| I can't help myself, if there is wine to be found, I
find it. I use Microsoft Streets & Maps to plan out our RV
trips (among other things) and one of the features is that you can
look for things in the vicinity. One of those "things" is
wineries! I think they had me in mind when they put in that
feature. So I click on the find attractions, click on wineries and viola, there they are just a short 30+ miles away, but they just happen to be in Michigan. Not a problem, we tow a car (well, of course) so I put the plan together to visit the closest wineries to Elkhart, IN. They just happen to be a little north. Streets & Maps didn't have them all, but 2 of the 5 we visited (there were 2 others, but we didn't go to them this trip). I just plug in the addresses to find the other ones. Here is a copy of the map, it is so great! I can see the mileage, all the need to know stuff; then we use the GPS to "really" find our way there, "she" likes talking to us, in fact, she is kind of a nag.
The trip was 135 miles round-trip, with a few new bottles of wine in hand and having had a great lunch! |
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Thursday, June 5, 2008
Over all, we found the wine pretty good, some definitely more than others. There is still a LOT of sweet wine to be found, not really our cup of tea unless it is a dessert or ice-wine style. All of the wineries had at least one of those styles if not more than one. Many of them also had fruit based wine, the most available being raspberry or cherry based. One of the wineries (Round Barn) was an all around place, not only wine, but grape based vodka (not bad actually) and beer! For $5.00 (keep the glass) you got to taste 5 wines, 1 taste of vodka (either straight or in a martini) and 1 dessert wine. Of course I had to do them all AND I went over and tasted the 3 beers they had available for tasting; a Kolsch-Style, a Summer Wheat (not my cup of tea) and a Cocoa Stout. They weren't half bad, they also had an Amber, but not available for tasting (dang). Never waste an opportunity I say. According to Wikipedia (don't you love wiki's :) under Michigan Wine: As of 2007, there were 1,500 acres (6 kmē) (I saw a publication that said 1,800 acres) under wine-grape cultivation and 50 commercial wineries in Michigan, producing 375,000 cases of wine. Wine and wine tourism were estimated in 2007 to be a $100 million industry.[1] Most of the quality bottled wine of Michigan is produced in the four listed American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) of Fennville AVA, Lake Michigan Shore AVA, Leelanau Peninsula AVA, and the Old Mission Peninsula AVA. You can find Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Chambourcin, Pinot Noir, St. Vincent as the main red grapes with Syrah just now coming forward. As for whites, they grow Chardonnay, Chardonel (a Chardonnay hybrid), Riesling, Seyval Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and now, Viognier. Many of the original fruit orchards and table grapes (concord & niagara for Welch's) have been replaced with the wine varietals. It's fun to learn new things :)
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| This is the tasting room and restaurant for Tabor Hill. The winery was just down the driveway a little more. We bought a bottle of rose and a lovely sparkling wine here. | The tasting room from the inside at Tabor Hill. Upstairs are the offices, to the closest right is the restaurant and the back right is more gift shop. We had a great time chatting with the manager who was pouring for us and then the winemaker, Mike Merchant, passed by and Paul asked him to come over. We chatted quite a bit more! I can talk wine for a very long time (as you can see by the web pages ;) |
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| Next stop, Round Barn where you can taste wine, beer, vodka and eau-de-vie (fruit brandy). Lots of choices! | The Round Barn, you see a few of these around, they make their wine and beer in here. |
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| Here is Pete Nyce, the brewer and the beer tasting station. Pete and I chatted about yeast, hops, malt, all those wonderful things that make up a great beer. Currently, they get all their hops from Germany. | The wine (and everything else) tasting station at The Round Barn. |
| After Red Barn, we were ready for lunch and lunch was ready for us. We went back to Tabor Hill (they didn't start serving until 11:30am) to enjoy a little repast and then head out for more tasting. The food was great and the view was wonderful (looks out over one of the Tabor Hill vineyards). | |
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| They had bird feeders hanging all around the picture windows from the restaurant and I had a great time watching the birds. I love all the colorful birds that are down in these parts, we didn't see so much color in Oregon & Washington. | The wine trail was well marked, I had the map (as seen above) and the GPS along with a great brochure. If we got lost, I probably didn't want to be found... |
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| After lunch, we were down the road just a little bit further on Lemon Tree Road. I bought a bottle of Syrah here, the first one we saw (and it was pretty good). One of Domaine Berrien vineyards in the background. | The tasting room and winery. |
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| Fourth on the list, Contessa. You can see the tasting room in the background. | It's great that they advertise where the chocolate can be found ;) I held myself in check, we did not go the extra 1/2 mile though I heard they make really great truffles (my favorite). |
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| I loved this sign, in fact to much, I bought one for my house in TX! | Inside the tasting room at Contessa. The wine maker/owner, Tony, was pouring our wine. His wife's picture is on all the wine labels. We bought another bottle of rose here. |
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| Last stop for the afternoon, Karma Vista (with very young Pinot Noir vines in the background). | Many of the tasting rooms looked like homes. This one was actually a home and remodeled for the tasting room and gift shop. The owner Sue was pouring our wine. Lots more chatting going on here! They probably had the best wine of the lot, we bought another bottle of rose here (from Pinot Noir) and I bought a bottle of Razz-ma-Tazz, a sweet wine made from raspberries. I have all sorts of plans for this bottle once we get back to Texas, just think really dark chocolate and lava cake... |
| We thought about going to one more winery, but decided it was better to just head home and enjoy the AC in the hotel room. I would recommend everyone to give Michigan wine a taste, we found a few that were very enjoyable. | |
