Category Archives: MIDWEST

Whan That Aprille With His Photo Ops Sweet…

Posted on March 22, 2013 by

(Apologies, Chaucer). Newsflash, March 21, 2013: LANSING — Governor Rick Snyder has declared April as ‘Michigan Wine Month’ to honor Michigan’s wide selection of quality wines and the wine industry’s significant contribution to the economy… I was sent this press … Continue reading →

Posted in GENERAL, Michigan, MIDWEST | Tagged | Leave a comment

Michigan By The Bottle By The Glass

Posted on February 14, 2013 by

Shannon and Cortney Casey—a couple of local wine kids who are indeed technically young enough to be my kids—have come up with a bad-ass way of promoting Michigan wines. Two ways, actually. The first time I encountered them was via … Continue reading →

Posted in Michigan, MIDWEST | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Moscatos and Mosquitoes: Summer In The Motor City

Posted on July 7, 2012 by

Whenever I travel this wide and wonderful land, wherever I go—from purple mountain to fruited plains, beneath spacious skies and through amber grain waves, from sea to shining sea—I tell people I’m from Detroit and the response I get is … Continue reading →

Posted in Michigan, Moscato | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Are Traverse City Lambic Brewers Up Shit’s Kriek?

Posted on July 5, 2012 by

Excuse me; I know I’m a bad man who in the afterlife will never make it out of the flaming tombs of Dante’s Sixth Circle, where I will lament forever with such heretics as Epicurus and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti. But … Continue reading →

Posted in BEER, Michigan, MIDWEST | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

This Festival, Michigan Is Chary, Not Cheery, Over Cherries

Posted on July 3, 2012 by

Suppose this week was the Colorado Springs Ponderosa Pine Festival? Or the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes Glorious Nuptials Saturnalia? Or the Anderson Cooper: CNN’s Most Eligible Bachelor Gala ? The desolate pall of funk that would hang over such clambakes pales in … Continue reading →

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The O’Keefes: Putting The Grand Into Traverse Bay

Posted on June 3, 2012 by

As ‘heavyweight’ is not a term to be used lightly, ‘grand’ must be accompanied by a certain level of grandeur, as in Grandfather Time, grandioso or Chateau Grand Traverse. Meanwhile, Old Mission’s heavyweight title belt remains firmly around the midsection … Continue reading →

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Brys Is Nice: Try ‘Dry Ice’ For Sugar And Spice

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

Take my advice and read this twice: Brys Dry Ice is gold-medal nice; and Patrick Brys is that in a trice—as sisters Katie and Stephanie Brys can likewise entice.   No, I’m not channeling the ghost of Dr. Seuss; it’s … Continue reading →

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2 Lads Winery: Laddie Come Home

Posted on May 11, 2012 by

In setting the kibble-strewn stage, Lassie Come Home was a 1943 MGM tearjerker starring Roddy McDowell (as young Joe) and ‘Pal’ (who played Lassie) that ultimately launched the syrupy television series; in the film version, the Yorkshire Carraclough family, having … Continue reading →

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Verterra Winery And My Personal Quest For Jim Harrison

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

Long ago and far away, when many of you whippersnappers were still drinking wine out of Evenflo baby bottles and I was scarcely old enough to listen to Negro music, I headed up to the Leelanau Peninsula to search for … Continue reading →

Posted in Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan, MIDWEST | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Michigan Wine, 2012: State Of The Stating-The-Obvious Address

Posted on April 7, 2012 by

(April is Michigan Wine Month, as certified by Governor Rhymes-With-Spider, who’s been at the business end of more recall referendums than my Ford 150). Ever since Al Gore starting criss-crossing the country in his gas-gulping Jetstream 400 to lecture about … Continue reading →

Posted in Fruit Wines, Lake Michigan Shore, Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan, MIDWEST, Old Mission Peninsula | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment