
Alsace, which is now French, is the quintessential home of terroir-driven wines, the almost mystical French term for the total natural environment of a wine, comprising the soil, climate, sunlight and geology. Those who believe in the influence of terroir believe that every small plot or region can have distinctive wine characteristics.
Gill tries to emulate the methods and materials that would have been available to his great-grandfather more than 100 years ago.
Making wine in small batches of three to six gallons, Gill purchases various types of grape juice from grapes that would be available in Alsace. During the fermentation process he usually adds some apple juice, which he said gives the wine more protein and boosts the alcohol content. And alcohol, Gill said, is what "makes his wines taste good."
The varieties
Gill offers three red wines that are the equivalent of a syrah/cabernet blend, cabernet and pinot noir. He has two whites — a Müller-Thurgau (similar to Riesling) and a gewürztraminer, and he also pours a blush wine similar to white zinfandel.
Gill also makes several fruit wines such as blackberry, cherry, cranberry, strawberry and plum, but he still uses apple juice as a blend.
Don't expect a California-style wine at Tenba Ridge. Gill's wines are bold, spicy and fruity. And because of his small batch fermentation, each barrel is slightly different.
"These come from old recipes, some are a thousand years old," Gill said. "One was developed in 1200 A.D."
Gill says many visitors arrive in the tasting room — the lower level of his house — with a healthy dose of skepticism about whether a Wisconsin winery can make quality wines. After a few samples, they leave their doubts behind and usually walk out the door with several bottles or even a case.
Because of limited production, Tenba Ridge wines are available only at the winery. Bottles are $10 each.
Gill called the wines "porch wines," designed for sitting and sipping. But he said they would also complement food, which he said would bring out the best of the wine, which would also bring out the best of the food.
For Gill, serving the wine and meeting new people is a natural part of gracious living.
"We have developed a niche for producing affordable wines with exceptional taste, and the wine-buying public appreciates our efforts," Gill said. "Business has been phenomenal. Our single biggest challenge is keeping up with the demand."
The Tenba Ridge Winery is located at N27587 Joe Coulee Road, Blair, Wis. For more information about the winery, call (608) 525-2413. The winery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May through December; call ahead for best results.
Chris Hardie is the publisher of the weekly and shopper division of River Valley Newspapers Group. He can be reached at chardie@rivervalleynewspapers.com. Ken Luchterhand of The Chronicle in Black River Falls contributed to this report.
