The Old Mission Peninsula 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 Grand Traverse County,

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 ...

known for well-regarded

Michigan wine Michigan wine refers to any wine that is made in the state of Michigan in the United States. As of 2020, there were under wine-grape cultivation and over 200 commercial wineries in Michigan, producing of wine. According to another count there ...

. The

Old Mission Peninsula Peninsula Township is a civil township of Grand Traverse County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 6,068, up from 5,433 at the 2010 census. The township is coterminous with the Old Mission Peninsul ...

extends northward from

Traverse City Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was ...

into the

Grand Traverse Bay Grand Traverse Bay is a deep bay of Lake Michigan formed by the Leelanau Peninsula in the northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is long, wide, and up to deep in spots. It is further divided into two east and west arms by the Ol ...

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 ...

, ending at

Old Mission Point Peninsula Township is a civil township of Grand Traverse County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 6,068, up from 5,433 at the 2010 census. The township is coterminous with the Old Mission Peninsu ...

. The peninsula is long by wide at its widest point. The climate on the peninsula is moderated by the surrounding waters, helping to prevent

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

during the growing season.

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, ...

varietals A varietal wine is a wine made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.winepros.com.au. ...

suitable to cool climates, such as

Riesling Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

Gewürztraminer Gewürztraminer () is an aromatic wine grape variety, used in white wines, and performs best in cooler climates. In English, it is sometimes referred to colloquially as Gewürz (; although this is never the case in German, because "Gewürz" me ...

Pinot gris Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio (, ) or Grauburgunder is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name, but the gra ...

, Pinot noir, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot do best in the Old Mission Peninsula AVA. The peninsula has extensive cherry

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

s and

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. There are ten wineries offering tasting rooms, each located within five miles of each other. Of Traverse City’s two wine-growing peninsulas, Old Mission is smaller and more easily encompassed in a single day: just a little under 20 miles from end to end, and in places as little as three miles wide. 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 ...

s are 5b and 6a.

History

The Old Mission Peninsula was settled in 1842 by a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

period, the area saw an influx in population with many families today able to trace their ties to the area back to this period. Located along the

45th parallel north The 45th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees north of Earth's equator. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the ...

, and moderated by

and the deep

, the region soon showed that it had

macroclimate In viticulture, there are several levels of regional climates that are used to describe the '' terroir'' or immutable characteristics of an area. These levels can be as broad as a macroclimate which includes entire wine regions or as small as a mi ...

to produce a wide range of fruits and vegetables. Early agriculture in the area subsisted on

apples An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

, cherries and potatoes. In 1870, George Parmalee, of the Michigan State Horticultural Society, encouraged farmers of Old Mission Peninsula to branch out to different plantings but it would be another 100 years before wine

grape varieties This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Viti ...

really took hold in the area. In 1974 Edward O'Keefe Jr. of

Chateau Grand Traverse Chateau Grand Traverse is a Michigan winery located in the Old Mission Peninsula AVA around Traverse City. The winery was founded by Edward O'Keefe Jr. and is notable for having the first large-scale planting of ''Vitis vinifera'' in Michigan. O'K ...

began planting ''

Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curre ...

'' varieties including

, Pinot noir and

near

. The following year he expanded to 55-acre of grapevines, which was the first large-scale planting of ''Vitis vinifera''.. (However, it wasn't the very first commercial planting of ''vinifera'' since Tabor Hill Winery of Berrien County, had planted a few experimental acres of ''vinifera'' grapevines in southwest Michigan in 1969.) In the 1980s, the Michigan wine industry saw growth throughout the state as several

American Viticultural Areas 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 wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know about the ...

, including Fennville, Lake Michigan Shore and the nearby

Leelanau Peninsula The Leelanau Peninsula ( ) is a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan that extends about from the western side of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan into Lake Michigan. Leelanau County encompasses the entire peninsula. It is often referred to ...

, were approved. The Old Mission Peninsula received its AVA designation on June 8, 1987. The leading force behind AVA recognition came from Edward O'Keefe, whose Chateau Grand Traverse was the peninsula’s only commercial winery at the time. Today the wine industry in the Old Mission Peninsula has expanded to include eight wineries and a thriving

wine tourism Enotourism, oenotourism, wine tourism, or vinitourism refers to tourism whose purpose is or includes the tasting, consumption or purchase of wine, often at or near the source. Where other types of tourism are often passive in nature, enotourism ca ...

industry.

Grape varieties and wine styles

Currently the wineries of the Old Mission Peninsula are focused on the production of ''Vinifera'' wines with an average of 90,000 cases produced in the AVA on a yearly basis. Among the grape varieties planted in the peninsula are Cabernet Franc,

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon' ...

Gamay noir Gamay is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire Valley around Tours. Its full name is Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. It is a very old cultivar, mentioned as long ago as the 15th centu ...

, Gewurztraminer,

Malbec Malbec () is a purple grape variety used in making red wine. The grapes tend to have an inky dark color and robust tannins, and are known as one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux wine. In France, plantations of Malbec are n ...

, Merlot,

Muscat Ottonel Muscat Ottonel or Muskat-Ottonel (in Germany) is a white wine grape variety that is a member of the Muscat family of ''Vitis vinifera''.J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz ''Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including ...

Pinot blanc Pinot blanc is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one cane which produces white ...

, Pinot noir,

Wineries in Old Mission Peninsula AVA

There are eleven wineries in the Old Mission Peninsula AVA. The Old Mission Peninsula American Viticultural Area sits close to the 45th parallel, a longitude known for growing prestigious grapes. The wineries in the Old Mission Peninsula American Viticultural Area are 2 Lads Winery, Bonobo Winery, Black Star Farms, Bowers Harbor Vineyards, Brys Estate Vineyard & Winery,

Chateau Chantal Chateau Chantal is a winery located on the Old Mission Peninsula, only a few miles north of Traverse City, in Grand Traverse County, Michigan. The chateau sits atop one of the highest points on the Old Mission Peninsula and has views of both ...

, Hawthorne Vineyards, Left Foot Charley (with vineyards in OMP, winery in Traverse City), Mari Vineyards, Peninsula Cellars, and Tabone Vineyards.

References

External links

Traverse City’s Wine Trail
{{Coord, 44.878, -85.515, type:landmark_region:US-MI, display=title American Viticultural Areas Geography of Grand Traverse County, Michigan Michigan wine 1987 establishments in Michigan