Lake Michigan Shore Wine Country, part 1

This weekend turned into an unexpected winery tour weekend, much to our surprise. We were in Michigan for family matters, which just happened to overlap with an already-planned visit to the Paw Paw Wine & Harvest Festival. As we found ourselves with some extra time on our hands, what was originally meant to be a two-winery visit ended up close to a dozen.

The first winery we visited was Lawton Ridge in Kalamazoo. Unfortunately, E forgot her camera and so there are no photographs. Lawton Ridge is a smaller winery, but with good wines at reasonable prices. We tried many wines off their tasting list, including their superb Traminette (which we reviewed in our last post). Also good was their KZOO Daily Red, Pinot Gris, Cherry Red, and their AZO, which isn't listed on their website. The woman working the bar was extremely friendly, talking with us about the festival as well as Lawton Ridge's friendships with other local wineries. Their bar is made from old oak barrels from St. Julian, and she made sure to recommend we visit another winery which just opened nearby. Luckily, we had already planned on heading there next.

We drove along some county roads and eventually found our way to Cody Kresta Vineyard and Winery in Mattawan. As we drove in, we were met by two large, barking dogs, followed a moment later by a cat. Always a good sign—wineries are better with dogs in residence. The location itself is gorgeous. The barn and farmhouse are over 100 years old and kept in impeccable condition. The barn has been rehabbed into the winery and tasting room, and the latter is really nice. From the handmade wine racks to the large stools made from gnarled grape roots, you can tell the owners really put their blood, sweat, and tears into making this winery a showpiece. Thankfully, their wines hold up just as well. While their selection is small, the wines are robust, flavorful, and tasty. However, note that the winemaker likes his wines dry, and so if you're a fan of sweet wines you probably won't find a lot to enjoy. All of the white and red wines impressed us, but what really blew us away was the Kresta Azure Blueberry Wine. While most fruit wines skew sweet, this one had a strong, tangy flavor like the skins of blueberries instead of the juice. We'd definitely recommend this months-old winery to anyone passing through the area.

After this we turned around to head back, with a stopover at a winery in downtown Kalamazoo. Tempo Vino Winery is what you might consider a boutique winery. Located in a storefront, this winery has a small tasting bar up front with the back half of the building dedicated to winemaking. The owners have grapes shipped in from around the world and not only make their own wines, but allow customers to mix their own batches. It's a pretty cool concept, one which we wish existed closer to home. We tried several of the winery's own blends, settling on the Pink Elephant white merlot and In the Mood Merlot.

At this point we headed home to rest up for the next day's visit to the Wine & Harvest Festival, our third time in attendance. Unfortunately, when we woke up the next morning it was raining. On the drive to Paw Paw the rain only got worse, which was an absolute shame. The city put a lot of work into expanding the festival, with additions of a carnival, a traveling toy train exhibit, and lots of local vendors at the arts & crafts exhibit. The rain surely kept a lot of people at home, so we're hoping that things picked up the following day, which was gorgeous. Anyway, on to the wines...


Drinking and dodging puddles

Our first stop was at St. Julian, the oldest and largest winery in the state. St. Julian has a huge facility and actually bottles for a lot of smaller wineries in the area. For the festival they had the main tasting room closed, but ran tours of their winery from a side entrance. As is the norm for the festival, their back parking lot (most likely their shipping and receiving area) was covered with a large tent and turned into one massive tasting room. About a dozen large bars were set up around the perimeter of the tent, and each had a different selection of wines available. For their more popular wines, such as their Red, White, and Blue Heron wines, bars were reserved for just those varieties. Otherwise they categorized their wines into groupings such as sparkling wines, dessert wines, reserve wines, etc.

The entrance to St Julian

St. Julian is located right off the main road as you enter Paw Paw from the highway, and so we've come to visit the winery throughout the year on the way to and from visiting relatives. Several of their wines are also easily availble to us at our local grocery store, Meijer. Therefore, we're quite familiar with what this winery has to offer but still took advantage of the completely free tastings St. Julian offered. This year a new addition was on the lineup: Founder's Pride, a combination of their Frontenac Port, Solera Cream Sherry, and brandy. Exceptional, especially for the price. As for our favorites, we'd have to point to the St. J Merlot, Niagra, St. J Pinot Grigio, and Frankenmuth May Wine. One thing that makes St. Julian great is simply how affordable their wine is. Unless you're purchasing their reserve lineup, the majority of their wines are under $15.

It was here at St. Julian where we met Sharon Kegerreis, a writer and photographer who published a book about Michigan wineries.  From the Vine: Exploring Michigan Wineries has "biographies" of all the local wineries, as well as beautiful photographs of both the wineries and their vintners. She and her co-author, Lorri Hathaway, have a second book about the history of winemaking in Michigan as well. Sharon told us that people have been buying From the Vine and taking it to all the different wineries, getting the pages signed by their corresponding vintner. It's a great idea, and one we wish we had thought of first. Heh. She said there was an interest in exploring other Midwest wineries, so we told her to check out Illinois. It's not like we don't have enough wineries here!


Picturesque Warner Vineyards

Next up we headed a half block over to visit Warner Vineyards. Much like St. Julian, this is a winery we've visited on several occasions due to both the annual festival and its proximity to the highway. Warner's wines tend to cost a bit more than St. Julian, but they're worth the money. While their neighbor has the capability to mass produce, Warner's selection is about half the size, but still considerable in its own right. One thing that makes Warner stand out is simply its facility. Located in the old water works building from 1898, Warner is picturesque and lovely. The winery itself opened in 1938, and while it doesn't make their wines on the premesis (the winemaking facility burned down years ago), the old tasting room and cellars still exist. The winery has expanded since we last visited, adding and outdoor ampitheater as well as a second tasting room.


Warner's tasting room

In the past, we've purchased several bottles here, including their Grapes of Love, Riesling, Classic Blush, Blueberry Splash, and Peach & Honey wines. This time around, we wanted to try something different, so we focused on their red wines. These are good, full-bodied wines, mostly semi-dry or dry. This time we both thoroughly enjoyed their Veritas, a dry red, and their Mello Red, a semi-sweet with lots of fruit flavor. We also nabbed another bottle of Grapes of Love for E's parents (who enjoyed it at the fest last year), and their cherry wine, which has been sold out on every visit prior to this one.

After this, we wandered around Paw Paw to take in as much of the festival as we could. After a visit to the fine art sale and auction, we headed back to Warner to have lunch. They always have some kind of catered lunch for the fest; last year it was a pig roast, this year it was smoked pulled pork BBQ. Very tasty, and a welcome alternate to corn dogs and funnel cakes in the festival food tents.

Contessa's sprawling deck

As the rain was still coming down in a steady drizzle, E decided they should take advantage of the extra time and head down the highway to Coloma. This town is home to two wineries, only one of which we've visited before. We decided to hit up the new-to-us winery first, Contessa Wine Cellars. Contessa is run by a third-generation wine maker, and his goal is to combine "old-world charm and ... modern amenities." This results in a bit of a hodge-podge regarding the winery itself; the building has a gorgeous deck (complete with outdoor bar) and a modern design, but inside has a large "traditional" wooden wine bar with carvings which doesn't seem to fit with the modern A-frame design of the building itself. That said, the grounds are lovely, with sprawling vineyards trailing down the hillsides to the valley below. As for the wines, Contessa runs a bit more expensive than we like. In the end, we thought their best wines were (lucky for us) their cheapest: Lago Rosso, a fruity, semi-dry red, and Bianco Bello, a white blend. Also, their most expensive bottle, Tres Tenors, was great—just too pricey for us that day.


The winery and some of its vineyard

Our final stop was on the other side of town, to Karma Vista Vineyard and Winery. We've visited this winery before and have found their wines to be pleasant and easy-drinking. As always, the staff was pleasant and happy to tell us all about their wines' different characteristics. In the past, we've liked Watusi Red, Moondance Merlot, and Ryno Red. This time we went for something different and purchased a bottle of Starry, Starry White, a semi-sweet reisling-seyval hybrid that's actually their best seller. We also liked their Karisma, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. However, at this point we'd already spent too much money and decided to call it quits for the day. Little did we know there would be more (unintentional) winery visits the next day...