Mead Disorderly

K

Ken Schramm

Ken Schramm
I am looking for advice on a custom crush facility or a wine maker in the Great Lakes region willing to work with us to make mead in their tanks in their off season. I thought we had a workable relationship here in northwestern Michigan, but that has seems to have taken a weird twist. Any leads or advice would be very welcome.

We got our Federal permit today. Our construction is wrapping up, and we will have our boutique production facility ready in a few weeks. We are waiting impatiently for the last few glitches in out State application to get ironed out, and we still have a MI Department of Ag inspection and get our Ferndale Certificate of Occupancy.
 
I found this map of wineries. The Northwest region lists:
2 Lads Winery
Bel Lago Vineyard and Winery
Black Star Farms - Leelanau
Black Star Farms Old Mission
Blustone Vineyards
Boathouse Vineyards
Boskydel Vineyards
Bowers Harbor Vineyards
Brengman Brothers
Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery
Cadillac Winery
Chateau Chantal Winery & Inn
Chateau de Leelanau
Chateau Fontaine
Chateau Grand Traverse
Cherry Republic Winery
Ciccone Vineyard and Winery
Douglas Valley Organic Vineyards
Forty-Five North Vineyard & Winery
Fox Barn Market and Winery
French Valley Vineyards
Gill's Pier Vineyards
Good Harbor Vineyards
Good Neighbor Organic
Harbor Springs Winery
Hawthorne Vineyards
Heavenly Vineyards
Jomagrha Vineyards and Winery
Krolczyk Cellars
L. Mawby Vineyards
Laurentide Winery
Leelanau Wine Cellars
Left Foot Charley
Longview Winery
Northern Natural Winery
Oceana Winery & Vineyard
Peninsula Cellars
Pleasantview Vineyards
Raftshol Vineyards
Shady Lane Cellars
Silver Leaf Winery
St. Ambrose Cellars
The Cellars at Royal Farms
Verterra Winery
Villa Mari Vineyards
Willow Vineyard

...but I don't know anybody to call.
 
Sean O'Keefe from Chateau Grand Traverse has been known to post around these parts - he might be someone to help you with the lay of the land.
 
I was just up at 45 North last week. Shawn Walters doesn't make wine there any more, but he is doing a bunch of winemaking for other brands (Boathouse, Laurentide, maybe Verterra, and maybe Longview) next door to Chateau Fontaine (i think it's the same facility as Fontaine, but i'm not sure). His company is "One World Wines".

Jay Briggs, formerly vineyard manager at Shady Lane, is now the winemaker and vineyard manager at 45 North. They seem to have plenty of space and very sophisticated tools (bottling, labeling, analytics, etc), and have made meads in that facility before, though I don't know about Jay's experience with mead.

Nathaniel Rose at Brengman Brothers is making some nice wine, and even better stuff under his own label this is yet to be released. He makes a mead for Brengman in a big concrete egg (called "egghead"). He might be using some space at 45 North soon too.

Bryan at Left Foot Charley is a cool guy as well, and I know he does some custom crush work for other people.

Wally over at Domaine Berrien Cellars in the southwest corner of the state has a very clean and neat facility with some nifty analytical tools. He might be a good person to talk to as well.

Feel free to email me if you need contact info for any of these people.
 
Thanks, Jarred. Those are good leads. I'll be by to see you soon. I have many reasons to come see you these days, but I'm still down in Wayne most of the time you're in the shop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top