Maria Milano trades law for a different kind of bar
Maria Milano adjusts the flowered blouse and admits that the breezy style is a new one.
It takes her a while to become at ease with the scoop neck and spaghetti straps, but soon the new look is absorbed and worn with confidence.
Adding a new style to her repertoire is nothing new for the Parallel 44 Winery owner. In the past few years she’s gone from the formal business suits of a law career to the casual dress of a winery owner and, when called for, a chic, modern style to promote the venture she and her husband opened two years ago in rural Kewaunee.
As someone who now deals with wine cases rather than legal ones, Milano’s not one to worry if something new feels a little uncomfortable at first. She and her husband, Steve Johnson, are happiest when they’re dealing with change.
“When things aren’t changing we get stressed,” she says.
Learning Experience
They’ve experienced a bounty of positive changes over the past few years, from increasingly fruitful grape harvests to a new retail center and event building. They’re producing more than 40,000 bottles of wine annually, but getting to that point has not been without long days. And some new experiences.
“We had the business plan and financing in place, but it was still a big risk,” Milano says. “I look back and I don’t know if I could redo it because of all I know now. But sometimes a little naiveté is a good thing.
“When we opened our doors we didn’t know if our wine would sell or not. We didn’t know how to market. It’s really been a learning process in so many different ways and a great one.”
