Thursday, August 24, 2006
Welcome to my wine discovery journey!
Greetings and salutations! This post is the first of what I hope to be many, many musings on wineries and wine in Michigan and the surrounding Great Lakes states. Why am I doing this? Because I am embarking on a journey of discovery and experimentation. My first wine moment was with a bottle of Ridge Paso Robles Zinfandel at a party during graduate school about 11 years ago. One taste of that concentrated jammy loveliness and I was forever enslaved by the glorious god Bacchus. My gracious thanks to Randy, who sent me down this wonderful journey with the simple application of a corkscrew.
Since that time, my wife and I explored many of the primary wine-growing regions in California--Sonoma, Napa, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Temecula, and Monterey. I now live in southeast Michigan, just outside of Ann Arbor (I suppose a gratuitous "Hail to the Victors" would be appropriate and perhaps expected, but I am a Hawkeye by birth, so forget it). For several years after moving to Michigan, I resisted visiting the wineries of my home state because of a prejudice that good wine could not be made outside of California and the West Coast. When encountering a bottle of St. Julian in the store, a superior smirk would race across my face. After reading a Wine Spectator review of Michigan wineries, we took a tentative trip to Traverse City to see for ourselves. Wow--my eyes were opened! If you haven't tasted L. Mawby's Blanc de Blanc or Sex, well, I just pity you! Besides, how can you not enjoy a wine called Sex?
Since then my wife and I have specifically sought out wineries whenever we travel to sample what the local vintners are crafting. Not every wine is great, but the love of their craft is evident in every wine these folks offer. While California will always remain a solid foundation in my wine universe, the wineries of the rest of the country beckon as twinkling stars to be visited and sampled--Oregon's Willamette Valley, Michigan, Niagra, the Finger Lakes of NY, Ohio, and Virginia.
I also have a burning desire to one day open my very own winery. Towards that end I have embarked on a personal pilgramage to explore as many of the wineries in Michigan and the surrounding Great Lake states as I can reach. Some would call it an obsession, I call it market research. My aim is to examine their wines, tasting rooms, vineyards, and personalities in search of what makes a small winery succeed. This blog will document that journey. Part travel log, part wine review, part visitation reports, I want to share my musings during my journey towards my winery dreams. Hopefully, my reports will inspire you to venture into these wineries as well. Along the way, I'll share my adventures in home winemaking from time to time.
If you are looking for amazing prose and an eloquent tongue, go somewhere else. I am a scientist by training, having spent 5 years in graduate school for a Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry. Seven more years as a medicinal chemist for a major pharmaceutical company has taught me to be brief and concise. However, my liberal arts education ("Go Flying Dutchman!") occasionally sneaks through in my writing and comes close to approximating clever writing.
I welcome you to my blog and invite you along on my wine journey. This will be a memorable and hugely enjoyable trip!
Regards,
a Student
Since that time, my wife and I explored many of the primary wine-growing regions in California--Sonoma, Napa, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Temecula, and Monterey. I now live in southeast Michigan, just outside of Ann Arbor (I suppose a gratuitous "Hail to the Victors" would be appropriate and perhaps expected, but I am a Hawkeye by birth, so forget it). For several years after moving to Michigan, I resisted visiting the wineries of my home state because of a prejudice that good wine could not be made outside of California and the West Coast. When encountering a bottle of St. Julian in the store, a superior smirk would race across my face. After reading a Wine Spectator review of Michigan wineries, we took a tentative trip to Traverse City to see for ourselves. Wow--my eyes were opened! If you haven't tasted L. Mawby's Blanc de Blanc or Sex, well, I just pity you! Besides, how can you not enjoy a wine called Sex?
Since then my wife and I have specifically sought out wineries whenever we travel to sample what the local vintners are crafting. Not every wine is great, but the love of their craft is evident in every wine these folks offer. While California will always remain a solid foundation in my wine universe, the wineries of the rest of the country beckon as twinkling stars to be visited and sampled--Oregon's Willamette Valley, Michigan, Niagra, the Finger Lakes of NY, Ohio, and Virginia.
I also have a burning desire to one day open my very own winery. Towards that end I have embarked on a personal pilgramage to explore as many of the wineries in Michigan and the surrounding Great Lake states as I can reach. Some would call it an obsession, I call it market research. My aim is to examine their wines, tasting rooms, vineyards, and personalities in search of what makes a small winery succeed. This blog will document that journey. Part travel log, part wine review, part visitation reports, I want to share my musings during my journey towards my winery dreams. Hopefully, my reports will inspire you to venture into these wineries as well. Along the way, I'll share my adventures in home winemaking from time to time.
If you are looking for amazing prose and an eloquent tongue, go somewhere else. I am a scientist by training, having spent 5 years in graduate school for a Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry. Seven more years as a medicinal chemist for a major pharmaceutical company has taught me to be brief and concise. However, my liberal arts education ("Go Flying Dutchman!") occasionally sneaks through in my writing and comes close to approximating clever writing.
I welcome you to my blog and invite you along on my wine journey. This will be a memorable and hugely enjoyable trip!
Regards,
a Student
