CELEBRATING OUR COMMUNITY OF TALENTED MAKERS, ARTISANS & ALCHEMISTS
Michigan winery, Neu Cellars, is a father-and-son project that utilizes Michigan fruit while highlighting the uniqueness and beauty of the region.
“We make wine in the cold, which is best drank in the warmth.”
A little from Neu Cellars…
About Our Current Fruit: We currently buy all of our fruit from a single grower on Old Mission Peninsula. In 2021, we sourced from 3 vineyards all within a couple of miles of each other. Old Mission Peninsula AVA is Michigan’s smallest at 19,200 acres and was established in 1987. The narrow nature of the peninsula, which is 3 miles at its widest point, allows for the deep, surrounding waters to moderate the extremely cold winters and delay bud break, which diminishes the chance of frost damage.
Additionally, the surrounding water retains summer heat and hampers fall freezing temperatures. Harsh winter temperatures are offset by a large amount of snow, which protects the vines. The vines are organically grown, although not certified. Everything is hand-picked and sorted on-site.
Our Own, Newly Planted Vineyard: We love Michigan fruit so much that we began to plant our own in the spring of 2021. We broke ground by planting 1 acre of vines by hand in May 2021. We planted an additional 4 acres in May 2022.
Current grape varieties planted are Gamay Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Gewurztraminer, Traminette, Pinot Meunier, Marquette, and Frontenac Gris. The vineyard is located at the tip of Leelanau Peninsula AVA with the Lake Michigan lakeshore a mile away on all three sides. The vines were sans irrigation in year one and are being grown and maintained with organic practices.
Cellar Practices: Everything is spontaneously fermented, meaning only native yeast and native bacteria that exist on the grapes and in the cellar environment produce the wine. There are no additions or subtractions.
If there were an ingredient label it would read: grapes.
We don't filter, fine, or add sulphur. Our goal is to allow a beautiful, pure region to express itself freely from grapes to glass. In doing so, we simply provide the conditions for the grapes to natively transform into its own personality.
OAC is proud to have our Organic Grape Spirits used in the production of Neu Cellars Dry Vermouth.
“In late October, the Riesling was hand-harvested, lightly foot trod, and pressed with stems into a neutral oak barrel with adequate headspace. This was allowed to age for 5 months and contributed to 30% of the base wine. The other 70% was harvested at the same time, fermented and aged with no headspace in neutral oak. The base wine was fermented dry.”
MORE DETAILS:
Varieties: 100% Riesling Base Wine + Organic Neutral Grape Spirit Alcohol: 17.0% Total Production: 40 cases (375 mL)
Check out all the offerings from Neu Cellars here.
