Saturday on North Wine Loop

11 Saturday Apr 2015

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45 North Winery, Bluestone Winery, BoathouseWinery, Leelanau, Michigan wine, North Wine Loops, Venterra

Leland’s historic Fishtown on Lake Michigan.

LELAND, MI. – Charming fishing village and wine country don’t always seem to go hand in hand but this small town along Lake Michigan achieves both.

Leland has a historic fishing village still intact and a very small charming downtown. It’s more summer home to the well off and summer vacation spot than fishing village but nonetheless still worth a visit.

Leland also is at the heart of Leelanau wine country. It’s my third visit to this far northwest corner of the state. I’m here as a guest of the Leelanau Northern Wine Loop. I’ll be visiting four or five wineries today and tasting the 2014 new releases. Tonight, I’ll confer with other visiting judges to pick the best of the best then join a big release party tonight at the small town’s historic Bluebird restaurant.

See photo album here from my Saturday visit.

Michigan wine? You’re not familiar? In short, particularly northern Michigan, produces white wines as good as any label you’ll find. Because of the short growing season, the area struggles in reaching a red wine identity. I expect to taste Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot as the winemakers continue to search for a signature red. The Resiling and Pinot Blanc are outstanding usually.

My intent is to add a paragraph or two here throughout the day as I make those four or five stops. I’ll try to add an iPhone pic or two along the way but will add a full album later today or in the next day or so.

Paul Hamelin, owner of Verterra Winery in Leland, Michigan.

Verterra Winery, Leland Mi. – A great start to my day tasting Paul Hamelin’s wines at Verterra Winery. His dry Rose rocks. He sold out of his 2013 – 100 percent Pinot Noir – I bought six bottles last year. The big winner today was his killer Pinot Blanc – very pronounced fruit with big acidity in a tough growing year for Northern Michigan vintners.

Boathouse Vineyards, Lake Leelanau – Beautiful tasting room in a small village which – yes, indeed – looks a bit like a boathouse. Nice wines across the board. I really enjoyed the 2012 Pinot Noir. It was varietally correct, nice pinot taste – light on palate as you’d expect from cool climate red wine. But the real winner was Dry Dock Reisling, a dry and crisp citrus mouthful of goodness. This is type of white wine that puts Michigan on the map – at least for their whites.

Fresh carved roast beef, swiss and a very tasty cole slaw.

Next on my day’s agenda was a quick sandwich in Lake Leelanau. I’m gobbling down a very nice roastbeef, swiss cheese Sammy with great cole slaw on top at The Thunderbird.

Blustone Vineyards, near Lake Leelanau – This was my second visit in two years to Blustone which is fast becoming one of my Michigan favorites. Owner Tom Knighton found a great hilltop piece of property and built a beautiful, modern tasing room in the midst of vineyard and cherry trees.

Like most others, they’re white wines are great. I tasted an unreleased Pinot Blanc that was among the three best wines I tasted all day. Blustone also is at or near the top of any Pinot Noir on the Northern Loop. They’re getting there. The vines are only 10 years old and they need age. But the Pinot is varietally correct and gaining a little bit of character each year.

The busy April 11 tasting room at 45 North.

45 North Vineyards – Apparently no one got hit harder from last growing season’s killer frost than 45 North. During my April 11 visit they were the only one of five stops not even pouring a red wine though there were a few on the shelves. Nonetheless, 45 did have one of the best wines I tasted all weekend and that was a Pinot Gris fermented in the now-popular cement egg. The cement egg – and that’s exactly what it looks like – gives the already outstanding wine a crazy creamy mid-palate. It’s unique and well worth the mid-$20 price point. It won’t be released until May.

Aurora Cellars – Just up the road, literally, from 45 north is an older winery under new management. Their standout bottles were the whites with a semi-sweet Reisling best of what I tasted. They’re not afraid of cooking up some unique blends and are on to something with a mid-teen red and white sure to please the masses.

Reds Emerging in Northern Michigan?

12 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by Howard in Midwestern States

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Tags

Leelanau, Michigan wine, Northern Wine Loop

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan – Spending the better part of a day tasting and judging 21 wines from the latest vintage of Northern Michigan winemakers is enough to kill the palate. But the effort showed this quirky corner of the northern state is producing some world class wines with more to come.

I was one of four invited to preview the 2013 releases of the Leelanau Peninsula Northern Wine Loop wines before a major public event Saturday night.

Our tasting panel discussing a group of Michigan wines.

It’s always a great and educational experience to taste with other wine enthusiasts to see where we agree and disagree. Our panel featured two wine writers, a restaurant sommelier, and a retail wine manager. And though we certainly were not lock-step on 21 wines we agreed far more than not. We even identified with more than a few quirky descriptions of particular wines.

Since my 2010 visit to this area the reputation of Northern Michigan wines, and the white ones in particular, has solidified. It’s widely accepted Michigan Riesling holds up against most of the great Reislings of the world. Riesling has become Michigan’s calling card and they get it right. It wins big in all sorts of wine competitions and is hailed as the state’s calling card in the industry.

Consumers have agreed buying up sweet, semi-sweet, late–harvest and bone-dry Riesling wines. Are they rivaling the Mosel River Valley from Germany? That’s probably another debate but Michigan Riesling is as good as any you can find in the Midwest.

The winemakers have capitalized on that knowledge and success with really good bottles of Pinot Gris, Grigio and Blanc. I tasted restrained Gewurztraminer that didn’t feel like someone was shoving a floral bouquet up my nose or down my throat.

Owner and Verterra winemaker Paul Hamelin led us through the 21 Northern Loop wines.

Many also experiment with Chardonnay. You’d expect great unoaked Chard and Michigan has plenty to offer. But more winemakers are trying to produce traditionally oaked Chardonnay with mixed results. There are some great oaked versions, but it’s just not as consistent as the unoaked whites yet.

There is also a faction who believe Chardonnay can be big for the area. The grape does well with the shortened growing season.

Then there are the red wines and that’s been a past shortcoming that now looks like a bright future. In 2010, I tasted several Cab Francs and a few were decent. I tasted several Pinot Noirs and very few were varietally correct.

After one day of tasting, I liked the consistency of the Cab Francs I tasted. During the tasting event we blind-tasted four Pinot Noir wines and none were ready for prime time. But that being said, I had a couple of winery experiences later in the day where the 2011 Pinot was outstanding while 2012 remained unfocused and not ready to show.

But the surprise of the day – and many are saying it could be the dreaded ‘next big thing’ -was Merlot. We tasted three solid Merlot offerings during the morning and each panelist rated them with high marks. The wines were a tad lighter in style but varietally correct, rich fruit, and not as heavy, musty, and plodding like many California Merlots.

A couple of the winemakers agreed the growing conditions are perfect for good Merlot which can be a successful varietal with its growing season shorter than the widely planted Cab Franc.

On Saturday, I’m going to try to visit a handful of wineries I didn’t get to in 2010 and a few which were recommended today. Saturday night is the big public unveiling at the Bluebird Restaurant in the charming old fishing village of Leland on the Lake Michigan coast. Lots of Michigan wine, great food, and wine people – not a bad way to spend a Saturday night.