In northern Michigan’s vineyards and orchards, ablaze with fall colors, migrant farmworkers are known to sing corrido ballads and folk songs as they pick grapes and apples from sunrise to sundown. But their voices fell silent this autumn when targeted roadside arrests by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and workplace visits by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increased starting in late September.
Michigan’s leading cherry retailer is changing gears, driving from a hectic summer season right into a busy fall with customer-friendly events scheduled throughout September and October.
The July 2018 Wine on the Water Festival that was postponed due to lightning and thunderstorms has been rescheduled. The organizers are excited to host the festival on Saturday, Aug. 18, in its same location at Marina Park in Suttons Bay.
The next wildly popular Small Plates—an intimate progressive dinner along the Leelanau wine trail—is Thursday, Aug. 16, starting at 6 p.m. Enjoy a glass of wine paired with a gourmet tapas dish in the tasting rooms of up to three wineries during this unique dinner event that happens just twice per year.
This summer, for the first time, Verterra Winery is opening its Swede Road vineyard near Northport for public wine tastings and tours. Guests will have a chance to see unparalleled views of Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Michigan, surrounded by vineyards on the Leelanau Peninsula.
Leelanau vintners will hold a Boskydel Tribute on Saturday, July 7, from 6-10 p.m. at Aurora Cellars in Lake Leelanau. The event is a collaboration between Good Harbor Vineyards, Mawby and Bel Lago Vineyards to honor Bernie Rink, pioneer of the region’s wine industry.
Lissa Edwards can remember Glen Arbor before it had sidewalks, or much asphalt. “Everything smelled like hot sand and sumac,” she laughs, over a glass of Chardonnay. “Every once in a while a certain smell takes me back to those days. I spent every summer in Glen Arbor in the 1960s. This town is deep in my DNA.”
Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail’s Harvest Stompede event is an exciting time to explore the region’s wineries. Rolling hills of lush grapevines cover the countryside providing a stunning backdrop to wine tasting fun during the weekend wine tasting event that takes place Sept. 12 and 13.
The Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail has announced the launch of Sips & Soups. Proceeds from this SOUPer wine and soup tasting event will be donated to Leelanau Christian Neighbors to help restock the local food pantries after its holiday needs are met.
Dan Matthies, proprietor of Chateau Fontaine in Lake Leelanau (along with wife Lucie), still remembers the day over 30 years ago that he saw a tiny advertisement in the Leelanau Enterprise: “Looking for farmers to grow wine grapes.” Matthies and his wife had been fascinated with wine and the idea of wine making since they’d first tasted the beverage in the 1970s — but they’d never seriously considered the possibility that their land, acres upon acres of steep hills with south-facing slopes, would be an ideal spot for following the lead of wine maker Bernie Rink. Rink, a neighboring farmer who’d planted a test plot of French-American hybrid grapes as well as a few vinifera varieties on 16 acres of rolling Leelanau County land back in the mid 1960s, had debuted his Boskydel winery, the first winery to open in Leelanau County, in 1975.