Michigan's Bountiful Potential
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ONE IN 50 MICHIGAN Wine Industry Michigan has 148 wineries AVAs Fennville Lake Michigan Shore Leelanau Peninsula Old Mission Peninsula Tip of the Mitt Wineries to Know Bel Lago Vineyards & Winery Black Star Farms The state’s lauded Riesling owes its start to Brys Estate Edward O’Keefe Jr., founding winemaker and Vineyard & Winery CEO of Chateau Grand Traverse. During the Chateau Grand Traverse MICHIGAN’S 1970s, he upended a century of sweet-wine production from Concord and French-American Left Foot Charley hybrid grapes with the first large-scale planting of Mari Vineyards Vitis vinifera varieties on Old Mission Peninsula. Shady Lane Cellars BOUNTIFUL “All Dad needed to hear was that it wouldn’t White Pine Winery work,” says Sean O’Keefe, Edward’s son and winemaker at Mari Vineyards in Traverse City. Wyncroft Wine/Marland POTENTIAL Sean is among the winemakers that continue to push the envelope via season-extending The Wolverine State is sailing toward About world-class wine production. techniques like hoop houses and novel plantings like Schioppettino and Teroldego, grapes with 3,050 acres ou might not guess that the second- gritty tannins and aging potential. of wine grapes planted most agriculturally diverse state is To the south, in Fennville, the rolling moraine Michigan, trailing California. Snow hills contain glacial soil. Winemakers like James Ypiles high from November to March Lester of Wyncroft Wine, whose elegant Pinot Vineyard area and winter temperatures can rival those of Noirs and Chardonnays grow at the 42nd parallel, doubled Antarctica, but the state’s history of apple, have established themselves as favorites of Chicago over the past decade strawberry, cherry and Concord grape growing fine-dining icons like Alinea and Parachute. was a hint that Vitis vinifera would thrive, too. To produce great wine here isn’t easy. Most of its quality wine grapes grow within Unpredictable weather demands intimate Top 25 miles of Lake Michigan, where day-night vineyard knowledge and the litheness of an temperature swings and late-breaking buds mean “army medic,” says Sean O’Keefe. Climate change Grapes appellations ideal for aromatic whites reminiscent threatens to make crop-obliterating phenomena Cabernet Franc of those from Germany and Champagne. like polar vortices into semi-regular events. Chardonnay “It’s a different expression, a balance of flavor, “We’ve been on the cusp for three to five Pinot Gris sugar and acid in the fruit, and partly what allows years now,” Lutes says. “Mother Nature willing, Pinot Noir us to make interesting wines across the board,” in the next five or 10, we could be on the verge Riesling says Lee Lutes, head winemaker at Riesling- of struggling to make enough wine to meet notable Black Star Farms in Traverse City. demand.” —Maggie Hennessy RAFFERTY KAVEL ILLUSTRATION: 32 | WINE ENTHUSIAST | JULY 2019.