page_title: Michigan wine
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Michigan wine / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Vineyard on the Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan
context_page_description: Michigan wine refers to any wine that is made in the state of Michigan in the United States. As of 2018, there were 3,050 acres under wine-grape cultivation and 148 commercial wineries in Michigan, producing 3 million US gallons of wine. According to another count there were 112 operating wineries in Michigan in 2007.
  Wine and enotourism were estimated in 2007 to be a $300 million industry. Most of the quality bottled wine of Michigan is produced in the five American Viticultural Areas of Fennville AVA, Lake Michigan Shore AVA, Leelanau Peninsula AVA, Old Mission Peninsula AVA, and the Tip of the Mitt AVA. There are also a few disjunct wineries in every region of the state, including some in the Upper Peninsula that have opened over the past several years.
  In addition to grape wine, Michigan is a leader in the production of fruit wines such as cherry wine.
context_section_description: The traditional wines of Michigan were sweet wines, often made from grape varieties native to North America, such as the Catawba, Concord, and Niagara, or from hybrid grapes partly developed by crossing native species with vinifera grapes.  North American native grapes have the advantage of being adapted to local growing conditions, with consequent high fruit yield.  In addition, growers can switch back and forth between the production of sweet wine and grape juice.  Of Michigan's 14,600 acres (5,900 ha) under grape cultivation, only 12%, 1,800 acres (730 ha), were devoted to wine grapes as of 2007.
  Michigan's wine industry dates from after the repeal of Prohibition. With large plantings of Concord in the southwest, mostly for the Welch Grape Juice Company, the state was well positioned to enter wine production. Four large wineries (out of eleven wineries established by 1946) came to produce almost all Michigan wine: La Salle Wine and Champagne Company which was established in Windsor, Ontario, and moved to Farmington, Michigan; the Bronte Champagne and Wines Company of Hartford; Michigan Wineries (now Tabor Hill Winery) of Buchanan; and St. Julian Winery, which was also established in Windsor, Ontario, on the Canadian shore across from Detroit during Prohibition and moved to Paw Paw, Michigan, after repeal.  
     
  To promote the local industry, Michigan law in the mid-20th century placed a tax of four cents per U.S. gallon on Michigan wine while other wine was taxed at 50 cents per U.S. gallon. Michigan wine of that era was, primarily, fermented to dryness, giving about 9% alcohol, and then fortified with California brandy to 16% alcohol. State laws considered this natural wine and allowed it to be sold in grocery and drug stores while fortified wines from out of state, produced to 18-20% alcohol, could only be sold from state liquor stores.
  The wineries of Michigan specialized in sweet wine and fruit wine well into the 1970s.  With the growth in demand, starting in the latter half of the 20th century, for locally grown and locally labeled U.S. fine wines, several existing Michigan makers of sweet wine experimented with upgrading their production, and new vintners entered the scene.  Tabor Hill Winery, in southwest Michigan, opened in 1971 as the first Michigan winery specializing in vinifera wines. Only a few years later in 1974, Chateau Grand Traverse opened in the Traverse Bay region of Northern Michigan. A slow growth in the number of wineries and continued trials of different vinifera varieties continued well into the 2000s.  Presently, various hybrid varieties are being looked at which could allow grape growing in the Upper Peninsula to expand significantly over the next several years.
caption: Vineyard on the Leelanau Peninsula
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