Michigan or Bust!  Let’s be honest and start out with a weather report:  Traverse Bay was 12 degrees below when we arrived last Sunday.  Brrr.  I quickly reminded Randy that Dad always started the car AND the heater 10 minutes before we actually wanted to drive – it’s impossible to see out of frozen windshields.

First night was at the Grand Traverse Bay Hotel and the 15 floor tower looms large in the community – a fabulous sunset dinner at Aerie Restaurant with Chef Ted Ciszma and Scott Williams. We loved the fact that Michigan is so responsive to their north country cherry industry – homemade cherry bread was warm and on the table!

Another Traverse Bay landmark was the water tower just outside the Grand Traverse Bay.

Monday morning after shaking off the three hour time change, we drove 30 minutes up the peninsula to meet with my old Chelsea High School friend Barry Boone to see the renovations on his new Boone’s North Country Bar and Grille.  Located on St. Joseph Street in Sutton’s Bay, they are anticipating opening yet in March.

We certainly appreciate the effort that Barry and his lady Karen are making to support LangeTwins wines and we hand-carried a branded wooden sign for the interior of the restaurant.  Barry will carry our LangeTwins Chardonnay and the Midnight Reserve.

I thought Barry was going to cook breakfast for us, but he opted for Martha’s across the street in Sutton’s Bay!

And Martha has this crazy fish above the doorway of her cute little restaurant.  We poured our Sauvignon Blanc and tried to convince Martha that it could be the perfect wine for her brunch egg dishes!

Barry has been a great friend and opened some doors for us in Michigan and made an appointment for us to meet with Nick and Jake  (owner and manager) of the Boone’s Long Lake Inn.

Boone’s Long Lake Inn is located just outside of Traverse City – you’ll find it while meandering through the hills.  Just a ‘little’ restaurant that seats 400 people, not including their grand Big Deck for summer dining and fun. The rib eye steaks are fabulous and the service and hospitality is Mid West gracious.

Our accounts took us back through the Sutton’s Bay area and we drove past Barry’s old place – Black Star Farms. You can find it on the web and with the new owners is a bed and breakfast.

Vineyards grace the entrance to Black Star – and this time of the year they are buried in snow.

We visited with The Silvertree Deli and wine shoppe both in Sutton’s Bay and in Traverse City.  Fabulous food – homemade soups and great wines.

Randy in the Silvertree wine shoppe.

It was a slippery drive up through Sutton’s Bay and on to Glen Arbor, next to the Sleeping Bear Dunes to visit with Homestead.

We both spotted the ski slope at Homestead – not sure of the vertical drop, but plenty of snow and a great place for families to find a winter get-away.

It was hard not to love the sun dancing off the snow and appreciate the beauty of the birch trees in winter.

Onward to another one of Barry’s old restaurants, Boone Docks.  Barry has made a real mark in Michigan’s north country with so many great neighborhood haunts.

Inside interior of Boone Docks – cozy fire blazing and great perch sandwiches.

And while everyone at the winery in Lodi was appreciating the daffodils blooming, here’s a picture of the Bay, looking towards Sleeping Bear Dunes.  Frozen water, deep snow on ice and bone chilling cold.

Driving out of Glen Arbor we stopped to photograph the Crystal River – does running water mean a thaw and spring is near?

And then on Dunn’s Farm Road, we found the white tail deer.

Actually, driving south from Traverse to Grand Rapids, we counted no less than 50 white tail foraging for food along the road side and thankful they didn’t jump across the road…

North!  To Maple City and met with Greg Murphy of North Restaurant.

Likely one of the best conversions of a great old farmhouse to a spectacular gem of a restaurant.

Icicles over the entry of North speak volumes about their winter.  Our challenge while tasting wines was not how to keep the whites cold, but how to warm the reds!

Maple City was our next stop and we met with Guillaume – a Paris native – who owns and chefs at La Becasse. Cute little restaurant – very French – and loved the white tablecloths.  They are planning to open an outside ‘summer’ courtyard for small tastes and some great white wines – of course, we think our Sauvignon Blanc with that great Musque clone is a good choice.

We raced down to Holland – about a 3 hours drive and lost the snow, but not the cold!  We met with Laurie Sisson, the wine buyer of Pereddies Italian Restaurant and also tasted the owner, “CB” through our wines.  Pereddies is a great place – wonderful bakery, fresh, very fresh sauces for their Italian food and a good location for the Hope College kids that are just a couple of blocks away.

Dropped in at Butch’s Dry Dock in Downtown Holland and tasted with owner Butch Terhaar and added their wine-guy Phillip in the tastings and discussion.   We had a great morning – lots of technical questions abut our viticultural practices, our sustainability efforts and the winery, which was right up Randy’s alley.

Also in Holland we met with Piper Restaurant’s Pat Eldean and her chef Keaton.   We tasted through the wines and then Pat and I shared our thoughts on how the internet, blogs and Facebook are changing the marketing efforts of generational businesses.  They have a great spot on the water, albeit a bit frozen at the moment, but in the summer you can easily tie up to the dock and pop in for dinner and a glass of wine.

Over to Grand Haven and we met with the Porter family of Seaway Beverage. It’s always a challenge to find a place to taste wines while you’re on the road – and a casegoods stack in the back of the house works!

Of course there are no photographs of our last tasting of the day – we had a good meeting at Tre Cugini in Grand Rapids with proprietor Adriano Moscatelli.  And of course, we bonded and I offered to make dinner for him in Lodi on his next tour through California! Tre Cugini on Monroe Center Street features original recipes and very authentic Italian food.

Also at the party was Gerhard Schmied of the Amway Hotel and Bar Divani’s Dennis Moosbrugger.  We all had such a good time that we forged on to Bar Divani on Ionia SW and found Dennis’ partner Rimple Nayyar to taste him through the wines.  Of course, we had to sample their appetizers – the Tiger Shrimp was as good as the atmosphere.  Great wine bar – when we’re on out-of -town sales trips, there are never enough hours in the day or night!

And just before we grabbed a plane out of Grand Rapids, we stopped in the small village of Ada and found the Amway headquarters.  Next to it was the Grand River Grocer and we met and tasted Sarah Andro through our wines.

We had a great response from the Michigan proprietors and appreciate the efforts of so many family owned businesses that just do a great job with hospitality, quality and service.

Michigan is home and we’ll be back soon– just get that snow to melt!