Rubber Ducky Winery and Country Market

Milton, Wisconsin

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Crusin' Rating: C

Booze Rating: C-

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This week, we are back in Wisconsin checking out a winery in Milton.  If you’ve been following along - Milton is just 40 minutes outside of Madison and has enough spots to make an afternoon booze cruise worth it between Timber Hill Winery, Good Works Brewing Company, and this week’s entry - Rubber Ducky Winery & Country Market.  Formerly Northleaf Winery - Rubber Ducky is new as of May 2025 - but still has plenty of stock and wines from the Northleaf.  Promising to bring the winery into the future while honoring the past - the new owners sound like they have some interesting plans in the future for the winery - including a cocktail lounge with themed bartenders that serves as a soda counter during the day for kids.  

We will preface this review with the caveat that although this is a Wisconsin-based winery - almost all of the grapes are from California or New York which, of course, is a huge bummer to us when talking about wine as we always love to see grapes grown in state.  We are also a little unclear as to where the wines are actually made - or it wasn’t made clear to us if the wines are made onsite or not - we believe so, but don’t quote us!

The building itself is in the National Register of Historic Places (175 years old) and in its past lives has served as a Wheat Warehouse, different garages, and even an apple orchard warehouse.  It’s served as the home of Northleaf Winery since 2007.  The space is not huge, and it's not super bright - both carryovers from an older building in general, and the fact that a designer isn't exactly looking at natural light when building a warehouse in 1850!  While the space is intimate and cozy in winter months - we did find it just a little crowded and almost stuffy in the heat of summer - some of that was alleviated by having the doors to a small patio opened at the front of the building.

Hannah absolutely loved the old wood that’s present throughout the space and I was a little in awe of just how many bottles of wine line the walls for sale - taking wall-to-wall quite literally.  

We will say that every staff person there is very attentive and incredibly friendly - we were checked on multiple times by several smiling faces which is always welcome - some genuine small-town kindness.  The usual wine-related gifts: tea towels with cheeky sayings, novelty bottle openers and the like could be found for sale throughout the space.  While I don’t recall ever buying any of the knick-knacks from a winery - it’s always funny, and even a bit welcoming to see when you walk into a winery.  Maybe one of the hints that lets you know you’re in a real Wisconsin winery - just like seeing cheese curds on a menu at your local dive bar.  

Speaking of food - the winery does serve some flat breads and (we were told) that there are plans to have a more robust kitchen in the future along with a permanent farm stand.  A fun fact, the new owners got their start with a small farm stand in their front yard in Twin Lakes!  

As for the wines - there were 25 options - too many for us to try all in one sitting - although you can do a superflight which is a mere $20 dollars for 25 samples (maybe 1 oz.) of each wine.  We were not looking to go that hard with wine on a hot day - a lesson we’ve learned the hard way more than once.  We opted for our usual four for a taste and grabbed one flight - built ourselves, although you can choose pre-chosen flights or ask one of the lovely staff to make suggestions for you.  In addition to wine, there are cocktails (both with and without wine) for $8 each, bottled beer and hard cider, Carbliss seltzers, and tap beer (mostly large brewers - not Wisconsin- based).

Left to Right: John Alexander, Rose, American Syrah, Cranberry Syrah

On to the wine!

John Alexander (13.95% ABV) - This Gewurztraminer poured golden and featured an aroma of pineapple syrup, tropical fruits, and slightly floral.  With notes of pineapple and lychee syrup, peach, and some ends in some mouth watering, but low acidity.  I thought this one was decent, although it’s going to seem really sweet when tasting it if you’ve never had one before.  This was a decent example of the style, although I would have liked a little more floral on the nose and those notes of clove you can often find in the style. 

Rose (12.30% ABV) - This decidedly brown-tinted pink wine had bright red raspberries and watermelon when smelling.  Tart cherries, raspberry, and red fruit skins dominate the taste buds here and the level of acidity made this a bright, light offering that was Hannah’s favorite of the bunch. I thought the minerality here was too strong and made for an unpleasant experience. 

American Syrah (11.70% ABV) - Dark, almost black plum in color, this Syrah features notes of charred wood and leather on the nose and some plum.  Grilled plum, and woody barrel notes were the dominant flavors we picked up.  To us, this one missed the mark.  A syrah should distinctly have those peppery notes and lots of dark fruit, and while leather is acceptable depending on where the grapes are grown, but to taste straight barrel rather than some subtle vanilla or smokiness was a bit of a let down.  This wine should have been bolder and richer.  

Cranberry Shiraz (9.0% ABV) - Not learning our lesson, but knowing Hannah’s love of sour things, we tried this rare blend of cranberry Shiraz with cranberry flavor added to a Shiraz base.  What were we thinking?  This wine smelled of pink sweet tarts and powdered sugar and featured medium sweetness, while it wasn’t cloyingly sweet tasting, still reminded us too much of candy to be finished.  While it was our own fault for not reading that this was a wine with a sweet cranberry note - it wouldn’t have helped as we detected no earthy notes as described either. Skip this concoction, even around the holidays.

Are there some good examples of styles on this menu?  You bet.  Again though, we are going to come back to how much we wish more of them used grapes from Wisconsin and we hope that as they move forward that they will strive for that in the future.  We’ve talked at some length on how we feel about wineries sourcing all/most of their grapes outside of the state elsewhere on the blog so we won’t continue to harp on it - but can be summed up in - we can do the California wine thing just about anywhere at any liquor store - what we’d like to see more of are wines that support local farmers and are made right here - you know us by now.  I think if you don’t mind where your wine comes from you might find something you like here and Milton has another winery for some more wildcard offerings as well as brewery to make a wonderful day of.

Until next time - keep on crusin’, don’t stop boozin’. 

To learn more about Rubber Ducky Winery, please visit their website at: https://northleafwinery.com/ or on Facebook: @RubberDuckyCountryMarket or on Instagram: @RubberDuckyWinery