Michigan By The Bottle

Charity Uncorked: Michigan Wineries Give Back to the Community

'Tis the season for giving, and it's no exception among Michigan wineries, many of which are participating in charitable events or holding promotions benefiting worthy causes this holiday season.

Pure Michigan Blog | Wineries Roundtable | Pure Michigan Connect

On our blog today, we conducted a roundtable with some of Michigan’s wine experts about local wines and wineries, their businesses and more.

via www.michigan.org

Great roundtable of Michigan winery owners.

Feedback Friday: Brys Estate, Sandhill Crane, Verterra

You may have at least heard of or seen our Michigan wine app for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android — hopefully, you own it, use it and love it! Now, you have a chance to be IN it.

Welcome to Feedback Friday, our weekly feature that works like this: We solicit comments about a specific winery or wineries. You supply them. We pick some to include in our app. You become famous (at least in the Michigan wine community). The end.

Today's featured wineries:

Brys Estate Winery
Sandhill Crane Vineyards
Verterra Winery

Send your comments on these wineries to cort@michiganbythebottle.com or post them as a reply to today's Feedback Friday thread on Facebook. We'll be accepting Feedback Friday comments for these featured wineries until next Friday, when we'll introduce a new set. (Of course, feel free to come chatter on Facebook about the wineries you love just for fun any old time. We dig that.)

Read on for complete details...

Podcast #59: Sandhill Crane Vineyards 840 Port

In today's podcast, Cort proclaims her newfound passion for port and practically makes out with the bottle of Sandhill Crane Vineyards 840 Port while Shannon tries to pry the bottle from her fingers. (No, really — there's gushing involved.)

Video Feature: Sandhill Crane Café Grand Opening

We spent our sixth wedding anniversary April 7 hanging out on the Pioneer Wine Trail as Sandhill Crane Vineyards celebrated the grand opening of its new café and performance/banquet space with a great celebration, complete with the release of the new 840 port, special food pairings and 1,001 colorful paper cranes for good luck! Check out what the gorgeous addition looks like and how the winery plans to use it.

SUPER HUGE Michigan Wine Month Giveaway: April 6

Congratulations to KAREN SUE BROWN! Karen was randomly drawn from yesterday's entrants to win a taste and tour with Larry Mawby, plus a bottle of wine, from L. Mawby Vineyard. Karen, please email us at cort@michiganbythebottle.com within 48 hours to claim your prize. (For prizes not claimed within 48 hours, we will redraw from the original pool of entrants to determine a new recipient, so be sure to check back daily to see if you're a winner!)

This contest is closed as of 11:59 p.m. Friday, April 6.

Today's sponsor: Sandhill Crane Vineyards

Today's prize: A $40 gift certificate to Sandhill Crane's new café (the grand opening is tomorrow, April 7, and we're planning to be there!) and a VIP cellar tour. 

Please click through for restrictions and instructions on how to enter...

Sandhill Crane Vineyards Announces the Grand Opening of Their New Addition

Sandhill Crane Vineyards, a family owned and operated winery in eastern Jackson County announces the Grand Opening of its new addition. The addition, which triples the original space, includes a new café, small banquet room, commercial kitchen, and extended wine cellar/manufacturing area.

The Grand Opening celebration runs from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm on Saturday, April 7, 2012, with a Ribbon Cutting ceremony at noon on the front steps. The winery and café will be open that day for exploration, celebration, tours, and wine tasting.

 

via www.michiganwines.com

We are planning on being there! How about you?

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!

Video Feature: Sneak Peek at Sandhill Crane Vineyards' Expansion

This video's pretty quick and bare bones, but we just wanted to give you a little glimpse at the huge expansion at Sandhill Crane Vineyards in Jackson. They've added a giant space that will accommodate a café with locally sourced food, banquets and nighttime events, like concerts and movie screenings. They hope to have it open within three to four weeks. Take a peek as Holly Balansag and Heather Price give us a little tour. Watching "Bottle Shock" at a winery with a glass of wine in hand? Sounds like a perfect evening to us! Wish we lived closer!

MBTB Summer Tour: Five Hours on the Pioneer Wine Trail

We add (a lot of) cheese to our wine as we get goofy on our far-too-short day trip to the Pioneer WIne Trail June 25.