Some close friends left Edmonton a number of years ago and settled in Traverse City, Michigan. Their oldest daughter, Chantal, Lefebre and her husband. Mike Newman, left Boston four years ago to join her parents in Traverse City. Traverse City offered an opportunity to raise their family away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. They subsequently acquired a vineyard property near Traverse City and Chantal has become a fulltime vineyard manager. Lawyer Mike works as a trust officer for a bank, while supporting their new venture on a part time basis. Chantal brings her background as a oceanographer and microbiologist to the business of vineyards and winemaking and has already implemented some innovations in the vineyard.
We had the pleasure of drinking two wines from Chantal and Mike’s WaterFire Vineyards over this past weekend. The first was a 2010 Left Foot Charley Dry Riesling from grapes they sold to that winery, and the second was one from WaterFire Vineyards – 2011 Sauvignon Blanc.
Both exhibited excellent aromas and varietal character, offered attractive flavors, and featured fine acidity on the palate – fresh and inviting wines.
I had no idea that Northern Michigan was producing wines of this quality, but growing conditions may be similar to those found in Ontario’s Niagara wine country, which has a large and flourishing wine industry.
I’m a big fan of MI Rieslings. Left-Foot Charley comes in around $20, but the humbler Grand Traverse Semi-dry, with a couple of years’s cellar time or a long decant, is about unbeatable as a warm-weather aperitif at $9-10: just off-dry, delicious acidity, good Riesling flavor.
The potential for these wines is very great, imo, but the industry is hamstrung by state laws, apparently driven the distribution companies, which prevent ordering out-of-state directly from the domaines (or used to, at least).
My general rule for MI wines is to stick with the whites and stickies, although they all seem to taste like peaches to me. The reds are challenging at best, and I avoid the wines made from other fruits. Northern MI seems to do better than the southwest. But then again, they’re making wines and I’m not.
There is another CGT wine, a Gruner Veltliner that is also nice.
Left foot Charley makes two wines that are always in my cellar here in MI. Island View Pinot Blanc … just sensational for $22.00 and Pinot Gris. very nice for $18.00.
Now, both of these wineries make sweet stuff that we cannot stand … but these are out house whites here and for a bunch of friends to whom we have introduced these wines.
and don’t forget about Mawby’s Sparkling wines. Some very nice wines.
I think they are closer to Niagara as having a great Lake just north of them provides some protections (as Ontario does for Niagara) and similar climates. Northern Michigan probably has a bit shorter of growing season but more daylight.
Another Left Foot Charley and Mawby fan here. I have had decent Cab Franc from the TC area - last one I recall was Black Star Farms - but I agree that the dry whites are the best bet.
Traverse City is NOT ‘northern Michigan.’
The Upper Peninsula is Northern Michigan; think ‘Yooper’ Upper Peninsula of Michigan - Wikipedia
… “the industry is hamstrung by state laws, apparently driven the distribution companies…”
Of course, the liquor wholesalers buy/own the state legislators to preserve their own monopolies; all of course to protect society from having teenagers buying $100 wines from out of state.
Several years ago, a friend gave me a northern Michigan wine, because he was from there and knew I liked wine. It was a cherry wine. I thanked him, very thoughtful gesture on his part. Then I though, what the hell, and tried it. It actually wasn’t bad. The bit of cherry juice added gave it a nice tartness, I was kind of impressed. I though if this is what they can do up there with cherry juice, there must be some real potential. But I’ve never seen one since so haven’t had the chance to try more.
Those same wineries mentioned above for their dry whites get their bread and butter from their sweet wines … mostly cherry and berry wines.
I went to Chateau Grand Traverse on the Old Mission Peninsula (very pretty with lake Michigan on both sides) to try their Lot 49 and Gruner. When I arrived, there was a huge tour bus in the parking lot and the tasting room was packed with folks drinking cherry and other sweet wines.
I waited for a server and when I told her what I wanted to try … she took me to a small area around the corner where I was introduced to one of the owners who took good care of me. The wines were very good and I bought a mixed case.
She told me that 80 % of their production was in the “other” wines. We … of the wine boards … must remember we are in the minority when it comes to the wine big picture.
It’s actually a polarizing topic…if such an unimportant thing can be polarizing. But some consider northern Michigan to be the U.P., and some consider it to be the northern L.P.
I am from the Detroit area, and this is how I grew up to know it. The U.P. was ABOVE northern Michigan.
I am not sure there is an “official” answer. But even your cited Wiki page doesn’t refer the the U.P. as northern Michigan.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
