Verterra Winery
Date Visited: November 9, 2019
Stop: #75
Kathy, Randy, Christie, and I had just finished our “laid back” visit to Green Bird and noticed it was just a little after 2:30 pm. We had about another 2 ½ hours to go before the Toast the Season tour ended for the day. Kathy and Christie had mapped out our next stop, which, based on two previous visits over the past two years, was one of Kathy’s favorite wineries in the Traverse City area – Verterra Winery. It was a 9.5-mile drive from Green Bird to Verterra, traveling south on M-22 into downtown Leland, site of the Verterra Tasting Room. The Tasting Room is on East River Street, a half block east of M-22 on the north side of the street. There is a parking lot just east of the tasting room, and parking is also allowed on the street.
The Tasting Room is in a quaint little building that was
built in 1927 and was originally a barber shop and a pool hall. S.R. Gain, the barber and owner of the
building, had the brick facing of the building constructed using leftover
bricks from the Immanuel Lutheran Church, located a short distance away on
Pearl Street. Over the years, the
building also served as the library (until the early 1970’s), gift shops, and a
real estate office. Then, in the Spring
of 2011, Paul and Marty Hamelin purchased the building to serve as the Tasting
Room for their winery.
Paul and Marty started the Verterra (which means “true to
the land”) Winery by purchasing a former cherry orchard and planting their
first acre of grapes in 2006. It was the
culmination of a growing passion for wine that had evolved over years. They released their first vintage in
2010. Today, the vineyard (which the
Hamelins affectionately refer to as “Frost Pocket”) is over 40 acres in size,
yielding grapes that are made into 20 different wines. Many of these wines have won prestigious
awards over the years, most noticeably, the Michigan Wine Competition’s “Best
Dry White Wine in the State of Michigan” for 3 consecutive years (2017-2019), a
feat never accomplished by any other wine in the 35-year history of the event.
We have had the pleasure of talking with Paul and Marty
during our past visits, but that was not the case today. It was very busy in the Tasting Room on this
particular day. In fact, the line
extended out the front door, so some of the unlucky ones (namely me) had to
stand out in the frigid cold for a few minutes before they could get
inside. Verterra had their check-in
table set up in the southeast corner of the room. The wine bar itself extends the whole length
of the west side of the room, and there is a ledge that runs the length of the
east wall where people can set their wine glass and food while standing. The food served by Verterra for this year’s
Toast the Season event was a char-grilled pizzetta with sun-dried tomatoes,
fresh spinach, garlic feta, and mozzarella.
They paired it with your choice of Chaos White or Chaos Sparkler. Kathy went with the White, so I went with the
Sparkler. Both selections were very good
and paired very well with the pizzetta.
We had to wait quite awhile to find a place at the bar
after we finished our pairing. Once
there, we were greeted by our server who presented us with our menus. One of our favorite things about Verterra is
how well you are taken care of while at the Tasting Room. Everyone working there is so pleasant,
informative, and helpful. Every server
seems to have a passion for being a part of this enterprise, and regardless of
how busy they are, they make sure to spend time with you, explaining the wine
you are about to sample, what it is made of (grape variety), its flavor
characteristics, its aroma, and what their personal thoughts are on the
wine. I always feel smarter when I walk
out of there!
We got to choose 3 complimentary tastings, so after
surveying the menu for a few minutes, we made our choices. Here is what we settled on:
Kathy’s selections:
- Pinot Blanc – Look for hints of Meyer lemon, lime, and clementine peels.
- Unoaked Chardonnay 2017 – Tropical fruits and honeysuckle dominate this steel fermented Chardonnay
- Chaos Red – This fruit forward red is an easy-to-drink medium-dry table wine.
- Dry Gewürztraminer 2017 – Warm spices, unmistakable rose petals with grapefruit citrus notes.
- Late Harvest Vignoles 2018 – Stone fruit notes make this a very appealing wine and top seller.
- Late Harvest Riesling 2017 – This is a well-balanced wine with a mellow sweetness with aromas of apricot and honey.
The Pinot Blanc was fantastic. It was not overly dry and it had a very
pleasant taste. We decided we needed a
bottle of this. We both enjoyed the
Chardonnay and the Chaos Red (chosen because, afterall, we had the Chaos White
with the pairing, so we had to compare), but did not take either one of those
home. The Gewürztraminer was good, and I
am starting to really acquire a taste for this type of wine, but it was too dry
for me. The Late Harvest Vignoles was by
far my favorite, but we still had a bottle of that from 2018, so we held off
buying another one. But a close second
was the Late Harvest Riesling, which both of us really enjoyed. We walked out with a bottle of that as well. We bid farewell to our server, cashed out
with our two bottles of wine, found Christie and Randy, and then headed out to
our next stop.
Be sure to visit the Verterra Winery website for more
information:
