The Wine Road - Southwestern Michigan

At last! Vines as far as the eye can see. Granted, many of them seem to be Concord grapes, but more than a few are the old familiar friend of the wine writer, the Vinifera grape.

This part of Michigan (as opposed to the part of Michigan I will not see on this trip) is well set up for wine touring. Just an hour or two outside of Chicago, the wineries here have big tasting rooms, and are prepared to be inundated.

There is a wine trail with corresponding map, to follow. This makes finding the wineries relatively easy (although our GPS was even more help). Most are within a few miles, or even a few feet, from each other.

All of the wineries offer sweeter wines, which I found to be more successful than the dry reds, but they offer these sweet libations with a twinge of guilt. There is a common feeling that only the dry, especially red, wines are "serious" wines.

This sugar guilt is pretty common in nascent wine regions, I have run across it in various areas, but especially New Zealand. This is not the only comparison I can make with New Zealand, or at least the New Zealand of two decades ago.

Southwest Michigan too, is suffering from an identity crisis. Not only the sweet dilemma I mentioned, but a searching for the ideal grape variety and style. Europe has always had the advantage here, generations ago they worked out the proper grapes for the micro climates (at least in theory). This trial and error period is time consuming and expensive, and the winemakers here know it.

The upshot is that most of the wineries grow 15 or more types of grapes and make various styles of each. There are simply too many choices for the consumer and confusion is inevitable. On the plus side, there is something for everyone.

Starting from the south and working your way north, Tabor Hill is one of the first wineries you will run across. They have a tasting room right off the highway, but their winery, and restaurant is far out in the country, surrounded by vines. Dinner at Tabor Hill was built up as spectacular, and indeed the view was. The food was less inspiring, and most of the wines were not our favorites from the area.

We visited nearly every winery in the region, and they were universally charming, friendly and well prepared for visitors.

Here are the wines that most impressed me:

N.V. Tabor Hill Winery, Grand Mark Sparkling Wine (Champagne method and grapes.)

2004 Lemon Creek Vineyards, "Moon Shadow" Cabernet Sauvignon Ice Wine (a rare and wonderful treat - the name comes from the fact that the grapes were picked on the night of a lunar eclipse.)

2003 Lemon Creek Vineyards, Vineyard Select White (Vignole)

2004 Domain Berrien Cellars, Marsanne

2003 Domain Berrien Cellars, Cabernet Franc

2004 Karma Vista Vineyards & Winery, Sauvignon Blanc

2004 Fenn Valley, Dry Riesling (the wines of this property were of an overall higher quality.)

2003 Fenn Valley, Chardonel

2003 Fenn Valley, Pinot Noir (light and almost bubble gum sweet in the nose, but the most "typical" Pinot I tasted in the area.)

Feel free to let me know if you want any more details on any of these wines or wineries.

As always, I save the regular wine reviews for the readers of my newsletter.