Stella and Jolly Pumpkin for eating.
Take a drive and hike through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.
Left Foot Charley, Mawby, Nathaniel Rose and Mari for must visits.
Wyncroft is appointment only so call Jim Lester to set that up. If you are in that area, Virtue Cider and Modales Winery are worth visits.
Here is a recent Decanter article with some reviews of Traverse area wines:
Jeff
Chateau Chantal is quite touristy. That being said, the inn is beautiful and the dry wines are quite nice. The winemaker, Brian, also makes wine for Hawthorne Vineyards which is a little more geared to the âexperiencedâ wine taster.
Itâs been a while, but I cannot recommend Stella enough based on my visit.
Left Foot Charley is a must.
Jolly Pumpkin is a must (for beer drinkers).
And hanging out with Jim Lester is always a good time.
Just got back from the area a couple of days ago. We drove up on Monday and returned Thursday. Quick trip - just 3 nights in a hotel.
From Chicago, we drove through Grand Rapids and up 131. Rained all the way until TC. The further north we got, the better the leaves⌠until we got close to Traverse City, and suddenly less color. Weird. Still pretty, but leaves were better on 131. Drove home in the rain on a more westerly route through the middle of nowhere⌠and less color. Weird. Fortunately the weather in TC held up for us. Iâm guessing they need another couple of weeks for peak color, but it was still pretty.
We stayed at the Park Place Hotel. This was my first hotel stay since Covid - was somewhat weird with all the precautions. Did not realize that there is a side, attached building that looks like ancient apartments. So we essentially got the cheapest rooms in the place ($110), but then again, we reserved just 2-3 weeks ago. Small room, clean, quiet - not much more to say about it - it was fine, but nothing special. Friends stayed at a hotel/motel just on the eastside of town ($80), and they were under impressed with their place. Never made it up to the bar in the tower, as more alcohol was the last thing we needed. But the hotel location is prime - one block from all the shopping, etc. If I go again, we may try something completely different, like a cabin, or something on the peninsulas to do other activities. Really, about all we did was drive in our convertible to look at leaves, visit wineries and breweries, and eat.
Side note 1: Book early, and make reservations for everything, especially the better restaurants and if there is a winery you really want to taste. We saw lots of people turned away from restaurants and wineries. At one winery, all we could do was buy a glass, not a sample/tasting.
Side note 2: I should probably state this up-front before I discuss the wineries. A) I was pleasantly surprised how good the wines in the area were, but B) they are not a threat to California (yet). And if you are expecting them to be a lot of fruit wines, they are not (for the most part). I was also somewhat surprised how nice the properties and tasting rooms were. Also, as others have noted, we found the whites to be better than the reds (but as others have noted, vintage in the area can be huge). Also, most all offer flights, so x-number for x-dollars. We generally did two flights at most just to get a sampling. SoâŚ
Monday we roamed TC. Had lunch at Rare Bird Brewery. We really enjoyed the brewery - good beers (nothing I needed to bring home, butâŚ) and good food (had the Banh Mi sandwich - delicious). My wife doesnât like beer, but they had a sparkling rose on-tap from Mawby, which she enjoyed. Then we roamed the shopping area.
Later we drove over to Left Foot Charley and Stella Trattoria. They are kinda in the same mixed-use complex. Weird set of buildings that used to be a mental hospital. Sat outside and overlooked the area. Had a great time. Bought a bottle of the Blaufrankisch! Only red we bought, and the first bottle we bought. The other wines were good, but nothing we needed to purchase. Then we had dinner at Stella - nice place. Had a bottle of the 2018 Brys Pinot Noir. Had this wine 3 times! (at Stella, at Brys, and at The Cooks House). Nice wine. Food was solid.
So first full day. We first drove to Shady Lane on the Leelanau Peninsula. Pretty property. They were harvesting right in front of us (Muscat). I had their wines once before. TWO (a great restaurant in Chicago) sponsored a wine dinner with them, so part of the reason we went was it was about the only winery I had any experience with. Maybe that is why we bought 3 bottles. I think of all the places we went, for the wines alone, theirs was the best to our liking. This is a must-stop.
Our next stop was Mawby, which is very close to Shady Lane (5 minutes). My wife is not much into sparklers, but she liked these. I think itâs because the most dry one they offered was not bone dry, nor yeasty. As we made our selection, they offered a free glass to taste, and we mentioned that she had their Rose sparkler at Rare Bird, and they brought a taste of it as well. Everything we had there was good, but itâs not Champagne, or rather, the bone dry that we normally are accustomed to. We bought 2 bottles of something they call Detroit - a sweet sparkler which should be great at the end of a meal. And we bought a cider. [Had multiple ciders up there, and this was the best.] Mawby is also a must-stop.
We then drove up towards Sutton Bay. We stopped at Hop Lot Brewery for lunch. Again, good beers, and good food. Big outdoor area to sit. We shared a trio of tacos.
We then drove towards Leland, stopping at Northern Latitudes Distillery. Nice stop. Their whiskeys are ok, but we liked their Limoncello and some other oddball fruit liquor they made. And we FINALLY found a decent cherry liquor.
So another side note: Downtown in TC is a super touristy place called The Cherry Republic. They sell a local maple syrup blended with cherry. Buy it! Since weâve been home, the only alcohol we have consumed has been a âManhattanâ Iâve concocted - 2 parts Rye, 1 part NLD cherry booze, and half part cherry maple syrup. DELICIOUS! There was another distillery we tasted that was only so-so.
We then stopped at Carlsons in Leland and bought whitefish dip and fish sausage. Who knew there was such a thing? The sausage is f*cking delicious.
We then worked our way back towards TC only stopping at Chateau Fontaine. Somewhat of a small place. Only place we stopped where you could taste everything. And it was âfree.â They did ask you to tip your server. We enjoyed the non-oaked Chard and we bought a white mix. There we also had a red that included some cherry in it (think Apothic on steroids). But overall, their wines were nice. We bought the Chard and a mixed white.
That evening we went to Poppycocks without a reservation. We were lucky we got in. Two minutes later we would not have. I had some delicious whitefish cakes.
Iâll do Day-2 in a separate post.
Day-2
Side note: First two mornings we ate at a place called Green House Cafe. Looks like a small town diner. Great for breakfast. Friends recommended the place. They ate there for lunch and had a Reuben with a cherry sauerkraut that they loved. Itâs right in the middle of the main shopping street.
After breakfast our first stop was at Brys. Gorgeous place, big gift shop, large estate, huge outdoor deck. Nice wines. We ended up buying a Riesling/Gris mix. We got there too early, and killed time by driving to the water. There are some really nice homes along the water. Nice drive. Also, Brys has what they call the Secret Garden - flowers, soaps, lavender, pumpkins, etc. ISWIS (Make sure you go to the WC to wash your hands. We ended up buying their lavender soap!). But do yourself a favor and drive to the lakefront and go south a little ways. This was probably our third favorite winery. While we were there, they were harvesting Gewurztraminer.
To kill a little time, we went to Chateau Chantal. Not sure why. Least inspiring wines of the trip. But they make a cherry Eau de vie (sp?) that was pretty good, but not worth $60. But⌠I did get some good pics from there.
We then had lunch at Jolly Pumpkin Brewery. Another great place to sit outside. Good food, good beer. Itâs straight across the peninsula from Brys.
We then started heading back to TC. We made two more winery stops. The first was at Bonobo. Nice, modern facility. Beautiful view out the back. Unfortunately, they only serve by the glass. No flights, no tasting. We each got a glass. Both wines were ok, but nothing special. I guess since I canât remember what we had, can take that as a clue. I wish we could have tasted more. But I did buy a cool sweatshirt with a monkey on it!
Our last stop was at Mari. They were offering flights, but you needed a reservation, so we had to opt of a glass each. Again, nice, but nothing special. Maybe if we could have tasted more.
That night we had dinner at The Cooks House. This is a must-do. Delicious food, good service. They were setup for 4 tables of 2 people each. Nice experience. We did the 5-course tasting menu, and we opted for the wine pairing, which most were local. It included the Brys PN and also a wine from 2 Lads (which was closed due to a case of Covid, so we missed stopping there). Definitely recommend The Cooks House.
Thursday we drove home. Stopped in Sawyer, Michigan to go to Greenbush brewery. Great beers, and the food is also good. Mr. Greenbush (???) or whoever the main man is was sitting right behind me at the bar.
We had a great time. Next trip I want to plan some outdoor activities.
A BIG THANKS to everyone above for the suggestions and recommendations. They were most helpful and spot-on. Much appreciated. If anyone has questions for me, just post or PM me.
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Didnât manage to connect with Jim Lester at Wyncroft?
About to head back next week. This thread seems to be the more current one. Any new recs or updates? Much appreciated.
Has anyone purchased the Harvest Days ticket for the Leelanau Peninsula? Looks like you pay a fee for a ticket, then get some discounts. Did anyone think it was worth it?
I was there June. Some day Iâll post trip notes.
Highlights were:
Left Foot Charley - both Pinot Blancs, but the single vineyard one was great!
Bonobo - their Pinot Blanc was the best drink of the trip.
2 Lads - Entire lineup was solid from top to bottom; I joined their wine club (buy 6 at regular price, get the next case for 30% off).
Brys was just OK for me.
I wanted to go to Nathaniel Rose but he was still closed.
Youâll notice there arenât many reds for sale; the last couple vintages have been low yields.
Oh, and Trattoria Stella was an oversalted disappointment. However, The Good Bowl (Vietnamese) more than made up for it.
Itâs a good deal if youâre planning on going to quite a few places. I would avoid most of the wineries on the weekends once the leaves start changing⌠During the week they should be awesome though.
The difficulty is that some of them are already reducing their hours during the week. Definitely call ahead if you can.