There are some days when plans are changed the last minute, and I was going to be alone for the day, and then my Bride was free.  I took advantage of the information and decided that we were going to have a date, right then and there.  We have season tickets to one of the finest educational sites in North America; The Henry Ford.  When I was a kid and I used to ride my bicycle there it was known as Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford Museum.  A few years ago, some marketing guru decided to combine the two under one name, the old names are still being used for the two entities.

Greenfield Village is a town setting of historical buildings that Henry Ford had dismantled from their original sites and moved to their new location at the Village.  I am sure that he saved plenty of buildings that could have been torn down, because of “progress.”  Some of the structures are very spartan, like homes from the 1600’s, blacksmith shops, even slave quarters from a dark-time in the not-too-distant past. There is Menlo Park where Thomas Edison had some of the most brilliant minds creating all kinds of inventions and new ideas, even Edison’s Florida laboratory was moved as well.  The Wright Brothers bicycle shop is there, where they originally tinkered and created their airplane.  Surrounding all of this are vintage trains and coaches that circle the village, there is an old River Boat plying one of the man-made lakes, and of course there are motorized tours available in chauffeured and curated Model T’s, the car that mobilized man affordably.  One actually had to keep alert because the Model T cars loaded with tourists moved at a pretty good clip, of course the paved streets are well maintained and are not maintained by our governor.  After walking the entire Village, we went and had a quick lunch.  My Bride had a French Onion Soup and a salad.  On a hot day, the perfect wine that they were offering was Kris “Artist Cuvee” Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT 2020 from the Winebow Group.  The label is the work of Riccardo Schweizer, a friend of the winery owner, a native of Northern Italy and a student of Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro.  Delle Venezie is one of the best-known designations of Italy, because of all the Pinot Grigio wine.  In 2017 the name was transferred to a new DOC and the IGT changed its name to Trevenezie, but if the winery doesn’t adhere to the rules of the DOC, it can still use the IGT designation.  There were no production notes on this wine, but I think it is safe to say that the wine was made in Stainless Steel to keep the fruit and the acidity as fresh as possible.  The nose was very light and so was the wine, it was what we call a quaffable wine and perfect for a hot day.

The Henry Ford Museum which is housed in a building that looks like Independence Hall is a collection of all types of gadgets, because Henry Ford liked gadgets.  There one can see furniture, small appliances, electronics, airplanes, trains and of course, automobiles.  It is fascinating, and it still holds my attention after a lifetime of visits. We could have done another tour of the Museum, but we were only going in to have lunch at their newest restaurant run by Plum Market, a specialty market with several locations in the Metropolitan Detroit area.  Plum Market also employs Madeline Triffon who was the first female Master Sommelier in America, as their In-house Sommelier.  After being in all of the fresh air, a Bratwurst on a bun, just sounded so enticing.  I washed it down with a glass of Black Star Farms Arcturos Sur Lie Chardonnay Michigan 2020.  Black Star Farms is rather unique in that it has vineyards and tasting room facilities on both peninsulas, so that they are kind of surrounding Traverse City which is kind of the focal point for all of the wineries in the area.  The fruit for this wine came from vineyards from both peninsulas and hence the Michigan AVA.  In 1998 Black Star Farms purchased Sport Valley Farm which was a one-hundred-twenty-acre equestrian facility, and the stylized black star was part of the architectural décor in the main house.  This was a nice medium bodied wine done in Stainless Steel.  It offered notes of ripe citrus, and some floral and finished with a bit of terroir.  And after lunch the only Model T cars that we saw were on exhibit and parked, so all was good.