How a challenge turned into award winning wines in hayward wisconsinCurtis DeCora | Aug 23, 2022
Nestled in the woods of Northern Wisconsin, you'll find a combination of BBQ ribs, Brisket, Farm Pizza, and award-winning wines. It sounds like an odd concept, but "Famous" Dave Anderson has a knack for making concepts work. Here you will find Tamarack Farms Winery, just 5 miles east of Hayward Wisconsin.
What started off as a “I betcha I could make wines” challenge—“Famous" Dave Anderson the founder and creator of many award winning restaurant concepts and the brain trust for some of the best selling retail products in Grocery Stores and Big Box Retailers—his line up includes: BBQ Sauces, BBQ Seasonings, Spicy Sweet Pickles, Cornbread Muffin Mixes, Bloody Mary Mixes & Hot Sauces. The national seasoning companies Dave works with for his restaurant concepts has shared, “There are probably 5 people in America that are blessed with Famous Dave’s extraordinary palate! Its uncanny how he can create recipes that are tasty, delicious, mouthwatering, and totally 'his own' flavor profile that is quickly discernibly different from all the other thousands of products on the market!" The Birth of Tamarack Farms One day, Dave's brother-in-law, Paul Rynning who farms the family farm watched a group of ladies carrying out some big buckets of strawberries from the farm. When Paul exclaimed, "it looks like you ladies are making some strawberry pies tonight!", they replied with, "No, we're making wine." That brought a discussion between Paul and Kathy (Dave's wife) how growing up their mom & dad always a few A&W gallon jugs with balloons on top sitting in their basement. Their mom & dad made homemade wines using stuff around their family farm—crab-apple & dandelion wines. Dave chimed in, "I betcha I could make wine too!" Dave is 50+ years sober, so it sounded like an odd idea, but he's been making award winning & nationally best selling barbecue sauces, and felt he could excel with wine making. Dave Anderson hooked up with Dave Von Rueden, one of his best friends and right-hand-man, who has been with Dave since the beginning of Famous Daves. It was Dave Von Rueden who witnessed the first Famous Dave barbecued rib ever eaten. Dave has German roots and is a curious foodie himself. Von Rueden shared that he loved the idea as in years past he has tinkered around making homemade beer. Dave squared started by using the natural fruits that grow in our Northland environment: Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries, Cranberries, Strawberries, and Apples. Once they made up some batches, the first ones weren’t so good, but the only way to find out was to send them to some wine contests. |
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