January 17, 2009
Eric Grossnickle, Designer
If you had ever visited our old website, a small graphic in the upper-right read, “actual website coming soon.” Well, what was meant to be a temporary website served as our website for 1.5 years and offered little more information than what was included in the blog entries. Although it’s taken quite a bit longer than expected, I’m happy to finally roll out our new website. There’s now quite a bit of new information here including a little bit about our history and the tasting room, detailed information about each of our wines, a dedicated photo gallery, and a handy contact form. Also, if you’re the social networking type, you can now follow us on Twitter or find…
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January 10, 2009
Steve Grossnickle, Owner
While researching names for new release wines, I have found a multitude of names and vintages among the perhaps fifty percent of the wineries who release them. The word “Nouveau”, French for “new”, is easily the most popular name associated with these wines. Wine to many connotes an aged grape product that improves with age. And although in many respects that is true, young wines may be measured in weeks and months rather than years and yet still have a clean-crispness and what I describe as a “fresh from the barrel” taste. There will be no hint of oak, only stainless steel on the…
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November 13, 2008
Steve Grossnickle, Owner
Although we had originally intended for the resurrected barn to be the tasting room, the structural integrity has been questioned, rebutted, and headache-produced on a Biblical proportion. Because the overall intent of this project was to be positive, fun, and productive for the citizenry of Leelanau, it has evolved into anything but that. For that reason we will side and roof the resurrected barn as an Ag structure and possibly an event center in the future. Randy Mouw of the Barncats of Rockford, MI will be back on the job and in charge of this project; they will be re-structuring many of the old timbers to the specifications of Robert Meyer, head of the Leelanau County Construction Code Authority in hopes of fulfilling our dream. A new post and beam, rough hewn, Amish made kit barn from Beam Barns, LLC and…
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August 7, 2008
Steve Grossnickle, Owner
Although I’ve searched the Mormon family tree website, I can find no documentation of an Amish-Grossnickle connection; however, this weekend I felt the DNA connection with the raising of our tasting room barn. My good friends, John Clay and Steve Curley, helped as we assisted David Ciolek and his able bodied aide, Cody, in the setting of the major end beams for the barn, all done without aid of a crane. It was an exhilirating experience as we climbed ladders, swung ropes over beams, set diagonal braces, and fit it all together with an ingenious device called a “come along”. One can…
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July 27, 2008
Steve Grossnickle, Owner
The Michigan Liquor Control Commission defines a tasting room as any approved area where wine may be sampled without cost before purchasing. The sampled wine is not taxed and the winery can act as a distributor as well as a retail outlet. Fine, our tasting room is a 120 year old barn that was disassembled in Wyoming, Michigan, transported to the vineyard and is now in the process of being raised as a rustic, nostalgic remembrance of the past. The completion date will be sometime this fall.
Ah, but in the meantime our production facility at 8580 E. Horn Rd. has doubled as tasting room de facto since July 4, our first official tasting day. We are open for tasting Friday 12:00 to 5:00, Saturday 12:00 to 6:00, and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00; for a map, see the sidebar on the home page. Official, the critical word,…
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May 14, 2008
Steve Grossnickle, Owner
For immediate release:
Winemaker Shawn Walters & Forty-Five North Vineyard Snatch Up 3 Double-Golds This Week at Annual Pacific Rim Competition
(Lake Leelanau, MI) — Forty-Five North—one of Michigan’s newest wineries—has barreled onto the viticultural scene having garnered three “Double Gold – Best of Class” medals and a “Best of Show” distinction this week at the 2008 Pacific Rim International Wine Competition in California. “Double Gold” is awarded to only those wines that receive “Gold” ranking from every single judge in its respective category.
“Double Gold” medals were presented for the Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir Rosé and Dry Riesling—which also placed second overall in the competition of 2800 judged wines, earning it the distinction of “Best Pacific Rim…
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May 4, 2008
Steve Grossnickle, Owner
Having been extremely pleased with our results at the Pacific Rim International Wine Competition, this just really tops off the excitement. Sandra Silfven, “Wine Report” columnist for the Detroit News, spoke with Don Galleano, chief judge of the competition, and reports he was “ecstatic” about Forty-Five North:
In a phone call this week, [Don] was ecstatic — and that’s the right word — about this rookie Michigan winery and said if the competition had given a “Best Winery” award, it would have won.
Wow! Once again, my hat goes off to Shawn for producing some truly exceptional…
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April 28, 2008
Steve Grossnickle, Owner
The title, a word play on the cinematic farce, indicates that the results from the Pacific Rim International Wine Competition, as in the afore mentioned Judging! entry, are in and I am overwhelmed. Shawn was called by the head judge and given the news that his Dry Riesling was voted “Best White Wine” in category and that the judging of best of categories placed it second overall in the competition of 2800 judged wines, losing to a cream sherry. I don’t…
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