Maple Moon Sugarbush and Winery
Date Visited: November 8, 2019
Stop: #62
Our Taste of the Season Winery Tour got off to a great start with our visit to Petoskey Farms Vineyard and Winery, and now it was time to move on to our second of 28 wineries. The snow continued to fall at a rapid rate, making the roads very slippery, but fortunately we did not have far to go to get to our next stop. And our next stop would offer a very unique wine tasting experience.
As we pulled out of the driveway from Petoskey Farms, we
headed east on Atkins Road for 0.7 miles.
On the south side of Atkins was a driveway leading up to the Maple Moon
Sugarbush and Winery, billed as “America’s First Maple Winery.” As we approached the tasting room, the place
looked deserted. At this point, we were
thinking that maybe the weather was going to prevent the place from opening up
for the day. Fortunately, another car
arrived a few short minutes after us and its lone occupant hustled into the
building through an employee entrance.
We bided our time by taking a few outdoor pictures and soon enough, the
front door was unlocked and the place opened for business.
It was very quaint and homey inside. Just inside the front door is a small retail
space filled with maple syrup products for sale and the check-out
register. Around the corner was the
tasting room. I really loved the look
and feel of this room. Lots of
wood. A beautiful bar with a granite
countertop. Racks of wine glasses
hanging over the bar. A huge chalkboard that,
on this particular day, was explaining how to properly use social media with
phrases that were all Maple Moon-centric (ex. My skills include drinking wine
at Maple Moon). But the piece I liked the
most was the sculpture of a majestic maple tree encircled with a wood frame
hanging on the north wall of the tasting room.
It is very beautifully crafted and it is the perfect logo for the winery.
We took a seat at the bar and were immediately greeted by
Christi Petersen who, along with her husband Todd, is the owner of Maple
Moon. Christi was such a great
hostess. Since we were the only ones
there, we had her full attention, and she gave us a full history of their
business and adventures. Even though
their history is provided in their website, hearing it in person from one of
the owners made for a very special visit.
Christi and her husband first came to the Petoskey area in
1999. Todd started his own residential
construction company and Christi took time off from her career as a teacher to
raise their children. They bought the
land at their current location in 2008, and in 2009, the Petersen’s started
sugaring from the many maple trees on their property (80 acres in all). By 2011, they had perfected their craft and decided
to establish their family business. That
same year, their original production facility and retail/tasting room was
built. In talking with Christi, you come
to understand quite quickly how rooted the Petersen family is in their
faith. It helps guide them in many of
the difficult decisions they make. In
2012, having produced their first commercial sized batch of maple syrup, they
officially opened for business. The name
of the business was derived from the Native American term for the last full
moon of the winter – the Maple Moon (or, the sugar moon). This moon signified when it was time for the
maple sap to flow.
The Petersen's now tend to roughly 5,000 taps and produce
an average of 1,500 gallons of maple syrup a year. In 2015, again guided by their faith, the
Petersen’s entered the wine making business.
In that first year, they produced nine different varieties of wines,
from dry to sweet, each unique in that maple syrup is an important
ingredient. They now carry eleven
different wines and two different hard ciders – a maple ginger hard cider and a
maple bourbon hard cider. They expanded
their production facility in 2019, and they have their sights on expanding
their retail space and their tasting room in the next couple of years. Their hope is that Todd can retire from his
construction business in 2022 and put all his energy into their maple syrup and
wine business.
Having learned the history of their business, it was now
time to sample the fruits of their labor.
A flight included five 1-oz. pours of wine and/or cider for $8.50. Our sample sizes were much more generous than
1 oz. Unfortunately for us, three of the
wines were not available on this particular day – the Maple Marquette, the
Petite Pearl, and the Maple Cherry (big bummer on this last one). So, that made our choices rather easy. Kathy ordered the first five available wines,
and I covered the last 3 and the 2 hard ciders.
Kathy:
1. Early Spring Reserve - A dry maple wine aged on oak with earthy undertones and delightfully smooth finish.
2. Maple Rouge - An off dry red blend with aromas of cherry, leather, and strawberry
3. Maple Blanc – A semi-sweet white wine with pleasant citrus aromatics, small additions of maple syrup make this finish last forever
4. Maple Blackberry – A striking blackberry nose with a perfect balance of sweet and tart flavor in this semi-sweet wine.
5. Maple Blueberry – Creamy maple accentuates an upfront blueberry flavor in this semi-sweet wine.
John:
1. Maple Peach – Crisp and refreshing peach wine with a mildly tart yet smooth finish
2. Maple Gold – Coming in at a hot 18% alcohol, this better than Port style wine explodes with bourbon characteristics and a long-lasting maple finish
3. Maple Royal – A maple dessert wine sweetened to perfection with maple syrup
4. Bourbon Barrel Aged – A perfect blend of maple and bourbon make this exceptional
5. Maple Ginger – A semi-sweet maple hard cider with a surprising punch of ginger.
We could definitely taste the impact that maple syrup had
on each of the wines. To me, the wine
seemed smoother at the finish, a little bit sweeter than typical wine, but not
overwhelmingly so. It was very pleasant,
especially considering that my expectations were very different from what I
actually experienced. I thought that the
maple syrup would dominate the taste of the wine on my palette, but it did
not. It was definitely a very unique
tasting experience.
It was disappointing that the Maple Cherry wine was not
available. I am sure we would have loved
it. But now we have a reason to return,
hopefully someday soon. Not that we
really need a reason, but being 4 hours away from home makes it difficult to
return to places like Maple Moon. It
would have been easy to walk out with several bottles, but we still had a long
weekend ahead of us, so we decided on one bottle – the Maple Gold. I was on the fence about the Maple Peach, but
chose against it since we had many bottles of Peach wine already at home. Having made that decision, we perused through
their store and picked up a couple of maple syrup-based products. As we waited for Christie and Randy, I had
time to take a few extra pictures, both inside and out, and then, it was on to
our next adventure.
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