Lake Michigan Shore Wine Country, part 2

On our drive from Michigan back to Chicagoland, we decided that we'd finally stop and check out the wineries located in the southwest corner of the state. There are a few tasting rooms that you can see from the highway, and over the course of our lives we've passed these literally hundreds of times. For some reason, we've never checked them out. We decided to recitify that situation, as we had plenty of time on the drive home.

Our first stop was at Bridgeman, the location of the Tabor Hill Champagne Cellars tasting room. The original plan was to only visit the tasting rooms right off the highway. However, as we pulled off the exit ramp, we saw a sign reading "Lemon Creek Winery: 2 miles." We rationalized that two miles wasn't that far, really, so why not go check it out? Little did we know that the sign lied. It wasn't two miles to the winery, no, it was two miles to the road that the winery is on. It was another five or six miles east from Bridgeman to Berrien Springs, where the winery was actually located. But by then it was too late, and there was another winery across the street, so why not just go visit them both?

Domaine Berrien

We pulled in to Domaine Berrien first, as it was just slightly closer than Lemon Creek. We've tried Domaine Berrien before at a festival and liked their wines, so we were happy to try some more. Their winery is quite nice, with a large tasting room and a deck out back overlooking a pond and the vineyards. There's also an observation area where visitors can see the fermentation tanks. Our only complaint was that due to the wine currently fermenting in the tanks, the place smelled, well, not good. But hey, the wine tasted good, and that's what matters. Wines we tried and liked included their Crown of Cab, Lemberger, Viognier, and White Satin. We ended up purchasing a bottle of Wolf's Prairie Red and Red Satin.

From here we drove across the street to Lemon Creek Winery. We should have known things weren't going to go smoothly when the parking lot was full. While that's a good sign for the winery, it's bad for the customers due to big wait times. Inside the tasting room people were packed at least two deep at the bar, and only three people were on staff to pour. We assumed there was a party in progress, as a large group of women were packed together sampling each other's wines. We waited for about ten minutes before a spot opened up at the bar, only to have someone who came in after us jump ahead and steal it from us. At this point we were annoyed and left. It's not the fault of the winery for being popular, but it still stunk.

Free Run Cellars

Since we had struck out at Lemon Creek, we decided to head over to the next nearest winery, Free Run Cellars in Berrien Springs. In the past, we'd found a bottle of their Dry Gewurztraminer on discount at our local liquor store and liked it. We drove up to find the parking lot blissfully sparse, although there were enough people inside to fill up one of their two long bars. The wines at Free Run tend to lean more towards the dry side, which works well for us as many Michigan wines are quite sweet. A few of their wines were sold out (a good sign), but this did mean fewer wines to choose from during the tasting. As a side note, Free Run charges $7.50 for a tasting, but gives you a complementary glass and a token. If you buy three bottles at a time, you hand over token and the $7.50 charge is taken off your total. Plus, if you bring the glass back on future visits, the tastings are free. Not a bad deal, really. We purchased their Rosso and Mezzo, and then purchased a third bottle (cherry?), as it took the tasting price off the overall bill.

The winery at Round Barn

Free Run is affiliated with another winery in the area, and we found out that the "tasting tokens" we were given there would be accepted at their partner winery. Since we had a token and we knew tastings would be free with our newly-purchased glasses, we headed over to the Round Barn Winery in Baroda. This winery is also a distillery and brewery, so if you have a friend who only drinks beer then this is the destination for everyone. There are three separate buildings on the premesis for each type of alcohol they produce. Note that while the winery and brewery offer tastings, the distillery is not allowed to by state law. You can purchase their DiVine vodka (made from grapes) and whiskey on-site. As for the winery, we really enjoyed ourselves here. The huge barn has a giant curved bar stretching almost the entire inner circumference of the building. We found a spot and got to tasting. We liked their Vineyard Tears, Edel Doux, and Vineyard Red, but ended up purchasing their Apple Demi Sec (fantastic), Cranberry, and Vineyard Demi Sec. We were accidentally served a tasting of the "Heart of Raspberry" brandy, which tasted sort of like an unsweetened raspberry vodka blended with dry brandy. This wasn't like anything we'd tasted before, and ended up buying a bottle because we were so intrigued by it. Every month they have different "Farmer's Choice" selections in sparkling and fruit wines. One of this month's choices was a Black Walnut wine, which immediately piqued our interest. Unfortunately they were completely sold out. If we lived closer, we'd probably be here every month checking out what kind of new and different selections they had from the local farmers' hauls.

Hickory Creek

At this point were were ready to head home, but thought we'd stop at one last winery we would pass on the way back to the highway. This was Hickory Creek Winery, also located in Baroda. This winery looked rather quaint, with picnic tables on the lawn under a large shade tree. The tasting room was located in the barn, which houses all their winemaking equipment and tanks. A window sits in the wall behind the bar in the tasting room so that guests can look into the actual winery while they try out the wine. We tried several of their wines, but due to cost only purchased a bottle of Gentil. Yes, this was the cheapest wine available on their menu, but also the one we liked the most. (Convenient how that works.) Hickory Creek's prices run higher than the other wineries we visited on the Lake Michigan Shore Trail, but due to their smaller size it's not unexpected.

Believe it or not, there are still other wineries in the area that we haven't visited. Tabor Hill's winery and restaurant are in the area, and we know this is a major player in Michigan wineries. Plus, we still need to try Lemon Creek again. So while we're stocked up on wine for now, someday we'll be back to try out more.