Blame it on the Maynard!

I’ve never really been a much of a wine person. For me, its always been about beer. Not really sure why. I guess its sort of like you are a water person versus a land lover. In any case, my relationship with wine changed after watching the movie “Blood Into Wine“. This is a great flick about Maynard James Keenan and Eric Glomski and their adventures in starting some vineyards out in Jerome, Arizona. Somehow this movie got me inspired to try out some of this wine! Brenda and I actually tried to find Maynard during a trip we took to Arizona a couple years ago. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I really loved a good wine on occasion, with Arizona Stronghold and Caduceus Cellars being some of my favorites.

Can you get good wine in Michigan?? Yep, over at Black Star Farms!

During our trip up to Traverse City for the Bigfoot Boogie, the folks from Black Star Farms liked our facebook page (thanks again!) and invited us to stop in sometime for a visit. We were booked to come back to Traverse City for the Bayshore Marathon and figured that would be a good time to check them out.

 

Black Star Farms has three tasting rooms. We decided to visit their original home out near Suttons Bay. The drive over from Traverse City is nice and the entrance into the vineyards is fantastic! A relaxed and enjoyable ambience to savor some wine. The Suttons Bay location even has a inn, so you can chill out for an extended stay.

 

The tasting room is bright and inviting.

I have to admit, my limited experience with Michigan wines hadn’t been that great. The ones I’d had were just too sweet for my taste. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the very nice wines that Black Star Farms offers! We did a tasting flight of white (Isidor’s Choice Pinot Grigio and Arcturos Dry Riesling) and red (Isidor’s Choice Pinot Noir, Arcturos Cabernet Franc, and Vintners Select) wines. We also tried their Spirt of Cherry brandy. The helpful staff at Black Star Farms gave us the run down on the characteristics of each wine. Our friend Jeff, showed us his own particular style for wine tasting 🙂

 

I’m not even going to try to give you a description of each one as I’m sure I’d fail to provide you with a useful description. What I can say is that each wine was spectacular. I tend to like dry wines and these tastings did not disappoint. Each had great character and a bouquet of flavors. Definitely not sweet or syrupy, although Black Star does offer some dessert wines if that is your thing. The cherry brandy was exquisite. My favorite overall was the Cabernet Franc which we took home to enjoy.

You really can’t go wrong with all that Black Star Farms has to offer. We enjoyed our visit and their outstanding wines. As usual, we have more pictures of our little journey in the gallery.