Baia Estate Winery Tasting Room
Date Visited: November 9, 2019
Stop: #73
It was about 1:40 pm when we pulled out of the parking lot at Leelanau Wine Cellars. So far, on the first day of Toast the Season 2019, we had visited 5 wineries, which put us on a very good pace (one winery every 30 minutes). We hopped back onto M-22 and headed north for nearly 6 miles, entering the town of Northport, the location of our sixth winery. This would be our northernmost stop for the weekend. It would also be our very first visit to Baia Estate Winery.
At the time, the Baia (pronounced BYE-ah, the word is
Italian for “bay”) Estate Winery Tasting Room was located in the New Bohemian
Café located on South Waukazoo Street.
It was in a nicely restored building with a very quaint and homey
interior. In late 2021, the Tasting Room
relocated to The Union, basically right across the street from its former
location, on the corner of South Waukazoo Street and West Nagonaba Street. All of our pictures below reflect the old
location since we have yet to visit the new place.
I have found it difficult to put together any history on
the Baia Estate Winery. Their website
does not include any historical information other than to state that the estate
is 70 acres in size and that they specialize in Italian-style wines. They currently grow Chardonnay, Riesling,
Fruliano, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir grapes. I was able to find a couple of articles on
the web that helped fill in some of the blanks – an article in The Ticker
written by Emily Tyra and published on Sept. 10, 2021, and an article in the TCBN
written by Craig Manning for their February 2021 issue. I could not find a date when the Baia Estate
Winery was established, but I did find out that it is owned by Michael “Chet”
Chetcuti and Kyle Evans. It is part of a
conglomerate of food and beverage businesses under the umbrella of Farm +
Ferment. Before this had all taken
place, Chet was an engineer in the automotive industry selling parts
globally. By 2006, he and his partners
bought a stake in the company – he is still co-owner to this day.
Like so many stories we have heard in the past, Chet’s
foray into food and beverages came as a result of his and his partners passion
for food, wine, and beer. They bought
their first food and wine business in 1998 – the Cloverleaf Fine Wine in metro
Detroit. Today, under the Farm + Ferment
brand, they have expanded and own a group of southeast Michigan Italian
eateries called Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina, the Ypsilanti-based Arbor Brewing
Company, the Michigan Hop Alliance, and Baia Estate Vineyards in Leelanau
County. Ironically, there is a Bigalora
Wood Fired Cucina just two miles away from our home in a restaurant space that
used to be one of our favorite hangouts a few short years ago. Now we have a reason to visit and start up a
new tradition and, hopefully, a new favorite place to hang out.
Purchasing the Baia Estate Vineyard was Chet’s and his partners’
first step into making their own wine.
Their success in this area emboldened them to get into the hops growing
business so they could craft their own beers.
Today, the vineyard supplies all the wine to their Bigalora restaurants
(5 locations in southeast Michigan). The
vineyard has matured to the point where they harvest enough grapes to make
enough wine to sell to the general public.
Although I could not find out when they opened their tasting room in the
New Bohemian Café, I was able to piece together that they entered into a
relationship with Eric Allchin (of The Union and The
Tribune) and his business partner, Chef Paul Carlson, to officially team together
to offer wine tastings at The Union at the latter end of 2021. Eric and his team run the tasting room.
Someday, we will get to visit their new location, but on
this day, we were enjoying ourselves at the New Bohemian Café. It was very crowded as we entered building. The tasting bar was located along the north
wall of the room. There were tables
scattered around and, if I recall, the New Bohemian Café operated on the south
side of the room. We were each given our
food and wine samples – a cream puff drizzled with house-made dark chocolate ganache
and a sample of their Sparkling Riesling.
Up to this point, it was my favorite pairing of the day. After finishing our wine and cream puff, we
found spots at the bar and scanned over the wine menu. Baia Estates offered eight different wines,
and we got to choose 2 tastings each.
One of the wines that stood out was their Lambo. We have some very good friends that we
actually met through our son, David. His
friend’s nickname is Lambo (a derivative of his last name). His dad is affectionately called Coach
Lambo. So naturally, we HAD to try that
wine. Our server was kind enough to let
us try a sample of the Lambo, which was a LIMITED RELEASE Lambrusco-inspired
sparkling red with bold berry notes, rose petal, and sweet spices. Our tasting selections ended up being the
following:
Kathy’s selection:
- Pinot Grigio – clean, bright, apple and pear notes
- Rosé – Southern French style, dry and rich with melon, rose and hints of cherry
John’s selections:
- Riesling – Dry and fruit-forward with apple, apricot and spice notes
- Pinot Noir – Delicate cherry and pomegranate with accents of tea leaf
Although we enjoyed all of the wines, we decided not to buy
anything at this time. However, we did
buy a bottle of the Lambo so we could give it to our friends as a gift.
We did enjoy our visit to Baia Estates. It is good to know that we only have to go a
couple of miles to have another taste of their wine. A visit to Bigalora is in the cards.
Be sure to visit the Baia Estate Winery website for more
information:
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