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.

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