Traverse City’s Hawthorne Vineyards is arguably one of the most secluded and serene wineries in Northern Michigan, and Katie Birecki is taking us there to try the spring releases in this week’s BrewVine.
Even with so many wines to choose from, Hawthorne Vineyards is adding to their wine list with some spectacular spring releases.
“So we’ll be bringing out our Pinot Noir, our Cab Franc, our Merlot, our Cab Franc-Merlot blend, which is probably the fanciest red that we do at Hawthorne. And then bringing out that Lemberger, that one we’re really excited about. We’re excited about all those reds,” Chris Watkins, Hawthorne Vineyards Tasting Room Manager said.
In addition to the new reds, the winery plans to release a brand new Riesling in the coming months.
“We haven’t done a dry Riesling. Our Riesling has always been on the sweeter side. So this year we’re bringing out a nice bone dry Riesling, a lot of fruitiness in there and a nice amount of acidity to balance that wine out,” Watkins said.
You can enjoy some chips or charcuterie while you sample some of their latest releases, but Hawthorne recently researched a fun new flight to pair with your next wine tasting: popcorn.
“Some of the research and development here can be pretty brutal, but the staff and I spent a week painstakingly going through and trying different wines with different flavors of popcorn, and we started out with like eight different varieties of popcorn,” Watkins said. “We narrowed it down to the three popcorns that we have in our flight now, and that’s butter, white cheddar and sea salt, caramel. And all three of those go really good with pretty much all of our wines.”
With the warming weather, a slower pace and a great variety of wine and snacks, Hawthorne Vineyards says it’s the perfect time to pop over and enjoy a visit to their beautiful venue.