All our wines are made from estate-grown fruit and bottled as single-vineyard, Lake Michigan Shore appellation wines. We only grow the varieties we believe are the best in the world, the right ones for our soil and microclimate, that yield wines we can consistently make at our standards.

CHARDONNAY

Our Chardonnay is a traditional Burgundian-style wine, with lush ripe fruit, crisp acidity, and mineral, vanilla, and spice on the palate. The distinct terroir of the Avonlea vineyard is apparent in each vintage, despite the normal variations of the seasons.

The grapes are harvested at optimal maturity, immediately pressed, and the fresh juice put into the barrels for fermentation and maturation. We use only the best French barrels and use yeasts and malo-lactic cultures from Burgundy. We follow all the practices that result in the classic wines of Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, and Corton. After aging in the barrels for a year or more, we bottle the wine and hold it until it matures a bit. When we release the Chardonnay, it is usually ready to drink, though it can age as well.

PINOT NOIR

The Pinot Noir from Avonlea is similar to a Pommard or Chambertin, with deep color, bright ripe berry and cherry aromas and flavors, fairly crisp acidity when young, and velvety texture when mature. The barrels contribute chocolate and spice to the nose and palate. Again, our vineyard reveals itself in the mineral notes.

The grapes are destemmed and gently crushed into fermenters where they are cold-macerated for up to a week to extract deeper color and more aromatic character. We inoculate with French Yeasts and Malolactic strains. During fermentation, the must is punched down twice daily. After the primary fermentation is completed the wine is transferred to French barrels to finish the malo-lactic fermentation and to mature for up to eighteen months. When the wine is bottled, it may be held back or released, depending on the vintage. Since our wines are not marketed in stores, our mailing list customers can be informed to cellar the wine and then told when we think it is mature.

SHOU

Shou (the Chinese symbol for longevity, pronounced "show") is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc that is patterned after the wines of Pauillac and Margaux. Our fruit gets ripe at fairly low sugars, so the resulting wines have the refreshing character and bright fruit of the best Bordeaux. Occasionally we get an unusually ripe vintage that would compare to California ripeness, but we prefer the lower alcohol and food-friendly style that our vineyard naturally gives us. The blend is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, with just a little of the Merlot and Franc to balance it. Blackberry, currant, chocolate, black cherry and subtle spice characterize this wine. Deep, rich flavors, fine tannins, crisp acidity, and hints of herb and cedar are typical of our Cabernet wines.

At harvest the grapes are de-stemmed and crushed into the fermenters, inoculated with French yeasts and fermented dry. The must is punched down twice daily. At the end of primary fermentation, the wine is transferred into barrels and allowed to finish its malo-lactic fermentation and mature for up to eighteen months. We give the wine some bottle age, then release to our mailing list for cellaring. We won't release most of our red wines to restaurants at that same time, unless the restaurant has a cellaring program. We will hold back a small portion of our production for restaurant placement when the wine is more mature.

RIESLING

Our Riesling is made in the style of Alsace and Austria. It is full-bodied, dry, and has crisp acidity, pear, apple, and mineral elements. We don't put the Rieslings into oak barrels because we want to emphasize the fresh fruit and the structure of the wine.

The grapes are pressed, the juice transferred to a tank and cold-fermented dry. The key to the fresh flavors and lively fruit is timely processing and bottling when the fermentation is finished. It is our experience that Riesling can age far better than most white wines. We enjoy drinking a bottle both when it is young and fresh and when it has had the time to develop more complex flavors in the bottle.