Lake Michigan Shore AVA is an

American Viticultural Area An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States, providing an official appellation for the mutual benefit of winery, wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know abo ...

located in southwest

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Located in the state's traditional " fruit belt region", Lake Michigan Shore is the oldest modern commercial

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

region of the state and home to a majority of Michigan vineyards and half of the state wine grape production.

Vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s in the region date back to 1867.

Climate and geography

The AVA boundaries include the smaller Fennville AVA and extend as far as inland from the lakeshore; however, the climate and

glacial moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

soils are relatively similar throughout. The " lake effect" off of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

tempers the northern climate. Lake Michigan Shore AVA has a warmer growing season, as much as two weeks longer than the Leelanau Peninsula AVA and

Old Mission Peninsula AVA The Old Mission Peninsula AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Grand Traverse County, Michigan known for well-regarded Michigan wine. The Old Mission Peninsula extends northward from Traverse City into the Grand Traverse Bay of Lake ...

, both of which are in

Northern Michigan Northern Michigan, also known as Northern Lower Michigan (known colloquially to residents of more southerly parts of the state and summer residents from cities such as Detroit as " Up North"), is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan. A popul ...

. The

hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

is 6a except near enough to Lake Michigan in Berrien County where it is 6b.

References

External links

Michigan Wines
{{Coord, 42.2, -86.1, type:landmark_region:US-MI, display=title Geography of Allegan County, Michigan American Viticultural Areas Geography of Berrien County, Michigan Michigan wine Geography of Cass County, Michigan Geography of Van Buren County, Michigan 1983 establishments in Michigan