Kathleen Lavey

Lansing State Journal

LEONI TWP. - Cradling a perfect bunch of deep-purple Marquette grapes in his hand, picker Ken Frambes expertly snipped it from the vine, rolled it over to make sure every grape in the cluster was free of insects and fungus and placed it into a yellow plastic tub.

This is the first harvest at Sandhill Crane Vineyards near Jackson, the beginning of the statewide grape harvest, and Michigan’s 124 winemakers are in a critical place.

Bitter winters killed off some vines in 2013 and 2014. Untimely frosts and a devastating hail storm in northwest Michigan in August of 2015 wrought more havoc, forcing winemakers to buy juice from elsewhere.

This year – finally – could be different.

“Throughout the growing season, for both the plants and for the crop, it seems to be great,” said Chris Baldyga of 2 Lads Winery on the Old Mission Peninsula north of Traverse City. “But I never say it’s great until you actually have the juice in the building and in the tank, because there are no guarantees in Michigan farming.”

“Great” is still not equal to pre-freeze harvest levels. Baldyga said he expects 60% to 70% of the 2012 crop, 80% with luck.

The harsh winters affected wineries statewide, but it’s hard to gauge the damage, said Karel Bush, program manager at the Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council. That’s because current methods measure the production of wine, not fruit. The Council expects to conduct a study this fall and winter gauging the economic impact of the grape and wine industry as a whole.

"Both of those winters were very cold for an extended amount of time," she said. "That did, in some cases, permanent damage to the grapevines."

Despite the ravages of weather, Bush said there has been continued investment in the wine industry, which has ballooned since the turn of the 21st century. In 2006, there were just 47 wineries in the state. Now there are 124, including a handful in the Upper Peninsula. Acreage planted in wine grapes has doubled to just under 3,000 acres.

Along with new wineries, existing ones have expanded – including adding products such as hard cider – while others have increased plantings, improved processes or added amenities at estates.

The traditional vinifera varieties of grapes – familiar names such as Riesling, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon – grow well in places such as the southwest Lake Michigan shore and the Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas.

At Sandhill Crane Vineyards, the two rough years meant there was only a small percentage of the usual harvest.

"In our particular vineyard, even in a really good year, we could have problems because we don't have any elevation and we have no lake effect at all because we're in the middle of the state," said vintner Holly Moffatt-Balansag. "There was one year we tried to grow cabernet franc, and it died the following winter."

Sandhill Crane is planted with hardier hybrid grapes, including the red Marquette and Chancellor grapes and the white Vidal. About 10% of the winery’s grapes are grown on site. Others come from southwest Michigan growers.

On a late September Thursday, Moffatt-Balansag watched as the yellow crates full of hand-harvested grapes were dumped into a stainless steel crushing machine. Grape skins, pulp and juice came out the bottom. Stems spewed out the side. The crushed grapes, skins and all, were set in an open container to ferment for a week or so before going into a tank. White or rose wines skip that step.

That first batch of grapes sets a hectic two months in motion.

“This year was perfect, because we had a fairly mild winter and nice, hot summer," she said. "We're going to be up to 100% (of previous harvests) this year.”

She’s looking forward to the winter release of Sandhill Crane’s first batch of Marquette, aging for two years. It will be bottled this winter.

A bountiful harvest makes for a crowded production schedule. Baldyga said its crucial to get the harvested fruit from the vine to crushing as soon as possible.

“You don’t want it to be bruised,” he said. “You try to manage the speed at which the pickers are bringing you fruit so that you don’t have to let it sit outside in the sun. If you let the fruit sit overnight or even for two days, you definitely lose a little bit of soul and a little bit of character from that fruit.”

2 Lads plants 23-1/2 acres of predominantly red grapes at the estate, which usually accounts for about 75% of the grapes it uses for winemaking. The rest come from other farmers on the Old Mission Peninsula, Baldyga said.

In 2013, the harvest at 2 Lads plummeted to 3% of normal.

“We literally harvested all the fruit from the farm and made it into a field blend sparkling wine,” he said. And then they imported juice from Washington state, similar cold-climate grapes crushed and rushed across the country within 48 hours.

“You still ferment and make that wine in your cellar,” he said. “You get to put some of your signature on it.”

The hail storm last August took out fruit but also damaged grape vines, which can live for decades. The plants, with fruit maturing, put less energy into repairing vine damage from the storm.

“It was really bad timing for the plants themselves,” he said. “They overwintered in a less-healthy state than they would have.”

The harvest will continue through October and, in northern Michigan, as long as mid-November, the busiest time of the year in the wine industry.

"Fall is wonderful. It's exciting. But it's the time of year I can't go away and see fall color," Moffatt-Balansag said. "It's all about the wine."

Contact Kathleen Lavey at 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @kathleenlavey.