Michigan Wine Tour

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 -- Hopkins, MI

We finally got going this morning about 9am and headed down to Kalamazoo to pick up Cher, Dar's sister, who took the day off to be our guide. An hour or so later, we're in one of the two Michigan grape and wine producing areas. This one is in the extreme southwestern corner of the state, near the town of Baroda. There are 8 or 10 wineries here that are working hard to produce respectable wines and eek out a living.

Wine can be produced anywhere -- even your basement. But decent wine grapes can only be grown in areas with the right growing conditions: latitude around 40 degrees, extremes of climate moderated by a large body of water, good-draining sandy soils, etc. This area, which is within about 5 miles of Lake Michigan, fits the bill. Areas like this that both produce the grapes and make the wine from those grapes are referred to as an appellation. This area is the "Lake Michigan Shore" appellation. A bottle of wine that has "Lake Michigan Shore" on it's label has been produced here and made from grapes grown here. It's the real article. While a wide range of wines are being produced by these wineries, it seems this appellation's strength is the whites... particularly Demi-Sec and Traminette. A point of interest is that Bob Hope's favorite wine was Tabor Hill's Demi Sec. All the wineries we visited were also making reds, but in smaller volumes.

Despite my efforts to convince the gals that we should stop at all 8 or 10 wineries, I was outvoted and we focused on 3: Tabor Hill, Round Barn, and Domaine Berrien Cellers. By the time we got to the area, it was almost time for lunch. Conveniently, (or was it planned in my absence?) Tabor Hill was the first stop and, "whadya-know", they have a very nice restaurant... so we had lunch. Our table was at the windows overlooking the vineyard, the day was sunny and perfect, add a little Demi-Sec wine, good food, and the fact we had no schedule -- it doesn't get much better.

Each of the wineries has a tasting room -- a combination bar and store. It's a key element of their marketing efforts as it gets tourists like us in to taste their wine. Who's going to turn down an opportunity to taste wine for free, and who's going to taste the wine and not buy some? They also did a nice job having the right people working with us as each of the three we visited had friendly, knowledgeable people helping and answering questions as we tasted. Since it was a Wednesday, we were often the only people in the tasting room and we had their full attention.

The process of sampling wine involves a certain process involving a bunch of words that start with the letter S: See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Savor, etc. Those with a refined palette, olfactory sense, and large vocabulary can come up with the most amazing descriptions of what they're experiencing. For example, Dar can do a respectable job of describing what she's sniffing -- "wild cherry", "nutty", "musty", "currants", "black cherry", "melon", "spicy", "peppery" -- and many more. I'm amazed by this talent and I've tried and tried to be more like her. She'll say something like this: "this one has a good oaky nose, with flashes of black cherry, pecans, and spice, a hint of musty-ness in the back of your throat, and then a long peppery finish." People who work with wine all the time are always talking like that. I don't have this ability. Tasting the same wine, I'll say something like "It's good" or "It's really good". I believe my ability to make fine distinctions was damaged during the war years.

Dar and I limited ourselves to one bottle each per stop, so we brought home 6 bottles to enjoy in the next few weeks. It was a very enjoyable day, and a big "thank you" to Cher for being our guide.

Thursday will be another stay-home day. Friday we think we're headed up to the South Haven and Holland shore, and maybe work in one more winery near Fennville, MI.

T