Blown Away

Youngblood Vineyard

Date Visited:  August 25, 2019

Stop:  #56

 One of the best things about our Michigan Wines and Signs quest is visiting a new venue with no expectations whatsoever, and then just being blown away.  Such was the experience we had at Youngblood Vineyard.

Kathy and I left Wolcott Mill and headed south on Wolcott Rd. to 29 Mile Rd. where we turned left and headed east.  After 1.1 miles, we came to Indian Trail (a dirt road) and made a right, which pointed us in the southeast direction.  At about ¼ mile, we made a slight right-hand turn onto Ray Center Road (also a dirt road) and headed due south.  From there, we drove about 0.38 miles and came to a driveway on the right-hand side (west side).  This was the entrance to Youngblood Vineyards!!

So, before I go any further, let me list some of the reasons why this place blew us away:

• The tasting room is a covered pavilion not too far from the road on the north side of the driveway.  It was brand new, with a poured concrete floor, a beautiful bar, and several tables to sit around.  Drinking wine outside in the fresh air, with the vineyard as our backdrop, made for a special wine tasting experience.
• When we parked the car, we were immediately greeted by CHICKENS!!!  They followed us to the bar – kinda like our personal escort!
• Jessica, the co-owner, with her husband Dave, was the absolute best host.  She had a passion for her craft that was contagious.
• This vineyard is a family affair – Jess’s mother-in-law was working the bar, Jess’s son, we learned, was the most requested tour guide for vineyard tours, her two daughters work the fields and help with the wine process.
• They have a giant rabbit that hangs out with the chickens.
• They have two huge Great Pyrenees dogs.  Gentle giants.
• Jess and Dave’s story is fascinating
• Oh, and by the way, their wine is fantastic!!!

We were fortunate to find a couple seats at the bar and were immediately greeted by Jess.  We struck up a conversation with her and a couple of other people sitting at the bar while we looked at their wine offering.  Between Jess and her mother-in-law, we learned about the history of Youngblood Vineyards.  They officially opened for business in May, 2019.  The farm has actually been in Dave’s family since 1945, and after spending nearly 20 years living in different wine regions around the US, Dave and Jess came back to Ray Township and settled on the family farm.  At the time, the farm consisted of fields of soybeans, corn, and Christmas trees, many planted by Dave’s grandfather back in the 1950’s.  In 2016, Dave and Jess decided to clear all the fields and plant a vineyard.  They had established a relationship with the University of Minnesota, which had developed a special cold-hardy grape that would grow perfectly in this region’s climate.  They planted 23,000 vines that year and enclosed the vineyard in a mile’s worth of fencing.  Today, the farm consists of 25 acres, the equivalent of over 26 miles worth of vines.  They built a pavilion near the end of their driveway, and this serves as their tasting room.  On the backside of their bar, they had on display the trophy they had won at the Michigan Wine Competition for Best in Class in the Dry Red Wine category with their 2018 Marquette.  An amazing accomplishment for a first-year winery. 

Jess and Dave have made the farm a very kid-friendly place.  At the time of our visit, the Youngblood’s had some overgrown land that they were going to clear and dedicate to a local 4H program so that kids could learn the ins and outs of planting and managing a vineyard.  We also learned that their young son had become the most requested vineyard tour guide on the farm.  They also had a small collection of animals that kids of all ages could pet and hang out with.  All in all, the Youngblood story was very fascinating and interesting. 

So, it was finally time to taste the fruits of their labors, so the tasting was quite simple.  Youngblood Vineyard’s full menu consisted of 5 wines – one white, one rosé, and 3 reds, all relatively dry.  All tastings, which cost $10 per person, consisted of a sample of each of their 5 wines.  We just started at the top of the menu and worked our way down:

•  2018 Frontenac Blanc:  100% Frontenac Blanc aged in stainless steel.  Off dry/semi-sweet white wine with 2% residual sugar.
• 2018 Rosé of Petite Pearl:  75% Petite Pearl and 25% Prairie Star aged in stainless steel.  Off dry/semi-sweet rosé with 1.8% residual sugar.
• 2018 Marquette:  100% Marquette aged in neutral French oak barrels.  Dry red wine with 0.7% residual sugar (do NOT refrigerate).
• 2018 Petite Pearl:  100% Petite Pearl.  88% aged in stainless steel and 12% aged in neutral French oak barrels. Off-dry red wine lightly sweetened to 1.2% residual sugar with Bees in the D honey (do NOT refrigerate).
• 2018 Frontenac:  75% Frontenac aged in stainless steel and 25% Petite Pearl aged in neutral French oak barrels.  Semi-sweet/sweet red wine with 3% residual sugar (do NOT refrigerate).

Neither Kathy nor I are big dry-wine drinkers, but these wines were pleasantly enjoyable to us.  My favorite was the 2018 Frontenac (not surprising, I guess, since it had the highest percent residual sugar of the 5 wines we sampled) and Kathy’s favorite was the 2018 Rosé of Petite Pearl.  We both really enjoyed the Marquette, which was really surprising since it was the driest of the wines we sampled.  At the end of the day, we walked out of there with one of each bottle and an additional bottle of the Marquette.  More importantly, Youngblood’s had become one of our favorite wineries and we could not wait for an opportunity to return.

And fortunately for us, that opportunity presented itself a couple of weeks later.  Both Kathy and I started following Youngblood Vineyard on Instagram and saw in one of their posts that they were looking for volunteers to help harvest grapes.  We tried to sign up for that weekend, but all the spots were taken.  Luckily, they advertised for volunteers for the following weekend and we were lucky to get a spot.  Not only that, but we got spots for two of our best friends, Randy and Christie, as well.  So, on September 15, we returned to Youngblood’s to pick grapes.  There must have been a hundred people there that day, and leading the activity was one of our favorite servers from Michigan by the Bottle (Auburn Hills), Kelly.  Kelly taught everyone the tricks to snipping grape clusters and assigned everyone areas within the rows of vines to work.  We were there to harvest Petite Pearl grapes to be used in their 2019 Rosé of Petite Pearl.  It was a perfect day to be in the vineyard, and we spent a good 2 hours picking grapes.  It was incredible how many grapes we harvested, and it was really a lot of fun.  Kathy and I helped pass out the lunch tickets while Kelly collected all the snipping tools.  Then all the harvesters gathered for a group picture in front of the rows of vines we had just worked on.

Dave and Jess then hosted a wonderful lunch for all the volunteers.  They had pulled-pork sandwiches, mac & cheese, and a pasta salad catered in.  The food was absolutely fantastic, and I wish I could remember who catered it so I could give them a shout-out.  With the lunch, we each got two pours of wine to drink.  After the lunch, they had two huge sheet cakes brought in for dessert – one chocolate, and one yellow.  And finally, as a final reward, we each got a complementary bottle of any wine we desired.  I chose the Frontenac, and Kathy went with the Marquette.  We all had a great time.  In fact, the day far exceeded our expectations and just reinforced our feelings for Youngblood’s.

Because their tasting room is outdoors, Youngblood Vineyard closes for the season around mid-October.  The COVID pandemic delayed their opening this year, so, needless to say, a lot has happened since our initial visits to Youngblood Vineyard.  However, they have retained a special place in our hearts for the following reasons:

• Jess puts together the most entertaining Instagram posts, my favorites being the ones about the escapades of their chickens.  Hilarious stuff.  Through these posts, we stayed connected and informed of life on the vineyard and special events.
• As part of a special Mother’s Day promotion, I ordered one of their special gift bags for Kathy and was unable to pick up the gift during the scheduled pick-up time because of a previous commitment.  Jess was so gracious to hold onto my gift bag and set time aside from her busy schedule to be available for a special pick-up several days later.
• They have added baby goats to their menagerie and host baby goat yoga sessions in the vineyard.
• They host entertaining and creative events.  Their events in affiliation with the iconic Whitney restaurant from Detroit sound amazing.  Weddings and special dinners in the vineyard.  What a perfect venue for such events!!!
• Voted "BEST WINERY" and "BEST PLACE TO DRINK OUTDOORS" by Hour Detroit Best of 2020.  Well deserved recognition after only a year in operation.

After months of managing and navigating the uncertainty of COVID, we finally visited Youngblood’s on September 26, 2020, over a year since our last visit.  It was a perfect fall day in Michigan, and we were not the only ones who thought drinking great wine outdoors on a perfect day would be a good idea.  Youngblood’s was teeming with activity.  We were fortunate that a table freed up just as we arrived, and as we sat down, I counted nearly 40 cars parked along the driveway leading up to the house.  It was incredibly crowded, and the Youngblood staff was working in overdrive.  Youngblood’s had expanded their seating capacity by adding many tables and chairs on the grass surrounding the pavilion.  They also had guests sitting on their wrap-around porch at their house, and there were other groups sitting under trees across the yard from the pavilion.  On two different occasions while we were there, Dave had to bring in extra tables and chairs from their barn.  Youngblood’s had also expanded their animal pen area, and enclosed a large area with a fence to allow their animals to move about outside their pens. 

Despite all the activity going on, we saw a familiar face working that day and she greeted us and took care of pouring our wine throughout our visit.  The familiar face was Kelly!!!  It was so great reconnecting with her since we had not seen her since before the COVID pandemic had started.  Since that time, she and her boyfriend, Nathan (who also works at Michigan by the Bottle and at Youngblood’s) had announced their engagement, so we finally had a chance to congratulate her.  It was great catching up, and it was great hearing her tell us about the wines each time she brought us a new sample. 

The menu had expanded a bit since our first visit to Youngblood’s.  Added to the lineup was:

•  2019 Frontenac Blanc
• 2019 Rosé of Petite Pearl
• 2019 Petite Pearl
• 2019 Marquette
• 2019 Detroit Reserve – Port:  100% Frontenac wine fortified with 100% Frontenac brandy distilled at Detroit City Distillery.  Single varietal port style wine aged in neutral French oak barrels.

Also available were some holdovers from last year:

• 2018 Petite Pearl
• 2018 Frontenac

We got to sample each of the wines as part of the tasting, again for $10 per person.  The 2019 vintage wines were just as good if not better than the 2018 vintage.  But what we were really looking forward to was a taste of their new Port, just released this year.  And again, we were not disappointed.  With only 3% residual sugar content, it is a semi-dry port with a real rich taste that left a warm feeling going down (the brandy, I suspect!).  All I know is that both Kathy and I enjoyed it.

So, after a thoroughly enjoyable visit, it was time to cash out, but not before we ordered a bottle of the 2019 Rosé of Petite Pearl, the wine we had helped pick grapes for last year.  We tried to get a bottle of the 2018 Frontenac, but no bottles were available for sale (only for tastings and pours).  We already had a couple of bottles of Port that we had purchased when Youngblood’s released it for sale during a special introduction, otherwise we would have walked away with a couple bottles of that.  All in all, it was another wonderful experience at Youngblood’s and just reinforced why we have a special place in our heart for this vineyard and the incredible team that runs it.

#michiganwinesandsigns #michigan #history #michiganhistory #wine #michiganwine #winetasting #lovemiwine #historyisbetterwithwine

Not Your Run-of-the-Mill Mill

Wolcott Mill

Date Visited:  August 25, 2019

Stop:  #55

 The next stop on our Michigan Wines and Signs tour through Macomb County was less than a mile away from our visit to Ray Township District No. 1 School and the Religious Society Church.  It is one of the more popular sites to visit in the area and is one of the main attractions in the Wolcott Mill Metropark.  The Metropark is huge – it runs from 26 Mile Road on its southern border to 31 Mile Road on its northern border.  Its eastern border is defined by Ray Center Road, Indian Trail, and Wolcott Road, and at it’s widest, is nearly 2 1/3 miles wide.  It is often referred to as three parks in one.  At the northern end is a late 20th-century working farm.  On the east side of the park is Camp Rotary.  In the central area is the Historic Center.

The working farm is comprised of 250 acres and is the only public farm in the state of Michigan where all 6 heritage breeds of dairy cow – Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Jersey, Milking Short Horn, and Holstein – reside year-round.  There are a wide variety of other farm animals to see, including miniature horses, draft horses, sheep, goats, and a variety of farm fowl.  You can also visit the greenhouse and various gardens, and when available, can take a horse-drawn wagon ride through the crop fields.  This is a popular place for families with young children.

Camp Rotary offers indoor and outdoor camping and access to miles of trails for hiking, and for horseback riding.  The camp includes an Activity Center, the Shorian Lodge, and a Horse Staging Area.  You can ride 2 different equestrian trails – the West Loop that runs for 4.7 miles, and the East Loop that runs 3.7 miles.

The focus of our visit was in the Historic Center.  There are two ways to access this part of the Metropark.  The main entrance is off of Kunstman Road, about 0.6 miles north of 29 Mile Road.  This access road is called Historic Center Drive, and if you follow it for a little over 0.8 miles, you will come to a parking area.  From there, you have to hike about 0.17 miles to get to the location of the historical marker.  The second entrance, and the one we chose to use, is located just south of Indian Trail on Wolcott Road.  From this dirt and gravel parking lot, you walk about 500 feet south through the Wolcott Mill grounds to get to the historical marker.  On the grounds of the Historic Center, there is a barn (now used as a barn museum), the millpond, and a truck garage.  You will encounter antique farming equipment and a restored Model T dump truck.  There is also a corncob building, a modern gazebo, and a toll road building, but the centerpiece of the Historic Center is the Wolcott Mill, itself.  This mill, one of the oldest mills in Michigan, is the subject matter of the historic marker.

The mill was built in 1847 by Arad Freeman, one of the early settlers in Macomb County.  It was used as a grist mill and a feed mill.  The mill passed through many owners until Fred B. Wolcott purchased it in 1878.  Wolcott was born in Pennsylvania in 1845 and lived there for 20 years before beginning an odyssey that took him to 5 different states before settling for the second time in Nebraska in 1869.  Married in 1870, Wolcott continued to work and improve his homestead until he traded this property for the mill in Michigan that now bears his name.

The Wolcott family made a lot of changes over the years as technology evolved and improved the milling process.  The historical marker tells us that the breastshot waterwheel was replaced by a turbine in 1881.  Then in 1890, the millstones were replaced by more efficient metal rollers, and then they were upgraded again in 1917.  Waterpower was supplemented by electric power in the 1920’s.  The mill gained the reputation of producing the best high-quality flour in the area, and a number of large Detroit bakeries used Wolcott flour in their baked goods.  Wolcott Mill met the same fate that most early mills met – the inability to match the mass production capabilities of larger, more modern mills – and as business declined, the Wolcott family finally sold the mill in 1967.  The Huron-Clinton Metroparks acquired the mill in 1979 for use as an historic interpretive site.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.  Much of the original equipment is still in place, and the mill still operates on a limited basis, however, the mill is temporarily closed at the recommendation of its insurance company based on a recent inspection.  It will remain closed until the structure is inspected by a structural engineer.

Kathy and I spent a significant amount of time exploring the grounds.  We were not so bold as to explore any of the three walking trails in the area, but we did spend time visiting each of the buildings, looking at the waterwheel, the antique farm equipment scattered about the grounds, and the truck garage, which had a couple of antique pick-up trucks sitting inside.  We even watched some sort of photoshoot taking place on the grounds featuring a barefoot model.  In any event, for such a perfect day, these were the only other people in sight, so it was quite enjoyable having the whole place to ourselves.  But the thought of drinking some wine started tugging at us, so we took some final photos of the gazebo and headed back to our car to make the short journey to our first winery of the day.

 #michiganwinesandsigns #michigan #history #michiganhistory #wine #michiganwine #winetasting #lovemiwine #historyisbetterwithwine

Two for the Price of One, Part 2

Religious Society Church

Date Visited:  August 25, 2019

Stop:  #54

 It has been awhile since we posted our last blog, and I apologize for that.  I was the victim of a major technological disaster.  I had started writing this blog 4 weeks ago and had half of it written when I decided to call it a day.  I came back the next day and was downloading some photographs off of my phone when all of a sudden, the computer completely locked up.  I was able to shut the computer down, but when I tried to start it up again, I got the black screen of death and an error message stating that the operating system could not be found.  My hard drive had crashed!!!  The next day, I took the laptop in to a tech specialist, and found out that all the data on the hard drive could not be extracted.  I lost everything – all my photo files, all my blog documents and slides, my maps with all the correct historical marker locations - everything.  I had the hard drive replaced and remembered that I had backed-up my data back in April, so I was excited to know that at least some of my data could be retrieved.  But, for the second day in a row, technology would fail me.  The backup had failed and no data had been transferred.  I was devastated and it took me several days to get over that.  I actually thought about giving up on the blog, but over the past 3 weeks, I have spent countless hours reconstructing all my files and creating all my photo files and recreating all my maps.  I am finally all the way back to where I was (for the most part), and ready to get back to writing our blogs.

Having visited the Ray Township District No. 1 School, we knew the Religious Society Church was just across the parking lot, so after snapping a couple more photographs, I headed across the lot to find the historical marker for the church.  Fortunately, Kathy was astute enough to check the backside of the Ray Township District No. 1 School marker and noticed that the marker also doubled as the marker for the Church as well.  It’s not uncommon to have a two-sided sign with a different topic on each side – we have blogged about several so far.  What makes this marker unique is that it has two different Historical Marker Identification numbers.  Two, for the price of one!

The First Religious Society of Ray was organized on February 16, 1869 and included 5 members.  The church was built in December of 1869 on land donated by Arad Freeman, one of the members of Ray’s founding families.  The church was originally known as the Ray Union Church.  The original church building had a steeple and the building design was very similar to the neighboring Mill School.  The church was officially dedicated on June 22, 1872 and the name officially became the First Religious Society of Ray on February 16, 1887.  The Society disbanded early in 1950, and on February 8 of that year, the Township of Ray purchased the church for $1.00.  On June 6, 1950, the Ray Township Board agreed to rules governing the use of the former church building as the new Township Hall.  Later that same year, the original church belfry was removed.  The former Ray Union Church was listed on the Michigan Register of Historic Places, Site No. 1389, on March 19, 1987.  The State of Michigan historic marker was erected at the site on February 28, 2002.  The marker was purchased with donations of $1,635 from local businesses.  Today, the building serves as the Ray Township Senior Center, and it also houses some municipal offices.

There was so much history in this one spot, so I really enjoyed it.  But our next stop would be to one of the more popular historical sites in Ray Township, so it was time to move on.

#michiganwinesandsigns #michigan #history #michiganhistory #wine #michiganwine #winetasting #lovemiwine #historyisbetterwithwine

Two for the Price of One, Part 1

Ray Township District No. 1 School

Date Visited:  August 25, 2019

Stop:  #53

One of the most fun aspects about our Michigan Wines and Signs quests is that, no matter how much we prepare, we invariably encounter surprises and/or adventure.  Our next stop would offer something we had never encountered before.

After concluding our visit to The First Methodist Episcopal Church historical marker in Davis, Michigan, we hopped onto Romeo Plank Road and drove north 2 miles to 29 Mile Road.  We made a right and headed east until we came to Wolcott Road (about 1.76 miles).  We turned left and headed north until Wolcott Road ended at Indian Trail, about 0.57 miles, and made another left.  On the left- hand side, just over 500 feet from Wolcott Road, was the location of our next destination.  Now, because I had researched our route for the day, I knew that we were going to visit two historical buildings at this location.  The first was the Ray Township District No. 1 School, and the second (located right next door) was the Religious Society Church.  So, of course, we were anticipating two historical markers.

Since the Ray Township District No. 1 School was the first building, we decided to visit that site first.  We located the historical marker at the northern-most entrance to the parking lot, situated about halfway between the two buildings we would visit.  From the marker, we learned that Ray area farmers built the school in 1863.  It was popularly known as the Mill School (since Wolcott Mill, another historical site, was located nearby).  This school conducted classes for kindergartners through eighth graders for 91 years.  In 1953, the Ray Township School District consolidated with the Romeo School District, which had no further plans for the school so they transferred ownership of the property to Ray Township.  For many years, the township used the building for elections and community meetings, and in 1983, the school became the Ray Township Library.  It still serves in that capacity today.

The building architecture is Greek Revival. The frame structure was built by neighborhood farmers and is a traditional one-room school house design - 26 ft. wide by 40 ft. deep.  It has a one-story front-gable, clapboard siding, and it is topped by a double-gabled open belfry.  On February 16, 1989, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kathy and I took our typical slew of pictures of the building and its surroundings.  Since it was a Sunday, the library was closed (Hours of Operation:  Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 1:00 to 8:00 pm, Tuesday 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, Saturday 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, and CLOSED on Friday and Sunday).  It would have been fun to go inside, but it would not be an option on this day.  I began to walk across the parking lot in the direction of our next historical building to look for the historical sign.  In the meantime, Kathy made sure that we did not repeat our Rookie Mistake (not reading the backside of the sign to make sure there wasn’t anymore information written) when she yelled to me that the historical marker for the school also doubled as the historical marker for the Religious Society Church, each with its own unique Marker Identification number.  I would have never considered that, so Kathy saved us a lot of time looking for a sign that was right in front of our eyes the whole time, and just reinforced that we always need to check BOTH sides of every marker we visit.  I will save the rest of the story for the next blog!

#michiganwinesandsigns #michigan #history #michiganhistory #wine #michiganwine #winetasting #lovemiwine #historyisbetterwithwine