Charlevoix, Part Deux

Day two began with homemade belgian waffles from the KenMar kitchens. Executive Chef Mark was personally preparing the waffles with Sous Chef Kent creating the toppings. You won't find better service and attention to detail at any of the other Bed & Booze establishments in the Charlevoix area!

After waffle fest, we loaded up and headed south to begin a day of wine tasting. Of course, no day of wine tasting can begin without a stop at Friske Orchards for some cherry donuts! So, loaded up with a dozen donuts, and a good old fashioned sugar buzz, we continued south to the Leelanau Peninsula.

We started at Longview Winery. This is always a must stop for us because it is home to my favaorite cherry port. The wines this year were very good, especially the cabernet franc. If you're ever here, definitely pay the $5 for the dessert wine samples. Two ice wines and the cherry port (with a chocolate truffle). Ice wine is amazing, but definitely cost prohibitive!

Next stop was Bel Lago. This is the winery where the owner looks like Mick's twin (Susan's dad). Seriously, the resemblance is uncanny. The wines here are tasty, but not the best on the peninsula (IMHO). One exception is the sparkling wine, Brillante. This has become the house bubbly at home.

From there we went to Chateau Fontaine. This was our favorite stop by far. The owner took us through a tasting of his wines. The labels on his bottles are paintings of the trees and sunsets on the peninsula that have been done by his wife's sister. One of them is a copy of a painting that was on his wife's grandparent's home on the peninsula that was originally painted in the early 1900's for a $1. You can see the grain of the plywood in the painting.

The wines at Chateau Fontaine were really good and we had a lot of trouble deciding which to buy. The white riesling was really good. We also bought their Woodland White which is made with a grape called Auxerrois (o-jhay-wah). We'd never heard of it and the owner told us it is normally a mixing grape. It was definitely different but very tasty.

Finally, we finished the tastings at Circa and 45 North. Both are relatively new wineries and they have limited selections. What we did taste was interesting though and we'll definitely check them out again in July.

We finished the day with dinner at Bowers Harbour Inn. The inn was originally built in the 1880's. The food was very good and we had a really nice view of the lake as the sun was setting.

This was a very fun day with Kent, Mark and Susan.