Now that all fifty US states have at least one vineyard, it is easy and often not out of the way to taste wine at the vineyard or at a vineyard sponsored tasting room. In all the times my wife and I have done tastings, we've only visited one vineyard that had no wine that we liked enough to buy. Even there, we bought a bottle of their brandy.
It was Color Tour time, and the landscape was beautiful! We enjoyed a wonderful time in this interesting and varied region, and even visited two wineries.
Bel Lago - 18 October 2003 - on the web at www.bellago.com was a very friendly place with a lot of wines to taste. We were their first visitors of the day, so the room started out quiet. By the time we left, several other groups had arrived. What they were NOT pouring was their Gewerztraminer 2002, but we bought a bottle on its reputation and loved it! We have never had a better domestic Gewurztraminer. Another really outstanding wine that we were shocked that they were pouring was their Pinot Grigio Ice Wine 2002. The variable weather of Michigan is often very cruel to the vineyards, but this wine is a gift of that very same variability. We left with eight bottles of wine, including an Ice Wine, and will order more in the near future.
Black Star Farms - 18 October 2003 - on the web at www.blackstarfarms.com is not just a winery, it's an "Agricultural Estate" and it was mobbed on this beautiful day. Their huge northern tasting room (they have another in Paw Paw) contained several "stations" where different wines were being poured. Because of our personal interest, we concentrated on the one room where they were pouring their premium wines, for the price of $5 for two or $10 for three and your glass. We looked at the selection and tasted their eau de vie (pear brandy) and their Ice Wine. Both are huge consumers of the raw fruit (thirty pounds of pears for one 750ml bottle of brandy - mixing English and metric units is very American, isn't it?) Both were very good, but we felt the Ice Wine didn't reach the bar set by the Bel Lago Ice Wine. The eau de vie (also available with a real pear grown in the bottle) was very good - better than 90% of others we've tried - but didn't quite have the magic of the very best. Don't get me wrong, if it wasn't for the huge crush of people at the checkout we would have been glad to take some of this wine home and proud to serve it to our favorite guests.
Warner - April 2003 - A late winter ice storm left us without power for most of a weekend. Our solution was to use Sunday to visit Warner's tasting room in Paw Paw. We brought home a six bottle selection of their whites and have been enjoying them as much at home as we did at the winery.