St. Julian’s

St. Julian's Winery in Paw Paw, MI

You may or may not know that there are wineries in Michigan…well guess what…there are!  I went to see the oldest winery in Michigan today, St. Julian’s winery in Paw Paw (yep, that’s really the name of the city…Paw Paw…don’t know why).

It was really pretty interesting.  It would’ve been fun to be there when they were actually processing some grapes but it was interesting nevertheless.  Apparently the grapes are grown on land a little bit further west of Paw Paw, near Lake Michigan.  In the words of St. Julian’s winemakers, this makes their grapes more comparable to those grown in the great wine regions of Europe than those of California or Australia…hmmmm, ok.  Don’t tell the French that…but who am I to doubt St. Julian

We toured the rooms where they age the red and white wines, and learned that once upon a time, those rooms used to house all the “non-consumable” ice that residents of Paw Paw used to cool their ice boxes (the precursor to the refrigerator).

Aging white wine...

We also got to see the still they use to produce their brandy or “eau de vie.”  They age the brandy in medium toasted barrels for about 8 years before bottling.  So of course we got to see some of the barrels as well (one was ready for bottling…you could tell because it was “weeping”).

The still...

Aging brandy...the "weeping" one is on the bottom left

Another nice thing…the tasting room.  You stand around the bar in the center of the winery and the lovely employees behind the bar come around and give you a taste of whatever wine you want.  First 6 selections are free (but you can actually get more than six if you look like your a serious wine connoisseur )  They had some very nice wines there…this is coming from a wine novice so no laughing from any of you oenophiles out there…I’m still learning!!!! 

I came away with a semi-sweet white wine they call “Blue Heron” (thanks Wilma!), a sparkling wine that had hints of peach (very tasty) and a small bottle of their red wine “Red Heron.”  And in honor of our multiple celebrations back in undergrad that featured the many flavors of St. Julian spumante, I picked up a bottle of the latest flavor, pomegranate blueberry spumante.

All in all, not a bad trip…Ω

St. Julian…Italian roots, Michigan soil