Michigan By The Bottle

Northern Michigan Wine: Chateau Grand Traverse Wins Best Wine - My North - January 2012 - Northern Michigan

Northern Michigan Wine: The vines of Traverse City are home to yet another award-winning wine from the 2010 season. The 2010 Chateau Grand Traverse Whole Cluster Riesling was recently included in Food & Wine Editor Picks 2011 for Best Wine and beer.  In the article, wine editors Ray Isle and Megan Krigbaum selected ten wines as most exceptional of the year, including Northern Michgian's Chateau Grand Traverse award winning 2010 Whole Cluster Riesling.

Northern Michigan's Chateau Grand Traverse has produced wine on the Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City since 1974 and is now in its 2nd generation of leadership.  The winery is noted internationally for its excellent riesling wines and has won several international competitions.  

via www.mynorth.com

Fantastic wine!

We Asked, You Answered: What Did You Drink for Thanksgiving?

Congratulations to ADAM AFFHOLTER! He was picked randomly from entries in our Thanksgiving Day contest that asked readers to show us which Michigan wines were gracing their holiday tables by posting pics on our Facebook page or emailing them to us. Adam will get his pick of either a Michigan By The Bottle "I Support the State with Every Sip" T-shirt, a copy of Sharon Kegerreis' and Lorri Hathaway's book "The History of Michigan Wines: 150 Years of Winemaking Along the Great Lakes," or a copy of Kegerreis' and Hathaway's book "From the Vine."

Read on to see some of the answers we received...

Podcast #43: Chateau Grand Traverse 2008 Gamay Noir

In today's podcast, we delve into the world of Chateau Grand Traverse Gamay Noir — and boldly declare it an off-the-beaten-path option for Thanksgiving in lieu of Pinot Noir (and then realize after filming that CGT's 2010 vintage of the wine is already sold out, so hope you have one of these stashed in your cellar). Oh, and Cort makes up for being last week's lethargy by being overly (read: creepily) perky. Don't worry, we edited out the most obnoxious parts...like a very shrill "Happy Thanksgiving!" at the end. (But really. Happy Thanksgiving.)

* Winemaker Sean O'Keefe was kind enough to point out that Gamay Noir is not the same grape as Gamay, thus, not the same grape used in Beaujolais. Our mistake, but thanks to Sean for clarifying.

Michigan Wines : Michigan Wines Receive Prestigious Awards

Michigan wines and wineries have been in the spotlight throughout the summer; and it's not just in Michigan, it's happening across the country. The reason? Michigan wines have been winning a significant number of top awards at regional, national and international wine competitions.

In January, Chateau Grand Traverse won a Best of Class award at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for their 2009 Lot 49 Riesling. This off-dry wine was produced from grapes harvested from a single vineyard -- located on a steep, west-facing slope on Old Mission Peninsula, in northern Michigan.

Judges evaluated more than 2,000 wines from around the world at the Pacific Rim Wine Competition, held in San Bernadino, Calif., in April, and declared a tie for Best Gewurztraminer: Tabor Hill Winery, in Buchanan, for their 2009 vintage, and Chateau Fontaine, on Leelanau Peninsula, for their 2010. Chateau Fontaine went on to win Grand Champion honors as Best White Wine of the competition.

via www.michiganwines.com

The awards keep piling up!

Traverse City becomes wine destination - JSOnline

We couldn't afford to take the entire family to Napa or Sonoma, but we knew they could make a weekend of the Grand Traverse area wineries. They were skeptical at first, as were we. We've gotten excited about being in wine country before only to be disappointed when we got home. In Napa and Sonoma, it was clear we didn't bring back enough bottles of the wines that we liked. In Canada, it was clear we brought back at least one too many (seriously, pepper-infused ice wine). This time, we wanted to try the wine on our own before getting caught up in tastings.

via www.jsonline.com

Not a bad article on the Old MIssion and Leelanau wineries as a vacation destination.

MBTB SUPER HUGE Michigan Wine Month Giveaway: Day 11

Congratulations to DON NIELSEN! He was randomly selected from yesterday's entries to win a pair of logo wine glasses and set of four logo buffet plates from Pentamere Winery in Tecumseh.

To kick off this Manic Monday and Day 11 of our SUPER HUGE Michigan Wine Month Giveaway, we're awarding one lucky winner a personal tour from specialty winemaker Sean O'Keefe at Chateau Grand Traverse on the Old Mission Peninsula. This tour, which comes complete with barrel tastings, must be arranged in advance on a weekday.

Five Things I Learned About Michigan Wine in 2010

2010 was a great year for Michigan wine. New wineries opened, the national press has started recognizing the region, and Michigan By The Bottle has been flourishing. On a more personal note, it was a year of learning and discovery for me. Here are five things that I learned/realized in 2010:

• Michigan is a great sparkling wine region. We all know that Larry Mawby reigns supreme in this venue, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn more about other Michigan wineries putting up some great Michigan sparklers. In addition to the classics from L. Mawby, we had some fantastic sparklers from Tabor Hill (Grand Mark is to die for!), 2 Lads, Black Star Farms, and Brys Estate (although their “Bubbly” was so popular that it sold out).

• The Southeast and Southwest Michigan wineries play second fiddle to no one. We were more than impressed with some of the red wines coming out of this region. Domaine Berrien blew us away with its Crown of Cab and Syrah. I would argue that Lone Oak’s Merlot is one of the best in the state. Fenn Valley and St. Julian Braganini Reserve Meritage were some of our favorite wines all year. The Cabernet Franc from Free Run Cellars deserved the Harding’s Cup it won earlier this year.

Happy Thanksgiving from MBTB!

Happy Thanksgiving to our nearly 1,300 Facebook fans, 5,500+ Twitter followers and all of our other readers! It was a difficult decision, but we decided to bring Chateau Grand Traverse 2007 Gamay Noir and Chateau Chantal 2009 Pinot Blanc to Thanksgiving festivities today. Yum!

Now we want to see what YOU'RE drinking for Thanksgiving! Between 10 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. today, Nov. 25, post a pic on our Facebook page of a Michigan wine on your Thanksgiving dinner table and you'll be entered to win a signed copy of "The History of Michigan Wines: 150 Years of Winemaking Along the Great Lakes" by Lorri Hathaway and Sharon Kegerreis!

Chateau Grand Traverse on Wine Geek TV

Video Feature: Chateau Grand Traverse

Chateau Grand Traverse's delightfully witty Sean O'Keefe discusses the origins of his family's winery, from what prompted his father to start the business and the serendipitous misunderstanding that led to them planting Merlot to what really happened to the first vintage and who's behind those "weird label" wines.

Links mentioned:
• Chateau Grand Traverse