In case you are worried that we may have an empty cellar soon, we do belong to a wine club at Black Star Farms in the Traverse City area, I say that because they have a location in both peninsulas.  This is a special year for the winery, they will be celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary.  In October 1997, Kerm and Sallie Campbell and Don and Marylou Coe looked at a property just south of Suttons Bay.  Sport Valley Farm was a hundred-twenty-acre equestrian estate developed by Barry Boone, an area restaurateur.  It was a palatial red estate house with soaring white columns, stables, barns and outlying paddocks that evoked Lexington, Kentucky and not northern Michigan.  In March of 1998, the property was acquired and named Black Star Farms after the stylized star in the marble foyer of the estate house.

The first two wines out of the carton was Black Star Farms Arcturos Pinot Gris Michigan 2021.  On their website the wine is listed as having the appellation of Old Mission Peninsula, but the label reads Michigan, so to be official, I will say Michigan.  The winery does not offer much in the way of information of wine production.  They prefer to make this wine to remind one of a rich Alsatian Pinot Gris, instead of the leaner Italian style of Pinot Grigio.  The wine came from fruit that was well-developed; meaning fully ripened and later hanging.  They think this wine will be fresh and crisp for the next three to five years.  I will go out on a limb and state that I think this wine was done from Initial Fermentation to aging in Stainless Steel.  The tasting notes call for a white wine that offers notes of citrus, melon, and florals.  On the palate a dry wine with big fruit, balanced acidity and subtle minerality (terroir) for a finish.

The second two wines out of the carton were Black Star Farms Arcturos Pinot Noir Michigan 2020.  Pinot Noir is the most prolific red wine grape that they grow and bottle, and they have been producing a Michigan version of this varietal since day one.  The fruit for this wine was harvested from five different vineyards, hence the Michigan appellation.  The wine has been aged in used French Oak barrels, with about fifteen percent new, but no information for how long.  The tasting notes also suggest ten or more years for cellaring.  “If you are looking to try a Michigan version of what the French call Burgundy, this is your wine!”  The dark red wine offers notes of plums and violets.  On the palate a fruit forward wine with tones of dark cherries, currants, and spices compliments of the oak.