MADISON – If you think it's cool to have a little Kewaunee County wine with your Kewaunee County fish, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce wants to hear from you.

Two locally made products are nominees in the fifth annual “Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin” contest sponsored by WMC and Johnson Financial Group, and the first round of online public voting is open through 5 p.m. Sunday.

The products are the smoked fish from Bearcats Fish House in Algoma and Frozen Tundra Red wine from Parallel 44 Vineyard and Winery in Kewaunee. It's the second straight year Frozen Tundra Red was nominated.

The goal of the contest is to highlight the state’s diverse manufacturing industry. Over the years, nominated products have ranged from military vehicles to food carts, construction products to cheeses and beers. Among the 130 nominees this year are fabric face masks, custom cars and trikes, caskets, furniture, landscape equipment, perfume, mechanical pencils, tops and beef jerky.

Bearcats is a retail and wholesale distributor that uses local hardwoods and traditional smoking methods to create unique tastes, according to its website. Local commercial fishermen help supply Bearcats with fresh fish from the surrounding Great Lakes. With a second store in Green Bay, it offers frozen, breaded and unbreaded seafood as well as smoked and fresh, along with other food products.

Frozen Tundra Red is a semi-sweet wine blended from the Frontenac and Marquette grapes grown in Parallel 44's vineyard. It's the winery's best-selling wine and has won numerous awards in wine competitions across the country. Parallel 44 winemaker and co-owner Steve Johnson said it stands out not only because it's made in Wisconsin but also because its grapes are grown locally.

The first round of “Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin” voting opened Monday and continues through Sunday, Sept. 20, with 130 products nominated. The public can cast a vote every day on any device.

The top 16 vote-getters will be announced Monday and placed into brackets for tournament-style, head-to-head match-ups in what WMC is calling Manufacturing Madness. 

Online voting to determine the top 8 runs from Sept. 22 to 27. Voting to narrow the bracket to the top 4 runs from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4, with the final round of voting taking place from Oct. 6 to 14. The winner will be announced Oct. 14 during the WMC Foundation Made in Wisconsin Luncheon.

To vote, visit madeinwis.com, then click on "Contest Information" and scroll down to "Vote" at the top of the page. Nominees are spread across seven pages, listed in alphabetical order by company; Bearcats is on the first page and Parallel 44 is on the fourth.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-741-7952, 920-562-8900 or [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Kewaunee County wine, smoked fish nominated for 'Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin'