Brewvine: Good Harbor Vineyards

This week’s Brewvine takes us up to Leelanau County where is offering tastings, glasses and bottles of their award winning wines.

Whitney Amann and photojournalist Jeremy Erickson take you there for a taste of their newest releases.

“We’re always looking to keep advancing, we’re always looking to keep growing along with the wine region,” said winemaker Drew Perry.

Growing and advancing, all while taking COVID-19 in stride.

says the pandemic actually helped them make some changes that have been in the works for a while.

“It’s been an adjustment for us but in all reality the style of service is something that we wanted to get towards anyways, we wanted people to be able to enjoy the full space of our properties,” said Drew. “We’re able to still serve everyone, we’re still able to do tastings. It’s nice that we have a big patio where people can come and actually stay spread out and our staff can help serve and just introduce everyone to the wines that we have.”

While you’re on the patio, you can enjoy a couple of their new releases.

“We just released a pinot noir rose as well as we have a kind of a weird, quirky red blend which is a pinot noir – zweigelt which is pinot noir blended with an Austrian variety called zweigelt,” said Drew. “So it’s something people can try and kind of see all of the different, weird things we like to do but its stuff that we grow ourselves, its stuff that grows well here, and its stuff that is all made here on the estate and on the property.”

Winemaker, Drew Perry, says that they are the only ones that make the quirky blend from the two complementary varietals.

“Pinot noir is very light, it’s very light in color, it’s very light in structure,” said Drew. “Zweigelt’s the opposite. It has a lot of structure, it has a lot of color, but it doesn’t have the aromatics that pinot noir has. So it’s kind of a quirky little wine but it really shows a lot of potential that we’ll have going forward in the future and what we can do and what we can work with. It has nuance of tradition but it’s very nontraditional.”

Their pinot noir rose is a popular summertime treat

“They’re fun to make, they’re a bit of a challenge which is why I like it. Pinot noir rose is just a wine that we crush, we give it a little time on the skins to get some of that color, some of that nuance and flavor and aroma. They do great with summers on the beach, out in the boat, out on the patio. It’s a great wine for summertime,” said Drew.