From Our Cellar: What to Drink this Month in Northern Michigan
Every month,
Traverse Magazine’s Culinary Columnist Stacey Brugeman asks Northern Michigan beverage experts what they’re drinking. In “From Our Cellar” she shares the Michigan wines, beers and ciders that area sommeliers, beer buyers, beverage directors, cider geeks and other pros are especially excited about. In addition, each month Stacey writes “Last Call,” featuring a cocktail’s Northern story and the recipe, included below.
Explore our growing cellar and don’t miss last call.
June’s From Our Cellar
Not flexing your mixology muscles tonight? Here’s what area beverage professionals are drinking right now.
Today on
Stateside, Michigan restaurants and diners face the re-opening of indoor dining. Plus, an etiquette guide to the first Super Bowl in the pandemic. And, a look at Michigan’s role as a bootlegging hub during Prohibition.
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Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.
Restaurants reopen with a cautious optimism as restrictions lift on indoor dining
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In the early years they laughed at him and even coined his wild experiment to plant European grape varietals in northern Michigan “O’Keefe’s Folly” for its apparent foolhardiness, but Chateau Grand Traverse founder and Michigan wine maverick Ed O’Keefe Jr. proved them all wrong.
“He was a pioneer and a leader and I can’t imagine anyone not saying that about him,” said Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon. “His spirit was irrepressible.”
O’Keefe may not have moved mountains but came close in 1974, when, under the guidance of renowned German viticulturist Helmutt Becker, he transferred a million cubic yards of soil and 900 tons of humus to create a southwest slope on a former cherry orchard on Michigan s Old Mission Peninsula, planting 45 acres of riesling, chardonnay and merlot grapes in an area where no one else believed they could grow.