When we stopped at Bos Wine in Elk Rapids, Michigan We first met through his wine, in the ominous year of 2020 my Bride and I were in Louisville, Kentucky having dinner because such niceties disappeared in Michigan and we had as our opening bottle, the Bos Wine Ode to Fume Napa Valley 2015 with their tagline of “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs” by William Shakespeare and an homage to Pouilly-Fume of the Loire.  David Bos who started in Michigan went to California and has now returned to Michigan.  He attended Hope College with dual majors of Religion and English, discovered some quality wines and took off to California without a job, but with determination.  He started with a job at Grgich Hills and eventually became their vineyard manager.  He arrived there at the most opportune time, as they were converting to biodynamic farming and there are over three-hundred-fifty-acres to work.  He said that he considers himself to be a farmer, who makes wine.  The winery began in 2010, in Calistoga, but when he found this building in Elk Rapids, he knew that his boutique wine label had finally found a permanent home, with a garden and a red barn in the back.

David has a couple of different club memberships and we went all the way with his “Wine & Swine Club.”  In the current wine club shipment, there was his exclusive Bos Pinot Noir Old Mission Peninsula 2022.  It is the first Pinot Noir that he has released and comes from the Devil’s Dive Vineyard on Old Mission Peninsula.  The vineyard is a warmer site, located high on a hill with sandy, loam, limestone soil.  The wine is aged in neutral oak barrels for eight months, then bottled to retain the freshness of its youth.  The wine is ready to be enjoyed or may be cellared for a few years.  Limited production and only offered to the “Wine & Swine Club” members first. The tasting notes mention “cassis and black raspberry.”

The other part of the “Wine & Swine Club” is the accompanying salumi, their Saucisson Provencal.  The salumi has a subtle blend of dried herbs; basil, thyme, and a touch of aromatic lavender.  Bos Wine, white pepper, and garlic complete the blend.  It is then fermented at a lower temperature compared to Italian or Spanish sausages.  It is aged in a custom curing chamber for weeks, and is shipped in a protective vacuum pack and wrapped in butcher’s paper. All in all, a nice shipment as part of my self-proclaimed on-going birthday celebration.