As some might remember, we planned while in Michigan to pick up some local wines for an AWS chapter tasting back home. Armed with lots of suggestions from the forum, we hit the Michigan wine trail last week looking for about four whites and four reds.
The Traverse City region was our main focus. Wineries here are located on two peninsulas, Old Mission and Leelanau, that jut out into Grand Traverse Bay. This is cool climate wine country. The 45th parallel, midpoint between the equator and the North Pole, crosses here (and also lends its name to a very good place to have breakfast in Suttons Bay). As you would expect, the emphasis is on whites and we found some good ones.
The best were from wineries on Old Mission Peninsula. The Manigold Vineyard Gewurtraminer at Peninsula Cellars was delightful, an easy choice for the tasting. Their semi-dry Riesling was another easy pick. Although we were not looking for other fruit wines, we did try a couple and can recommend their apple wine. The winemaker at Pennisula Cellars, Bryan Ulbrich, makes a dry Riesling under his own Left Foot Charley label. O W Holmes had brought this to NiagaraCool. For reasons Bryan tried to explain but I didn’t understand it can not yet be purchased at the winery. We were able to get it though at a store (the Blue Goat) in Traverse City.
Another very good find on Old Mission Peninsula was a dry Whole Cluster Riesling from Chateau Grand Traverse. We had an interesting discussion there with Sean O’Keefe, VP and son of the founder, about the rationale behind the whole cluster method. This fine, crisp wine made a total of 4 whites, so one flight for the tasting appeared pretty well set.
What about some reds? They are not the forte of the Traverse City region, although the ’05s are touted as much better than the currently available ‘04s. A special sample of ’05 Cabernet Franc at Black Star on Leelanau Peninsula supported this claim. Although we tried a variety of reds, none made much of an impression. We also tried some sparklers at Mawby on the Leelanau Peninsula but they were overpriced. Service in the tasting room there left much to be desired as well. When I asked to taste the non-sparkling Vignoles, available only at the winery, I was told that it wasn’t possible because it was not on the tasting list. Talk about a pig in a poke!
At about this time we began getting nervous. The day had netted just 4 wines, all whites. So we decided to lower our sights and keep trying. Two reds and a sparkler were added as a result. None was particularly exciting, but perhaps they would do. We planned to round things out with a Catawba Rose from St. Julian in southwest Michigan that had won a gold medal at a recent competition.
Several days later in Kalamazoo we made the short trip to St. Julian in Paw Paw. Unfortunately, the sought after Catawba turned out to be much too sweet. The label said 4% sugar, which the normally high acidity of Catawba might be expected to handle, but it did not in this case. All was not lost however, because St. Julian had a Hermitage on sale that tasted pretty good. We decided to get it so that at least one decent red would be in tasting.
Looking over some notes, we saw that Nancy had liked a wine from Lemon Creek Winery she tasted at the AWS conference at Penn State a few years ago. So it was back in the car and off to furthest southwest Michigan, hard by the Indiana border, an area known as “Michiana”.
At Lemon Creek we found a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve that was just plain yummy. Described on the tasting sheet as “The best Cab that Michigan has to offer”, we couldn’t disagree and happily added it to our collection.
Just across the street from Lemon Creek is Domaine Berrien Cellars, and it turned out to be a gem. Although our mission was reds, the Viognier and Marsanne on the tasting menu couldn’t be passed up. Both were excellent. The flowery Viognier, we then decided, just had to be added to the whites in our tasting.
The reds at Domaine Berrien were the best overall that we tasted. Both the Lemberger and Cabernet Franc could hold their own with those from better known regions. But the one we liked best was an ’04 Pinot Noir. It became the 8th and final entrant in our tasting. All in all, the across the board high quality at Domaine Berrien was most impressive. The winery is young but obviously dedicated to producing fine wines, including varieties not much seen elsewhere in the state. On a more general note, the reds in the southwest part of the state were a much better lot than those in the north.
Those who automatically count everything (as Sir Francis Galton did) will realize that our search for 8 wines resulted in a total of 11. Since 4 or 5 bottles were bought of each, a stash of some so-so wines has become ours. Anyone for a Sparkling Sandpiper from Mawby? Sorry, we don’t know what’s in it. They couldn’t say at the winery.
Finally, Michigan wines seem pricey. Most of those we bought were around $20. A comparable assortment of Finger Lakes wines would come in at noticeably less, certainly the whites would. Is this a function of different state regulations? Are the Michigan wines really worth the difference (sure, why not start a little trouble)? At the tasting, probably sometime in the winter, opinions about this and more will fly as the wines are poured.
There is chilly areas in California, too, of course. Green Valley in Sonoma is awesome-