All is Good on the North Shore
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season. Mine was wonderful and except for a slight case of the plague it was a great time.
Let me start with the wine. Through further research and testing, it appears that most people are quite happy with the wine made here. Actually they quite enjoy it.
On Christmas, I served Raspberry wine to start, then some Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay and two Ice Wines: Raspberry and Vidal. Now, all was taken very well with questions like: how can I get this in Michigan and this is gooood. Well I also brought some of Harold's strudel which is ‘food for the gods'. I love the stuff and anyone who had Germanic or Eastern European blood just dived at it. Add Harold's Raspberry Ice Wine and oi!, magnifique! Oh in a pinch Muscedere's Ice Wine worked ok too(yeah actually people stayed to have some--it's wonderful) . Its funny, the local ice wine goes over sooo well, I find it a little lighter and not as sweet as the Niagara varieties and this seems to be really agreeable to my guests.
On New Year's Eve, more strudel was required and along with that was some Cider. Yes local cider. It's very good and long wanted. See Harold (oops Wagner Estate) and get some. It's quite like the English ciders and that's good. I still long for what Woodchuck does but hey I can get that in Detroit. Nuff said, but Harold has hit several home runs lately and that's great, because he is really doing some innovative things. Bravo Harold.
Now the sadness. I really think that Ice Wine this year is out of the question. The Star has been writing articles about this and yes I believe them. Talking to some winemakers prior to Christmas, they tried to be optimistic but they knew then but were only hoping. So what happens---- well: 1) I get to sleep as I was a ‘picker recruit' and 2) we will get some very interesting late harvest wines. Here is the good part for us; late harvest wines are generally very superb. They tend to be thick, sweet, complex and just wonderful. Germans make wonderful ones so the day isn't totally lost. My only fear is for the wineries as the ice wine must account for a sizable chunk of their profits so lets just support them more so they are ok. We will get some Ice Wine I bet but it'll be expensive and variable quality. If the birds and rot don't get the remaining berries there may be some beautiful stuff available but not much of it. That is sad.
But let's be positive here. Our wine is getting better and better every year. The new wineries are all excellent. The older ones are still improving. This is good, very good. drive around Harrow and the land for sale is being advertised as grape land. How long until we get another few wineries. I hope they come soon cos I love the stuff.
