While we were in Petoskey we decided to try another winery, before we headed out to our next destination.  We went to the tasting room for Petoskey Farms Vineyard & Winery.  Andrew and Tracie Roush are living out their dream of owning a winery and they bought twenty-two acres of land and started off with sixteen-hundred grapevines and they opened the doors in 2014, so they are a relatively new winery in the area.  When we were there they were offering five white wines, seven red wines, a fruit wine and four hard ciders; and not a bottle retailed above $28.00 which was reasonable for a new firm.  My Bride and I opted for only the wines, and we paid extra, because we are renegades and did six tastings, instead of the standard five pours.

The Petoskey Farms Vidal Blanc 2017 is a dry white wine and it is made from one of the Cold-Hardy grapes that can be found across Michigan.  The grapes came from the Lake Michigan Shores AVA and was aged in Stainless Steel for a nice crisp wine.  The wine had some grapefruit to the nose and a tinge of mineral on the aftertaste.  They produced one-hundred-two cases of this wine.  The Petoskey Farms Sur Lie Chardonnay 2017 also came from the Lake Michigan Shores and were aged on the lees for three months in Stainless Steel.  I detected some creaminess to the wine, even though it had a soft nose, but very easy to drink.  The production on this wine was two-hundred-fifty-two cases.  The last white that we tried was the Petoskey Farms White 2016 made from the Seyval Blanc, another Cold-Hardy grape.  They made four-hundred-fifty-two cases of this wine which they termed Semi-Dry and I would concur.  The majority of the white wines in Michigan are Semi-Dry, but the Vidal Blanc and the Sur Lie Chardonnay were both crisp and dry, and to my liking.

The first of the red wines we tried was the Petoskey Farms Romance 2017 which carried the Lake Michigan Shore designation.  The wine was a blend of DeChaunac and Noiret grapes.  DeChaunac is a French-American hybrid that was developed after the phylloxera devastation in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century.  Noiret is another Cold-Hardy hybrid grape that is found in the Northeast and in Canada.  I found this wine to have some spice to it, which I find appealing, and I thought I detected some vanilla or oak, but I couldn’t find out how this wine was aged.  There were seventy-three cases made of this wine.  The other red that we tried was the Petoskey Farms Marquette 2017.  Marquette is a real newcomer to the wine world, another hybrid for the colder climates and a grandson to Pinot Noir.  This wine came from the newest AVA in Michigan, the Tip of the Mitt which encompasses six counties at the top of the Lower Peninsula, and I think a cute name, because the map of Michigan looks like a mitten, and most Michiganders hold their hand up, to show where a city is to be found.  This was a nice dry wine with a touch of black cherry, which is kind of appropriate, because before the boon of wineries this area was all cherry orchards.  They made one-hundred-ninety-eight cases of this wine.  The last wine we tried was their sweet Rosé, the Petoskey Farms First Crush 2017.  This was a blend of Frontenac and Frontenac Gris, Frontenac is a Cold-Hardy grape that is a French-American hybrid developed in the Seventies, and Frontenac Gris is a hybrid from Frontenac that was releases in the early part of the first decade of this century.  The wine is Estate Grown and carries the Tip of the Mitt designation, and they made one-hundred-twenty-five cases of this wine.  This wine had a watermelon-pink color that was rather vibrant and it was a tad sweet for us, but I could see it being very popular, as I know that there is a segment of wine drinkers that prefer a sweeter wine.  To be candid, I was quite impressed with some of the wines, and since they are basically brand new, I look forward to seeing where the road leads them in the world of wines, especially since they will not break the bank.