Local Wines Leverage Competitions To Win, Get Noticed

After a half century of continued growth, many take the success of the area’s wine industry for granted. But Michigan wines remain underappreciated or even somewhat unknown outside the state.

“I just had a winemaker (visit) from Long Island,” says Coenraad Stassen, winemaker at Brys Estate. “They had absolutely no idea” of the region’s wine prowess.

“We know our wines are fantastic. Most of the world doesn’t know Michigan makes wines,” admits Taylor Simpson, co-owner of Good Harbor Vineyards and Aurora Cellars.

Sherri Fenton is president of the board of directors for Traverse Wine Coast, the coaltion of wineries on Old Mission Peninsula, Traverse City and Leelanau County. The managing owner for Black Star Farms, she says participating in competitions as a group helps raise the region’s profile. “Members of Traverse Wine Coast make an effort to enter some of the same competitions to showcase the broad range of excellent wines coming out of this region. When more of us enter different varietals in the same competition, the judges see the quantity and quality we produce here,” says Fenton.

Simpson agrees that submitting a variety of styles shows judges the diversity of quality wines being produced. “Mass submissions get noticed.”

Simpson grew up in the industry, as she and her brother Sam are now co-owners of the winery started by their parents in 1980. She says the changes in the decade she was selling for a wine distributor in Chicago and since she returned have been remarkable. “There’s more people, more capital. It’s exciting to see the continued growth.”

Like Simpson, Mario Tabone grew up making wine, but on a smaller scale. “My grandpa and dad taught me how to make wine in the basement,” he says. It was something taken for granted in his Italian family.

An attorney in Plymouth, he spends the week downstate, then comes up on the weekends. “It’s a hobby that turned into a business,” he says of Tabone Vineyards.

Entering competitions is not inexpensive. Simpson says the cost and sheer number of competitions means picking and choosing. “As a group we reached out to sommeliers and influential people nationally to find out which they paid attention to,” she says.

Between entry fees, the loss of retail sales for the wines they enter, and shipping, costs quickly add up. “A $65 bottle of wine times ten, with five or six different wines plus an entry fee – it’s not inexpensive,” says Stassen.

For smaller wineries like Tabone, that can be prohibitive. “I’m an estate winery. My budget is limited. I need to be selective,” he says. Over the years he’s entered the Tasters Guild, San Francisco Chronicle and Michigan Governor’s Cup.

One Tabone is entering this year is the Finger Lakes International Wine & Spirits Competition, and he has high hopes for a new sparkling Rosé of Pinot Meunier he named Renell after his wife. “It’s like summer in a glass.”

The recent Governor’s Cup saw numerous wines from the Traverse Wine Coast receive recognition. Verterra Winery was named the overall winner for 2024, with its 2023 Rosé ranking the highest out of 186 entries from 35 wineries. Also highly regarded was the Mawby Blanc Brut, which won a gold medal and named “Best of Category” for sparkling wines.

Verterra owner Paul Hamelin says the winery also won Best In Show for its Pinot Grigio at the San Francisco Chronicle International Wine Competition. “I never thought we’d get that. It’s the biggest international (event) in North America,” he says, with 1,000 wineries and some 6,000 wines evaluated by a panel of more than 100 judges.

Hamelin is among those who also entered the Texsom Awards, the international competition in the Dallas suburb of Irving, which he says is billed as the toughest competition. Verterra won a Judges' Selection Medal for its 2022 Riesling, Late Harvest, as did Boathouse Vineyards for its 2022 Cabernet Franc.

Numerous other wineries participated as well, including Left Foot Charley (winner of a Platinum Medal for a 2022 Kerner), Rove Estate (Platinum Medal for its 2021 Pinot Noir) and Gold Medal winners Blustone Vineyards, Brengman Brothers Estate Wines, Chateau Chantal, Good Harbor Vineyards and Two K Farms. Those and other local vineyards also took home numerous Silver and Bronze Medals.

Kasey Wierzba, executive winemaker at Shady Lane Cellars, says she mixes it up. “We go back and forth: Where it’s at, its prestige, who’s involved,” she says. “Everyone’s palate is different.”

The winery entered the 2024 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition earlier this year and won double golds for its 2022 Pinot Gris and 2022 Late Harvest Riesling. Last year it won a gold for its Gruner Veltiner at the International Women's Wine Competition.“I really like the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. It has a great food and wine section. Of course, it’s easy to have a favorite when you win,” she says with a laugh. She also entered the Sommelier’s Choice Awards this year.

Lee Lutes, winemaker and managing member at Black Star Farms, says choosing which competitions to enter is not only due to accumulating costs, but to how this area’s wines are perceived. “We have to choose competitions that understand and appreciate our style of winemaking,” he says. “Our reds might struggle next to Napa cabs. So we tend to enter more whites to West Coast (competitions) and broaden (the selections) to the East Coast.”

Fenton says the area’s half-century of winemaking success and the fact its 41 wineries continue to win accolades demonstrates its growing recognition.  “An impressive list of publications and TV shows have featured Traverse Wine Coast, like PBS Wine First (which will run for three years across the country), PBS Under the Radar and Samantha Brown’s Places to Love, which is coming in to cover the dunes and wineries this summer,” she says.