WINEMAKER'S NOTES:
Our Northern Michigan “Kabinett” style seeks to frame pure, unadorned fruit within the crisp lines of cool-climate acidity. We separately fermented three different Riesling lots from our estate vineyards in order to articulate flavors ranging from crisp apple to ripe peach. The balanced structure of this wine comes not from intrusive winemaking, but from the fine joinery of the blend. “Whole Cluster” designates a wine made by gently pressing handpicked grape clusters “whole” without any mechanical de-stemming or crushing. This labor-intensive method minimizes skin contact with the juice, and helps produce a finely structured wine without any distracting phenolic bitterness in the finish. In addition to whole cluster pressing, we strive to keep the wine processing to a minimum. We eschew the use of flavor enhancing enzymes, yeast derivatives, fining materials, etc. in favor of being patient and letting the wine come into its own while resting on its fine lees. In recent vintages, we have begun to age a portion of the final blend in large German oak Stücks in order to help round out the flavors and enhance the wine’s ability to age.
