TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (PRWEB) – In celebration of Michigan Wine Month, vino lovers are invited to enjoy Traverse City Uncorked throughout the entire month of May. The festivities include complimentary wine tastings, discounted lodging packages, winery events and sipping souvenirs for participants.
Traverse City Uncorked is a month-long promotion of the premier grape-growing region in Northwest Michigan. The region’s two peninsulas, Leelanau and Old Mission, are both designated as American Viticultural Areas (AVA) with diverse microclimates uniquely suited for a variety of wine grapes. Together, the 35 wineries throughout the peninsulas make up Traverse Wine Coast. Among their internationally acclaimed varietals are Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc.
Traverse City Tourism, the region’s official Destination Marketing Organization, partners with Traverse Wine Coast for 31 days of celebration. Trevor Tkach, President and CEO of Traverse City Tourism, says the wineries are key in making Traverse City a pretty great place. “We have a fantastic wine region that stands out among other regions across the country, not only for the high-quality wines we are producing here, but also for everything else that goes with it – a beautiful region, one of the top foodie towns and our outdoor recreation.”
Participants of Traverse City Uncorked will also enjoy the regional marks of spring, namely the millions of cherry blossoms that make Traverse City the Cherry Capital of the World (you can celebrate the 2018 National Cherry Festival June 30 – July 7). Culinary enthusiasts and foragers will enjoy May’s wild morels and leeks, plus the downtown restaurants that daily harvest and transform their seasonal finds.
Special events throughout Traverse City Uncorked include Spring Sip & Savor on Leelanau Peninsula (May 5-6) as well as Blossom Day on Old Mission Peninsula (May 19), both offering food and wine tastings at the wineries. Small Plates, a progressive dinner with Leelanau winemakers, takes place along the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail (May 31), while Sips n’ Giggles offers a live comedy show pairing (May 19). For a complete list of Traverse City Uncorked events and lodging packages, pour a glass and visit traversecityuncorked.com. Clink!
For this year’s edition of Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista – a project launched in 2009 to showcase the unique relationship between fine wine and contemporary art – South African artist William Kentridge developed a site-specific art installation, designed a limited series of 111 large-format bottles, and created a limited-edition label that will appear on one of the six bottles in each case of Ornellaia. As explained by William Kentridge, the images on the labels depict the work of winemaking, specifically the unique combination of craft and processes involved in the vendemmia, or the wine harvest.
Ramey Wine Cellars
Mazzocco Sonoma
Here are some of Walla Walla’s newest and most notable restaurants, wineries, hotels, and more:
It all started innocently enough. We had planned a trip to Northern California, meticulously researching wineries, hotels and restaurants in Sonoma County, San Francisco and the Monterey Peninsula that we wanted to write about for Eve’s Wine 101 readers.
There is a little more magic to mention: the invisible cellar, the shuttered chateau. But I do not want to emphasize this. Xavier does not play any of this up: like the vineyards, all of this disappears. There is no show: only wine. He does not even make a show of his methods; he never mentions his own devotion; he never draws distinctions between his way of working and his neighbors’. He does not celebrate or elevate what he does; he is utterly matter of fact. He never mentions “purity” or any other value. His only point of pride, if I read him right, is his wine’s relation to time. His only theory, insofar as I could grasp, is related to what he calls “matière”– “matter.” His labels have alchemical references (see photo); I think that he means something old-fashioned and metaphysical by this. He does not just mean “matter” or even something like information. He talks about his farming being devoted to translating matter from the field (not just the soil) to the grapes, and his pressing being devoted to translating the matter from the grapes to the juice. The density of this wine is due to this attention to matter– and also the complexity, I think. But this means that “matière” is not just some concentration of molecules, but some kind of system, with architecture, proportion, interrelation. For what else is complexity? His matter, I think, is something more like spirit or soul– not necessarily in the Christian sense, but in a way that Aristotle would understand.
The first bottle is a white wine from 2004. He makes only two wines, one red, one white. The white, 100% Chenin. Six years in barrel before bottling, then, in the case of this wine, four more years before release. Robert asks about skin contact (Xavier speaks no English, I translate as best as I can). No skin contact. We discuss the press regime and fermentation for 30 minutes. In great detail. He uses an old champagne press with a capacity of about 500 liters– very small, and exactly the same capacity as our presses at Tenbrink. A typical day during the white harvest has the following rhythm: wake up, harvest as much fruit as the press will hold, bring it back to the winery (“where do you do the work?” I ask, pointing to the overgrown yard and the complete absence of what we would call a crush pad. “Where you can,” he says with a smile). Load the press. Begin pressing. Go past midnight. Adjust the pressure. Assess. If all seems good, go home. Sleep, wake, return to the winery, release the pressure, break up the grapes (“Whole cluster?” “Yes. We do not crush or destem anything”), re-apply pressure, go harvest fruit, return, unload the press, begin the cycle again. They work with about 3 vineyards typically but make 3-4 passes in each vineyard. There could be a dozen days of pressing; sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. They break up the cake of compressed grapes only once and gently. He wants as little friction and trituration as possible. There is no breaking up of the fruit on the way into the press or in the press as we do (“makes the fermentation too fast,” he explains. “Oh yes, how fast? What counts as a rapid fermentation for you?” “Three weeks.” Ah, that is rapid. What is the optimal time for you?” “A few months . . . . A year.” “Ah yes, we call those ‘French Fermentations.'” He smiles.)
Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country is home to more than 40 wineries boasting award-winning and 90+ point rated wines from Palumbo Family Vineyards, Lorenzi Estate, Callaway, Leoness Cellars, Hart Winery, Mount Palomar Winery, and more.