By Damien Jaques Senior Contributing Editor Published Jul 06, 2011 at 1:08 PM

For Hal Tomesch, we could call these the days of wine and Moses. For Al Haas, he is practicing his day job crafts of designing brand logos, websites and packaging.

The two pals, who first met as fathers of boys playing youth hockey, have opened Wisconsin's newest winery, the Chiselled Grape, in Grafton. The public got its first look last weekend at the 1907 one-room schoolhouse that is serving as the Chiselled Grape production facility, retail shop and art gallery. Both men are trained painters.

Tomesch, who is from Toronto, teaches theology at Concordia University. An ordained minister, he was previously president of a Lutheran seminary in southern Ontario.

Sheboygan is Haas' hometown. He is a graduate of MIAD and has his own Milwaukee design firm, H2D, Inc.

Chiselled Grape – the name suggests a hand-crafted product – is pursuing two paths to the wine market. An acre of land adjoining the schoolhouse was plowed three weeks ago, vines from three grape varieties were grafted onto winter roots, and stakes were driven into the ground.

The partners are looking to the vineyards of the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York for inspiration and experience. The latitude of that area and southern Wisconsin is similar. They planted vines that will produce grapes for three white wines – the Alsatian Gewurztraminer, the Georgian Rkatsiteli and a new variety identified by Cornell University and named Arctic.

Rkatsiteli is from the Eastern European country of Georgia, not the southern state, and it is known for being among the oldest grape varieties. Speaking about the wine, Tomesch said last weekend, "we knew there never is enough and it is always selling out. We want to give people the opportunity to try wines they haven't previously tasted."

The earliest the partners can expect to make wine from their vineyard is 2013, so they are also following another plan. They purchased excess product from a Santa Barbara County (Cal.) winery, had it shipped to the Grafton schoolhouse in large bladder-lined cardboard boxes, and bottled the vino under the Chiselled Grape label. Like the vine planting process, the two men's families provided the labor for the project.

Chiselled Grape was the first Wisconsin winery to use a stainless steel mobile bottling machine owned and rented out by the Elmaro Vineyard in Trempealeau. The contraption, transported in a large horse trailer, filters and bottles 1,000 units per hour. The Tomesch and Haas families produced 8,500 bottles.

On sale at the old schoolhouse, the initial Chiselled Grape offerings consist of three red and three white wines. The reds include a Sangiovese that is younger and lighter than most, an oaky Barbera and an American Malbec. Most Malbecs come from Argentina.

The whites are a Viognier, a Gewurztraminer and a Chenin Blanc.

Single bottle prices range from $9.75 for the Gewurztraminer to $17.50 for the Malbec. Discounts are given for multiple bottle purchases.

Tomesch's interest in wine began in Ontario, where a surprisingly broad range of grapes are grown. The partner in charge of selecting the California wines that would be sold under the Chiselled Grape label, he assembled a panel of about 30 people to taste excess product available from California wineries.

Females were particularly well represented in the group. "We believe women make most of the wine choices," Tomesch explained.

Chiselled Grape wine is currently sold only at the schoolhouse winery, but the partners hope to soon place it in selected stores and restaurants. Internet sales may be in the future.

A line of award-winning Sartori cheeses from Plymouth, as well as artisan chocolates, pretzels, mustards, and Door County jams and preserves are also on sale at the winery, which is located at the intersection of Port Washington and Lakefield Roads in Grafton.

Damien Jaques Senior Contributing Editor

Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.

During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.

Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.