Bel Lago, spectacular views, diverse wines

Painting by Hank Feeley

By Linda Beaty
Sun contributor

Sitting with owner and executive winemaker Charlie Edson on Bel Lago Vineyards and Winery’s tasting room patio on a sunny summer day, it’s easy to appreciate his Italian father-in-law’s inspiration for the name “Bel Lago,” which means beautiful lake in Italian. From the vantage point of a steep hill above the western shore of Lake Leelanau, the view is indeed spectacular—white clouds in a blue sky reflecting onto the bluer waters of the southern end of the lake.

The four-acre Cedar vineyard was founded in 1987 by Edson and his wife Amy Lezzoni, along with her parents Domenic and Ruth Lezzoni. Both Amy and Charlie were professors at Michigan State University at the time the farm was purchased, and with his PhD in viticulture and hers in plant genetics, it seemed a perfect place to experiment with different types of grape vines. “We’re both academic,” said Edson, “so we like to experiment a lot.”

It wasn’t long before the experiment grew, with the planting of vines on 31 additional acres in Gills Pier overlooking another beautiful lake—Lake Michigan. The winery was built in 1998, and the tasting room opened in 1999 with the first wines made from grapes harvested in 1997.

Today, Bel Lago Vineyards and Winery produces some 12-15,000 cases of wine each year, said Edson; “about one third of the wine is our own brand, and the rest we ‘custom crush’ for other wineries.”

Custom crush, he explained, is a term for making wines for other wineries that don’t have production facilities. While the wine is crafted for clients by Edson’s three-person wine making team (in addition to himself, this includes Blake Lougheed and Cristin Hosmer), “the client has the final say in how it’s made. Their wines aren’t like our brand; they have their own vision.”

A winemaker’s vision is crucial to the wine making process, claimed Edson. “It’s how you utilize the tools of wine making to craft your wine,” he said. “Every winemaker’s vision and eye is different, sort of like an artist mixing paints.”

But science comes into play in a big way, too, he added. “You need to be well versed in the science of wine making to make wines competitive in this market.”

According to Edson, “wines are made in the field.” meaning that you have to have an excellent fruit to begin with in order to make a great product. One of the most important aspects of this is selecting the best grapes for the region. Edson has 100 different varieties of grapes, not only different types of grapes such as Riesling, Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer, but varied clones of the same type of grape. Each clone of a grape such as Pinot Noir (of which Edson has 32) has its own distinctive character, which contributes to the complexity of the finished wine, according to the winemaker. “This is farming for flavors,” said Edson. “We do our best to create flavor in the field that gives us the material for making great wine.”

And growing practices are just as important as fruit selection, said Edson. Not only should vine placement take advantage of the natural terroir, such as his Gewurztraminer and Riesling vines being planted in a limestone rich soil in order to impart a nice mineral flavor, but the vines need to be managed for spacing and trellising, fertilization and irrigation, as well as pruning to control crop yield. While Edson maintains that “you’re never assured of anything in the vineyard,” good vine selection and crop management helps, he said. “It’s a lot harder to make wine from grapes that aren’t grown well.”

What wines will you see in Bel Lago’s tasting room? “We have an eclectic diversity,” said Edson, “but we specialize in Alsace varieties, such as Auxxerois, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, and Pinot Noir.”

You’ll also enjoy the two most popular wines in the tasting room, a Pinot Grigio/Chardonnay blend, with peach, citrus and passion fruit aromas, and Primavera, a rich white wine with fresh aromas of apple, pear and citrus—“a good pontoon boat wine,” said Edson.

And of course, with Leelanau County being a big cherry producer, Bel Lago features a cherry wine, a flavorful blend of the Hungarian tart cherry variety Balaton and the heirloom French cherry variety Montmorency, all grown on Leelanau Peninsula.

At 64 years old, and with 27 years of involvement in the wine business under his belt, Edson is proud of having learned a lot over the years, beginning with mentoring from early area wine makers Larry Mawby and Bruce Simpson. And he’s pleased to be working now with both Lougheed and Hosmer. “We’ve never had a better wine making staff with a better set of skills,” he said.

Most of all, Edson enjoys the creativity and artistry of wine making and the enjoyment of pouring wine and interacting with customers. While admittedly he misses out on some recreational opportunities due to the all-consuming demands of the winery business, he doesn’t hesitate when asked what he sees himself doing over the next decade. “I don’t see myself doing anything else,” he said. “ I like this too much to quit.”

This autumn, the Glen Arbor Sun will tour more wineries near Cedar. In our September 11, look for a story about Longview Winery in Cedar.