With nearly 20 wineries gracing the rolling hills of Leelanau County, this Northern Michigan tourist destination is now being billed as the wine country of the midwest.
Guests of The Homestead’s annual Spring in Bloom Wine Tour weekend May 15-17 will have an opportunity to tour and taste wine at three of the regions newest additions to the wine trail – Circa, Forty-Five North and Silverleaf.
David and Margaret Bell, Owners of Circa, created an eco-friendly winery on a 50 acre farm in Lake Leelanau and will be included in this year’s tour. In a recent update to the resort, they shared:
Even though the persistent piles of snow evident in ditches and in the woods betray the very recent departure of winter, the vineyard season at Circa is very much in active mode as we prepare our vines for the work of producing the 2009 vintage. We are near the end of our pruning and tying operation and have found that our 24 acres of grapevines have come through the winter in great shape, finding very little sign of winter injury to our buds. The cold water of the newly thawed nearby lakes may make for cold work outside, but this does keep our vines cool and dormant until the danger of late spring frost has largely passed. This “lake effect” is one of the reasons we can successfully grow European grapevine varieties here on the 45th parallel!
This 2009 vintage will be the first for our fairly sizeable Riesling block which we planted in 2007, and which has responded very favorably to the rock and clay hillsides of our East vineyard. Riesling fans can look forward to some interesting wines from this block to be released next spring.
We are also continuing to expand our Pinot Grigio plantings that contribute to our very popular Pinot Grigio wines.
Of course, we did not spend the winter sitting by the fireplace reading (nor snorkeling in Costa Rica, unfortunately); we finished the bottling of our 2007 red wines, including Cabernet Franc and Requisite. We think these will cause quite a stir when they are introduced. (The Requisite will be released the weekend of the Homestead wine tour!)
Back to the vineyards for now…here’s looking forward to an extraordinary vineyard year at Circa Estate Winery.
~ David and Margaret
We’re looking forward to the wine tour weekend – it should be perfect timing to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom as well!
