Tandem Ciders, fresh off a first-place finish at the Great Lakes International Cider and Pear Competition in May, has been dishing out alcoholic beverages left and right this summer.
Tandem Ciders has a few releases on the horizon, including a new Ice Cider.
“It’s really flavorful and we wanted to capture the sweetness,” Tandem Ciders owner Nikki Rothwell said.
This is the first time they are making ice cider, which has a higher alcohol content. Tandem got the idea after working with cider makers from Vermont.
Tandem Ciders will be adding a Peach Jam beverage to their coveted ‘Jam Series’ this summer. Previously, they made berry and strawberry jam. Tandem plans to bottle the beverage, but its currently available in the tasting room. They recently finished the label for the product and hope to have it ready by the end of summer. Tandem has been experimenting with pear cider with two new editions at their tasting room. One features a bright pinkish color called “Sweet William,” and they got their pears from Northport farmer Gary Fredrickson.
“We don’t make a lot (of Pear cider) in the U.S. in general, and (Fredrickson) has some neat pear varieties,” Rothwell said.
Fredrickson and generations before have planted roughly four acres of pears for a century, featuring old varieties including Flemish beauties.
Rothwell is the director of MSU Extension Center in Suttons Bay Township and she is excited for the cherry harvest after a Topsy-terby spring and early summer.
Rothwell says the horticultural center is harvesting bentons and heavenly pearls.
“I couldn’t believe how big they are this year, they are so pretty,” Rothwell said.
Cherry Bay Orchards will be shaking across the street from the horticultural center this week as harvest moves along.
Rothwell added that tarts will be harvested right along sweets.
“Everything is kind of ripe at once,” she said. “Pretty much all at the same time ... I don’t see this very often and farmers are moving through them.”
Rothwell did say that pest are up from last year because of the wet and humid conditions.
Rothwell said farmers are putting Ethephon on the trees that makes cherries looser and helps when shaking off the tree “I feel like weather hams not been helpful for fruit farming this year, tons of rain and relative humidity and damp all of the time,” she said.
Sparkling Check
Mawby is in the midst of its 50th Anniversary of serving Leelanau sparkling wine.
“All of our wines ferment naturally. We don’t use carbonation; instead, we employ traditional methods to make our bubblies fizz. It takes longer and means we start planning for wines well in advance of their release. We always look forward to our seasonal wines, and two of our newest wines are perfect for summer,” Claire Lepine said.
Mawby welcomed back its summer seasonal release, Neon, named after the 10th element on the periodic table. This wine has electric acidity, a bright finish, and is only 10% alcohol. Another sparkling wine they are featuring is the blanc de noir base wine “Honey” derived from Sleeping Bear Farms in Beulah. This has resulted in a slightly hazy wine, a floral nose, and a rich finish in 60 limited cases.
Regarding events, Mawby offers Table Four2 Monday through Wednesday. It is an intimate tasting experience of four wines paired with four food options. They are hosting favorites musician Djangophonique on August 17th. They always put on a good show, and tickets are only $10. Finally, Mawby is open Fridays until 7 p.m. all summer long.
Boathouse Vineyards in Lake Leelanau is diving into sparkling wine vine-first with its edition of bubbly coming out next spring. Boathouse Vineyard manager Doug Olson is leading the charge in the process.
“It’s unique for Boathouse and for Michigan because we’re making sparkling wines in a way that very few people have the ability to make sparkling wines,” he said.
Olson says they are making it the traditional way or champagne method.
“The champagne method is the process that champagne producers have perfected and coined over the last couple of hundred years. That process involves fermenting a wine until there’s no sugar left, then making a cocktail of yeast and sugar, mixing it into that wine that is finished fermenting, and then bottling it with a beer cap. When the yeast and the sugar you just added begin to ferment and release CO2, the wine becomes sparkling,” Olson said.
Boathouse will be making the wine from its processor on Amore Road. Olson continued, saying sparkling wine should be a focus of Michigan wineries for a few reasons.
“Over the last three to five years, red, white, and rosé wine categories have either remained stagnant, grown very little, or more recently, even dropped in global consumption. Sparkling wine, however, has gone up considerably over the years and gradually,” he said. “There’s a very strong indication that sparkling wine is picking up a lot of favor. That means I think we’re moving away from holiday-only sparkling wine; were we only drink sparkling wine on anniversaries or Christmas or something like that. It’s becoming a bigger part of daily life ... With the younger generation, if this is what is really becoming commonplace, we’ve got an audience that is waiting to enjoy it.”
Olson added that grapes for sparkling wine are not fully matured, and they typically don’t have a lot of sugar and are very acidic.
“That window comes at a time that is prior to historically inclement weather, like rain or something like that, and prior to significant disease pressure. So if we pick it early enough, which means that we’ve got a wonderful opportunity year after year to consistently make great sparkling wine,” Olson said.
According to International Wine and Spirits Record data, the sparkling wine market is projected to grow by more than 15% in volume terms from 2021 to 2026. Not only are more people drinking sparkling wine, but they are also drinking it more frequently, with the number of monthly sparkling wine drinkers rising from 56% three years ago to 72% in 2022.
