Weekend Thoughts - 11/29/09

It is our last full weekend here in Michigan, and we were pleasantly surprised to get nice weather. Sunny, in the 50s. So we decided to do some more exploring in our surrounding area.

• Fenn Valley Winery makes some very good wine. Specifically, their Lakeshore Red, Capriccio, and 42 Ice Wine were all very good.
• The city of Saugatuck offers horse-drawn carriage rides on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
• Within the city limits of Saugatuck is the ghost town of Singapore, Michigan. It is actually a pretty interesting story about it.
• Hercules' Hot Dogs in Saugatuck makes one of the best chili fries I have ever had. I was very pleasantly surprised.
• Hopcat Brewery in Grand Rapids has quite a selection of beers on tap, including one of the best I've ever had: Maudite, by Unibroue (Montreal)
• Founders Brewery in Grand Rapids also makes some very good beers as well.

I'm hoping to finish up a post reviewing our time here in South Haven later this week.

Wine Tasting in Southwest Michigan

This weekend is the first full weekend we have really had to just explore the area. All of the previous three, we have either been out of town, or had to do things to get situated here in South Haven. Brynn had mentioned that she really wanted to go wine tasting, so we decided that we would go ahead and explore the area.

There had been quite a few signs on the side of the road for different wineries, so I set out to find some information about the local wineries. Since wineries tend to rely on some form of marketing, we figured there would be a fair amount of information online. I was not disappointed.

After looking at the map, we decided to head for Baroda. Baroda is a small town about 30-40 minutes southeast of South Haven. We didn't have any specific wineries in mind to go to, but noticed that the map had about 4 or 5 of them in the area. So we plugged the downtown area of Baroda into the GPS, and figured we would find wineries in the GPS after we got there. We drove across some of the most scenic areas we have seen yet. Rolling hills, farm houses, it was all very pretty. Until we got to downtown Baroda.

Baroda, has been hit REALLY hard by the downturn in the economy. The downtown was only about 2 or 3 blocks long to start with, and in that space, was probably about 3 businesses that appeared to still be open. We quickly plugged in the wineries, and headed for the first one.

• Domaine Berrien: We were extremely surprised to find that the parking lot was almost completely full. The tasting room was no different. Not having seen very many people since we had gotten into town, this was more than a small shock.
• Lemon Creek Winery: As we drove up to this tasting room, the crowds were just as large. Apparently wine tasting is one of the most popular things to do in southwest Michigan.
  
• Our favorite, by far, was Round Barn Winery/Brewery/Distillery. We had tasted back at Free Run Cellars, which is owned by the same group, so we could try them for free. Great choice. Not only do they make a few solid wines, but they also make a very smooth vodka, and some very good beers as well.
  

We knew coming into our day that we would need to check our pre-conceived notions about wine if we were to enjoy this at all. We'd lived and worked in the Sonoma Valley, and drank more than our fair share of wine. That said, the wines we tried were fair, but not great overall. The scenery we saw while driving definitely made the trip that much better. We're looking forward to doing some more exploring soon.