While we were enjoying the “Sister’s Getaway.” I was planning on visiting some wineries while we were up in the Traverse City region.  Normally, when my Bride and I are on holidays, we tend to eat out for every meal, and there is emphasis on wine and then some sight-seeing and shopping tossed into the mix.  For this experimental trip, wine was not paramount, so I tried to pick and choose some wineries, both for myself and for the group.

The very first winery that we were going to go see was Chateau Chantel on Old Mission Peninsula.  The selling point for going here first, was that to me, it may be the most beautiful grounds, as one could enjoy a glass of wine and look at both bays.  The winery began with the Begin family, Robert, Nadine, and daughter Marie-Chantal in 1983 when they purchased sixty-acres of cherry orchards and cleared the land and began planting Begin Orchards and pursued purchasing more property as well.  Their formal plans were for a European-styled Chateau, winery, a B&B, and a hospitality room for retreats and events.  Chateau Chantal was incorporated in 1991 and all the additional structures were completed in 1993.  The winery is self-sufficient, as you drive up the circular path you can see not only fields of vines, but if you look carefully, tucked in the background are solar panels.  Alas, when we got there, the everything was dark and quiet, evidently a vehicle hit a panel or panels and the entire winery was shut down.  I guess that they had an event planned for some of a tasting event and pizza pairing, for the day, and they were issuing refunds to some of the people.  We could not enjoy a glass of wine and bask in the sun and admire the vista.  This was the first time, I had ever encountered a winery shut down, as the tasting room is the life blood of the business.

Two days later, some of us went on another winery trip for tastings on the Leelanau Peninsula and I was excited as we passed a small hand-painted sign that said “the best Cabernet Franc wines up ahead.” Nathaniel Rose works with individual vineyards to create small-batch, handcrafted red and white wines with no chemical manipulation.  Small basket presses, continuous racking, no fining, or filtering creating wines that are all basically cuvée works of art.  He makes “Left Bank” wines, “Rhone” wines, a Port, an old-world style Pet-Nat, an old-world Port and a Beerenauslese.  I was really geeked up to try these wines.  We got to the winery and there was just a little “closed, please call again” sign in the window.  I was crestfallen, and so were the others that came along to try some wines and to find out that we had encountered two closed wineries.  As I was telling this tale to others winemakers, they basically said that Nathaniel Rose was totally into the concept of winemaking, but not in the business side at all.  I know that eventually I will get back to each of these wineries in the future, I just couldn’t believe the luck I had in one week.