About Us

The Land & The Plan

Spurgeon Vineyards & Winery is located in the beautiful hills of Southwest Wisconsin. It is the nature of hills to drain away cold and water thus rendering the hilltops an excellent location to grow grapes. The winery is nestled in the valley below. Mary’s parents, Clarence & Anastasia Womack, purchased the land in the mid-1950s as an addition their home farm. It is an 80 acre tract that once was a homestead. Mary’s parents used the land to grow corn on the hilltops while they pastured beef cows on the hillsides. As Clarence and Ann started thinking of retirement, they sold this land to some newlyweds – Glen and Mary. The year was 1977. That year Glen and Mary planted corn on the hilltops as well as a half row of grapes. In 1978 they made a serious dent in the planting of their vineyards by putting in 5 acres of grapes. This was followed by a 5 acre planting in 1979, another 5 acre planting in 1981 and a final acre in 1982. Each of those acres contains 600 or more vines.Grape vines will produce a small crop in their third year after planting. To deal with this crop, Glen and Mary began building and equipping the original winery in 1980. Their first harvest from the 1978 planting was in the autumn of 1981. After making the wine from those grapes and ageing it for several months, the Spurgeons bottled their first vintage. On May 1, 1982, Glen and Mary opened their doors and poured their first commercial wines for customers to taste. And so began the on-going adventures.