(Nicole Rupersburg)
The car is cresting over the hills of Old Mission Peninsula, whipping around curves at 70mph. It is a clear, late summer night, 80 degrees. The air is damp, perfumed with burning wood and a hint of fall. Top down, music blaring, I look up to my right to see the stars of the Little Dipper burning white hot through ink-black sky. There are few perfect moments in life. This is one of them.
Old Mission Peninsula is nestled in the “pinkie” of the Mitten, on the west coast of northern Lower Michigan (got that?). It is the crown at the head of Traverse City, recently famous for Iron Chef Mario Batali’s unabashed love affair with it and for being named one of Bon Appetit Magazine’s “Foodiest Towns in America.” OMP splits the Grand Traverse Bay into East and West Bays. It is 19 miles long; at its widest point it is three miles wide, at its narrowest you can park your car on the side of the road and drink in panoramic views of sloping vineyards and sparkling bays on either side.
Michigan is not without its share of beautiful places. The state has the longest coastline in the continental U.S., all freshwater and blessedly hurricane-free. Good Morning America recently named Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Michigan’s west coast the “Most Beautiful Place in America,” but if Sleeping Bear Dunes is the most beautiful place in the country then Old Mission Peninsula should by rights be able to claim to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
This is my fourth trip up here in as many years. As a native Michigander, traveling “up North” (that directionally imprecise catch-all moniker used to describe the entire northern half of the state plus the Upper Peninsula by everyone who lives within 100 miles of a state border that isn’t Wisconsin) is a rite of passage and summertime tradition. Around here, they call it God’s Country.
During the summer, it sparkles with every conceivable shade of blue; sapphire and cerulean on a clear, sunny day; pale lapis in hazy light; brooding indigo in the rain. The sky transforms from rosy pinks and pastel yellows at dawn to turquoise smudged with glowing white by day to fiery oranges and reds and deepening violets at sunset. Trees and vines are brilliantly green.
The winter landscape is reminiscent of the massive glaciers that cut this Paradise straight from cold rock. The vines and trees are bare, coated in a layer of perpetual snow. Even on clear days, dusty powder dances lazily across the landscape that’s like an untouched frozen tundra. The world is white. The sky is gray. The water is an impossible silver.
My last trip was in the dead of winter. Everywhere, it is quiet. It seems like the world is sleeping, biding its time until the thaw. It is serene.
On that visit, I meet up with Bryan Ulbrich, owner and winemaker of Left Foot Charley, a winery that does not have a palatial estate but instead works directly with a number of different farmers who carefully tend small plots of land on Old Mission and Leelanau Peninsulas, yielding exceptional fruit that has been lovingly nurtured to maturity.
I stop in the Left Foot Charley Winery and Tasting Room in the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, the largest historical preservation and adaptive reuse project in the country and the former site of the Northern Michigan Asylum. First I run into Matt and Megan Gregory, new friends I made the day before while leisurely making my way through the empty tasting rooms of Leelanau Peninsula. Megan works at Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay; her husband Matt is co-owner of Chateau de Leelanau. We have a pint of hard cider (a big seller for LFC, made with Michigan apples, of course), then Bryan and I sit down for a glass of wine. Then two. Then three.
“Doesn’t it freak you out to be here, to be in this old mental hospital where half the buildings still have boarded-up windows and rusty gates?” I ask him, remembering the first time I ever visited three years before, when I walked around the grounds both fascinated and frightened, eventually stopping here, at Left Foot Charley, and demanding the same thing of the unsuspecting girl working the room that day.
“The tunnels are great for storing barrels!” he laughs. “But being in an asylum makes you think about things differently.” He explains to me that asylums such as this were built to have a lot of natural light and air flow; it was believed that beauty is therapy. They had gardens and greenhouses where they grew their own food; patients had fresh flowers in their rooms every day, were allowed to work and play, and even had vocations that gave them a sense of purpose and fulfillment. “We like to look at the original intent,” he tells me, “the original meaning of ‘asylum’ – it meant peace, getting away, bringing asylum to the people that needed it. We’re trying to bring a sense of that back.”
I’ve looked at the Village a little differently ever since then.
There are many who consider Bryan one of the best winemakers in the region, but he is quick to point out that it starts with the grapes and the farmers who raised them. There is a whole page on his site dedicated to describing the individual vineyards and farmers, and each label designates where the grapes were grown and the person who cared for them.
“All wines are very different because they’re on different sites in different soils tended by different growers,” he says. “It really reflects the characteristic of the land – each different site has different character.” Bryan used to farm grapes at a winery he previously worked for; he says that the best wines he made were from the grapes he wasn’t directly in control of.
“I chose winemaking as my focus,” he explains. “I have so many great friends that grow great grapes and it’s a real happy circumstance that we can work together and work both ways. It’s expensive on both ends and most people don’t have the resources to do both. We focus all our time on making the wine and marketing it.”
It’s about 5:00 p.m. but it’s already black as midnight on this frigid February evening. We break into a private stash of his 2007 Seventh Hill Vineyard Riesling, an absolutely stunning wine that’s aging beautifully (yes, Riesling can age). Robert Parker named Left Foot Charley one of the top producers east of the Rockies for wines like this and his Pinot Blanc, a multi-time “Best of Show” winner at the annual Michigan Wine & Spirits Competition.
When we get to talking about the Pinot Blanc, Bryan disappears into his office and comes back with this palm-sized metal … contraption. It consists of three different metals and a variety of fully-functioning slip joints, knobs, bevels and threads. It is perfect in every possible way, but the object actually serves no practical purpose; it was something Island View Vineyard Pinot Blanc grower Werner Kuehnis made for his tool and die apprenticeship years ago. To Bryan, it represents Kuehnis’s relentless perfectionism, that of a man who always responds with, “Not perfect, yet.” Like this flawless piece of Swiss manufacturing, his grapes reflect that same level of detailed attention and care. Bryan keeps it as a reminder.
Flash forward to this night in early September, this night of burning leaves and stars: I’m returning from the Village at Grand Traverse Commons once again. I got to sit down with Bryan, but not for as long – it’s still summer, the tasting room is full of people, he was busy bottling then had to go home and have dinner with his family. But I’ll catch him again next time – besides, I have other friends to visit – other winemakers, my buddy Al at Trattoria Stella, a nearby Italian restaurant.
Visiting is part of any northern Michigan visit, particularly after a few trips. Up here, fleeting encounters can result in fast friendships. Driving up the peninsula to my hotel, I experience I experience the fourth perfect moment of my life.
Traverse City may be getting something of a cosmopolitan makeover thanks to nationally-recognized events like the Traverse City Film Festival, edgy multi-media fringe galleries-cum-performance venues like InsideOut Gallery (one of the largest galleries in the Midwest), and unprecedented promotion from the likes of Mario Batali, who summers in nearby Northport, but this is still northern Michigan. It’s surrounded by four hours of farmland in every direction, dotted with the occasional tiny town. It still retains its humility as a small upstate country town, even as it shows some major big city savviness.
Unfortunately what this means is that lodgings tend to be a bit … folksy. Think large floral-print quilts with matching wallpaper. There are six bed and breakfasts total on the Old Mission Peninsula; two are in sprawling estate wineries. The properties range from “quaint” to “charming” to really rustic; the three-room Tesoro Inn is a breath of contemporary fresh air amongst all the other antiquated, old-timey, flowery options. It’s really the ultimate anti-B&B B&B.
Owners Jane and Les Hagaman have created the kind of bed and breakfast experience that will appeal to even the most aesthetic-conscious bon vivant. Jane is a sculptor and interior designer; Les an accomplished fine dining chef and former country club manager. They’re a fun, lively couple who have traveled the world extensively and bring that global sensibility to this little pocket of serenity. Their home is beautifully decorated with their own acquired art collection (there is a lot of Asian influence, as Les grew up in Japan, Hong Kong and Korea). The palette is warm and inviting: marigold walls rising from a sea of multi-colored slate in hues of bronze and rust; supple chocolate leather; intricate stonework; modern furnishings with Eastern accents that still manage to reflect the elements at play in the surrounding landscape.
“We talked to a lot of people about what they liked and didn’t like about bed and breakfasts before we opened,” Jane explains. They understand that some people prefer not to have breakfast in a communal setting or to have to interact with other guests in the common areas, so there are little “retreats” throughout the house and guests are able to take their morning breakfast in whatever little corner they desire.
But I like to be close to the action, so I take my breakfast at the kitchen table. Les is busy preparing a gourmet three-course meal with his assistant Ted, a student at the Northwestern Michigan College Culinary Institute. The menu, printed out on elegant cream-colored stationary the night before and left in each guest room during 7:00 p.m. turn-down service (which also includes a homemade dessert on the nightstand), includes a dense, moist lemon bread; a thick pineapple-berry smoothie; and a choice of ginger buttermilk pancakes; an omelet made with pan-seared duck breast, grilled eggplant, porcini mushrooms, chevre cheese and white truffle oil (yes please); or their corned beef hash. For those seeking the full “foodie” experience, there is no better place than Tesoro Inn with their farm-to-table approach and bed-and-breakfast intimacy.
I’m joined by a very young newly married couple from Holland, Michigan, who are on their second visit in six months (they also spent their honeymoon here). In between exclaiming over our breakfasts, we take time to chat about the obvious things, then the less obvious things – life and love and so on. I don’t know why, maybe it’s just something in the water here, but I always feel an instant familial camaraderie with every person I meet up here – it’s like we were all meant to be here in this place, at this time. You rarely even notice it happening, until you look back at all the people you now consider friends and you really start to hate the thought of leaving.
Old Mission lies within the boundaries of Traverse City, so when it is called one of America’s “foodiest towns,” that title also refers to the dozen-or-so little farmers’ stands scattered up and down M-37 (the main drag of the OMP), as well as a handful of restaurants that are quite literally farm-to-table.
When I get to Mission Table, John Kroupas – a local farmer and owner/co-winemaker of Peninsula Cellars – is delivering the season’s first batch of brussel sprouts, which Executive Chef Paul Olson will then use in a pork belly dish. The first time I met Paul, he had just recently leveled and re-planted his herb garden out back. He takes me to see the garden now: several plots of flourishing, aromatic herbs that will eventually make their way into the restaurant’s kitchen.
The last time I was here the restaurant was still called Bowers Harbor Inn, and while the food was fantastic the general vibe still catered to the stuffy white-tablecloth-and-polo-shirt fine dining mentality. Since then, the restaurant has been re-conceptualized as Mission Table; out with the white linens and $40 entrees, in with small plates of rabbit and sweet breads for around $12 a pop. The centerpiece of this new concept is the communal table, made from local salvaged wood, where I sit and chat with Paul and his Sous Chef Justin Tootle.
Mission Table isn’t one of the more well-known spots in the area, though it deserves to be. The addition of Jolly Pumpkin Restaurant & Brewery in 2009 has helped them gain more visibility, but they’re still a bit off-radar (compared to showy places like the Boathouse down the street). Paul just quietly does what he does – fussing with the basil in his garden with a wry smile, bantering with his co-workers with delicious sarcasm. This place has dropped all pretension, but in doing so has also managed to up the culinary ante: think tender, succulent lamb loin with oven-roasted cauliflower, or crispy pork belly with housemade kimchi, roasted brussel sprouts, and a poached egg.
Touring & Tasting recently named the Old Mission American Viticultural Area (AVA) one of the “7 Top Wine Regions to Watch.” Lately Michigan wines, especially those coming from this particular region, are receiving international accolades, beating out international competitors on their own turf including, gasp, the French. In fact, say what you will about Bordeaux; the world’s most esteemed winemaking region happens to sit along the same circle of latitude, the 45th Parallel, as Old Mission. What this ultimately means is that the climates are comparable. European vinifera grapes like Riesling, Pinot Grigio, and Cabernet Franc thrive here. The bays also bring a more temperate climate to the peninsula, creating a unique microclimate that’s about 3-5 degrees cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, with more sunlight drawn in by the water.
There are seven wineries on Old Mission (with two more licensed to begin operation) and they range in production size from 2,000 to 100,000 cases. Each is parceled on land with some stunning view or another (don’t miss the scenic turnout by Chateau Grand Traverse or the view from the 2 Lads Winery tasting room). 30 years ago it seemed people were getting into the winemaking industry in Michigan because of a lifelong dream that was not necessarily indicative of winemaking skill, or for investment property-slash-retirement home-slash-vanity project. But now there is a serious breed of winemakers here that just in the past decade have made Michigan a fierce contender in the wine world.
“Before when I would say I’m a Michigan winemaker people would say, ‘Why?’” says Sean O’Keefe, Vice President and specialty wine maker of Chateau Grand Traverse, the largest and oldest winery on Old Mission. They were the first to grow and promote Riesling in the east, much less the Midwest. He says they are Riesling specialists first and foremost, particularly in the Alsatian style. His 2008 Lot 49 Riesling won Best of Class at the 2010 International Wine and Spirits Competition in London, THE grand dame of wine and spirits competitions.
“There’s a lot of wine in the world,” he says. “You have to grow to your strengths. We’re meant to be a great Riesling region.”
But not just Riesling. Another big winner at the IWSC was Old Mission’s Brys Estate, medaling for their ice wine, Gewurtztraminer, and their unfiltered Pinot Noir.
“It’s the proudest I’ve ever been of a bronze medal!” laughs vintner Coenraad Stassen. “Our Pinot Noir went up against all the Burgundys in the $50 category … it’s a little bit of spinoff of what happened in 1976 when the U.S. beat the French at their own game.”
While some sneer at the possibility of Michigan’s red wines, others are convinced of their potential and are ready to prove it to the world. Here’s a joke for you: two South African winemakers who used to play on the same rugby team both end up on Old Mission independently of one another. Both are hell-bent on showing the world that Michigan can be a powerhouse for delicate, nuanced red wines like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc. The punchline is they told you so.
Stassen, along with Cornel Olivier of the three-year-old 2 Lads Winery (still a relative newbie but already rocking the boat with their niche dry reds and Cab Franc Rosé), originally hails from South Africa and sees that the challenges of focusing on reds in northern Michigan are well worth the rewards. Most recently his unfiltered Cabernet Franc – a varietal typically used in blending but becoming quite the stand-alone grape on Old Mission – won the cup at the third annual Harding’s Cup, a blind tasting pitting Michigan Cab Francs against the French. Bowers Harbor Vineyard is also producing a killer Cab Franc out of their Erica Vineyard.
There is a tremendous camaraderie between the winemakers here; nearly all of them have worked together at different places at different points. Because the Old Mission AVA is still so small (and there is a finite amount of land available for vines to be planted, so it will always remain so), all wineries benefit from the accolades of one.
“We’re all in this together,” says Spencer Stegenga, proprietor of Bowers Harbor Vineyard. “The rising tide floats all the boats. We all work together.” Spencer used to work with Sean at Chateau Grand Traverse; he, Sean and Bryan are good friends. Bryan stores some of Spencer’s barrels in his facilities and speaks highly of the sophistication of Sean’s operations. Bryan himself used to work for John Kroupas at Peninsula Cellars … and so the cycle continues and circles complete.
The small size of the OMP also works to their advantage.
“Our obscurity is a positive,” Sean says. “Every sommelier wants to be the first person to ‘discover’ something; it’s like [hipsters] finding an indie band before anyone else does.”
For more information and complete listings, visit oldmission.com. Daily connecting flights to Traverse City from New York are available on multiple airlines, more at tvcairport.com.