Thursday, June 17, 2010

Going Local, cont: Wine Edition

After Woody and I visited the Sarah Hardy Farmers Market in Traverse City and the Suttons Bay Farmers Market, we kept heading north for our main destination of the day: The Leland Wine & Food Festival!

Leland is another cute little Northern Michigan town on the Lelanau Peninsula. When you think of wine in the US, you probably think of Sonoma or maybe the Finger Lakes region in New York, but let me tell you, Michigan has a really successful, and growing, wine industry. As of March of this year, there were 14,600 acres of vineyards in Michigan and 71 commercial wineries producing "cool climate" wines.

The day was very overcast and scattered thunderstorms were possible, but people Up North don't let a little rain scare them away from a good party with great wine! We weren't sure what to expect, so we were thrilled as we drove into town and saw cars parked everywhere and lines of people streaming towards Fishtown (the historic area where the festival was held)! Two types of tickets were available - $12 for a wine glass and two wine tickets, $7 for non-drinkers who wanted to try the food and enjoy the music. You could tell who had been there before, they brought chairs and staked out spots to sit with their friends and family for the afternoon.


16 wineries (and one microbrewery) from the area were on hand, including a few of our favorites: Black Star Farms, Bel Lago, Cherry Republic, Gill's Pier Winery, and Bowers Harbor. One of Woody's favorite wines of the day was Just Unleashed from Gill's Pier.


In addition to all the wineries, 12 area restaurants were on hand to fill our stomachs! Let me just say, the grills were hard at work!




We had a great time enjoying the wine, music, food, and the great location on the Leland Bay! If you ever have the opportunity to try a Michigan wine, I highly recommend that you do!




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workout stats -
13mi bike
10minutes rowing machine
3x12 cable pull twists
3x10 hammer curls
3x10 bicep curls
3x10 lateral raise
stretching

8 comments:

Julie said...

totally jealous! i love any wine with a cute label ;) And I really miss Michigan fish. I might have to figure out how to bring back some perch on my next trip home. soooo yummy!

Heather (Where's the Beach) said...

How fun. There was a wine fest going on the day we had to leave to go home from vacation. Very sad.

Molly said...

that looks like a fabulous festival, and that's a cute photo of you and Woody!

Barbara said...

Looks like fun and Leland has great restaurants.
We spent part of our Honeymoon at the Leland Lodge 38 years ago !

Robyn said...

Yum! Michigan wine? Never tried it but hey, I'll drink any wine :)

AM! said...

Cool Sonoma shout-out (I live in Sonoma, and my DH is a winemaker;-)

but I always love hearing about the dif wine regions out there! and fabu food pics! yum

Running Through Phoenix said...

What a great getaway. Nice photos.

Simply Life said...

what a fun event!