Black Star farm hit the road and hopped across the pond last week to show off their wines during a Rhine River boat cruise.
Kimberly Zachariah, wine specialist at Black Star Farms, headed the event in her 16th year at the local winery.
“That was pretty exciting but a group of our wine club members went along with us. We got to pour Michigan wine for people who probably never heard of our area,” Zachariah said.
The 10-day river cruise on the Rhine and Moselle Rivers traveled through Germany and France on a boat that had mostly Americans and Canadians.
Zachariah said they loved Black Star Farms wines, “They were pleasantly surprised. They really actually showed quite well against the regional wines. It was interesting to compare these old world Rieslings the next day versus our very new world style Rieslings. Some of these people who are from all over the country will hopefully be coming and visiting the Traverse City area because of it.”
Zachariah admits being nervous, stepping out of Leelanau County and putting Black Star wines on the line.
“They were good when I started here and they’re great now. I had a lot of faith in our product,” she said.
Before traveling abroad, Zachariah did test the wines in a mock Michigan versus Germany wine tasting event beforehand that included winemakers talking about the differences and how they will fare on the river cruise against German and French regional wines.
“I’ve been working here for 16 years. I’ve watched our wines improve. I think any time we can go up on a global stage and come back with people saying, oh my gosh, your wines were just as good or if not better than these other wines that we’re tasting is a win for this area,” Zachariah said.
Black Star Farms stuck with its Riesling wines, which is the most important grape in the Rhine region and most widely planted in Leelanau. Two thirds of Germany’s wine production is white wine focused.
“I stuck with varieties like Riesling and Pinot noir I also brought a Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine that’s made with champagne. I brought our Pinot Noir Rose, I brought our red dessert wine to show off a port style wine, which is something different,” Zachariah said.
Zachariah has spent seven years working in the tasting room and the last nine years has been on the promotions and marketing side of the business. She also leads tours including wine and food tastings in the winter months, among many other projects.
Zachariah is one of the area’s premier sommelier and her favorite part of the job is education.
“When I do my tours, it’s all about educating people about the vineyard and why we’re growing grapes here and about the different stages of the life all the way through to the processing and aging wine,” she said.
Zachariah says business has been well at the tasting room, but it seems less people are around this year. Zachariah explains the change in customer interactions compared to years past.
“(pre-COVID) we would have to have about 12 to 14 people working in the tasting room to be able to staff all the bars and whatnot. Now, we have seven,” she said. “We try to do some other things with our tours and other things that I try to offer for those people who are looking for a little bit more, a little more in depth learning.”
