*Starting from the left, Sean O’Keefe, Larry Mawby, and Eddie O’Keefe Jr.
Consider it an infant at 50 years old.
The Traverse Wine Coast turned 50 this year. Compared to other long-established wine regions in the world, that makes Traverse City a baby of the wine industry. But oh, how this baby has grown.
The story has roots similar to the movie “A Field of Dreams.” In that tale, a new farmer plows over his corn cash crop to build a baseball field. The Traverse Wine Coast story has wine pioneer Bernie Rink plowing over a baseball field used by his kids to plant the first wine grapes in the region. Those pioneers defied agricultural experts who claimed the region was too cold to grow wine grapes.
*Eddie O’Keefe (R) inspects an early vintage
The early winemakers came from diverse backgrounds that were not always steeped in the wine culture. Perhaps the most interesting was Eddie O’Keefe, who introduced European vinifera grapes to the region and built Chateau Grand Traverse. Eddie was an Army Green Beret paratrooper, who worked with the Secret Service as an undercover agent who helped bring down notorious mafia figures. He also started a construction company and owned and operated nursing homes. His son, Eddie O’Keefe Jr., the current President of Chateau Grand Traverse, acknowledges his dad was a “lightning rod figure” who scoffed at the doubters that wine grapes could be successfully grown here.
“All the experts said, you can plant them. You might get five, six, seven years, but you’re eventually going to get wiped out. What nobody seriously took into account is the amount of snowfall that we get in the wintertime, which actually insulates the ground, and the graft, and the vine.”
Larry Mawby was a contemporary of O’Keefe’s and founded MAWBY sparkling wines 50 years ago. He says it became clear very quickly that the same conditions that made Traverse City the Cherry Capital of the World will work for wine grapes. “I was interested in the aesthetics of wine growing,” said Mawby. “Trying to make a product that represents the place and the people. The wine should tell that story of the place where it came from.”
The pioneers had a determined spirit, according to Eddie O’Keefe Jr. “He came here (Eddie’s dad), and not only am I going to build a winery, but it’s going to be the best winery.” 50 years later, Chateau Grand Traverse continues to produce acclaimed award-winning wines.
The Traverse Wine Coast is prospering thanks, in part, to a micro-climate courtesy of Lake Michigan. “We have it pretty easy compared to the rest,” said Sean O’Keefe, Eddie’s brother and winemaker at Mari Vineyards. “When you look at the rest of the world right now, with constant fires, the hail, the floods, these kinds of disasters are fairly common and part of the growing culture. Ours is just a cold winter.”
*Near harvest at Chateau Grand Traverse
The Traverse City wine scene faces many new challenges in the future. When the Michigan industry started, there were only about 200 wineries in the country; today, there are over 11,000. Consumer wine tastes are changing. There is massive diversity in the types of wine produced. But the O’Keefe brothers and Mawby are bullish about the future of the northern Michigan wine scene. “The wine industry is like anybody that’s in the industry has never seen it,” said Eddie Jr. There’s just too much out there and too many choices. I think it needs to be a little bit smaller, a little more specialized, and a little bit more renowned, rather than just, we make everything for everyone all the time.”
The O’Keefes note there is more consumer acceptance of the flavors from different wine regions. Not all wines need to come out of huge producing areas like California or Europe. “We have a story to tell. We do have a regional style that cannot be duplicated, and they’re all high quality,” said Sean O’Keefe.
“And, people are like, I want something different,” adds Eddie Jr. “I want something high quality, something affordable, and maybe within a day drive from home.”
“There’s all kinds of wine,” adds Mawby. “And it’s so much more diverse. So, that’s opened up the consumer’s mind to the possibility that there are really fine wines coming from other places around the country than just the West Coast.”
It all comes down to winemakers accepting the uniqueness of this agricultural region. “It doesn’t get any more authentic than seeing the vine there,” said Eddie Jr. “It’s processed there. It’s bottled there, and it’s in that glass there.”
The current crop of winemakers in the Traverse Wine Coast are looking ahead to see how this baby grows. “I think it took us 50 years to figure out what we’re doing,” said Eddie Jr. “I don’t see it being vastly different. But I do see us moving towards more specialized, more regional style.”
Perhaps as important to the quality of the wine, is the quality of the wine experience. Traverse Wine Coast members combine experiences that include weaving in live music events, wine and food tasting, hosting weddings and conferences, winter snowshoeing, yoga in the vines, and even goat yoga. “Tasting room sales are more important than they’ve ever been,” said Sean O’Keefe. “Where people are buying wine by the glass, even the expensive wines, they’ll buy a $15 glass of wine, but they might not buy a $60 bottle of wine.” Sean notes those visits to the tasting room create a core customer base of people who love you.
“We need to continue to exceed consumer expectations,” concluded Mawby.
What started with a handful of wine pioneers has developed into a thriving wine industry with nearly 50 wineries. The future will change as it faces new challenges. But at its core is a group of winemakers and owners who share a passion for making creative wines produced from unique soils that provide one-of-a-kind regional flavors.
