Michigan Wine Month: A Toast to the Great Lakes State

Every May, Michigan Wine Month gives us a reason to raise a glass to something we already believe year-round: Michigan wine is worth paying attention to.

From crisp Riesling and bright rosé to serious reds, still wines, sparkling wines, and experimental styles, Michigan wine has grown into an industry with range, personality, and a clear place in American wine.

Today, Michigan is home to more than 250 wineries and tasting rooms, over 4,000 acres of wine grapes, and more than 45 grape varieties grown across the state. The industry has an economic impact of more than $900 million, supports thousands of jobs, and generates more than $90 million in wages statewide.

But like any good bottle of wine, this story has layers.

Michigan wine has deep roots

Michigan’s wine story starts earlier than many people expect.

Wild grapevines were recorded along the Detroit River as early as 1679. A few decades later, in 1702, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac planted grapevines at Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the settlement later known as Fort Detroit. Farther south, in what is now the Monroe area, French explorers named another waterway "La Rivière aux Raisins," or River Raisin, after the abundance of wild grapes growing along its banks.

Michigan’s first commercial winemaking began in Monroe County in the 1800s. Joseph M. Sterling planted a vineyard there in 1863, then helped establish Point Aux Peaux Wine Company in 1868. The region grew quickly. By the late 1800s, the Monroe area produced more than half of Michigan’s wine, and Michigan had become one of the country’s leading wine-producing states.

Then came a hard pause. Michigan passed a statewide alcohol ban in 1918, and federal Prohibition began shortly after in 1920. Vineyards, wineries, and sales channels were disrupted for years.

In the years that followed, Michigan’s grape industry centered largely on native varieties and juice grapes. Concord and Niagara were widely planted in southwest Michigan for juice, jam, table grapes, and home winemaking. Welch’s opened a plant in Lawton in 1919, giving grape growers a dependable agricultural market during a very different chapter of Michigan wine history.

In the 1960s, wine tastes began to shift. Growers started testing French-American hybrids, and interest in European vitis vinifera grapes began to grow. By the 1970s and 1980s, growers and winemakers were paying closer attention to the state’s cool climate, lake effect, and grape-growing potential. That renewed interest shaped the Michigan wine industry we know today.

The Great Lakes gave Michigan wine its edge

Michigan is not trying to be California. Or France. Or Oregon. Michigan wine has its own identity, and that identity starts with the water.

Our wine regions are shaped by the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan. The lake helps moderate temperature swings, delay spring bud break, extend the growing season, and protect vines from some of the sharper edges of Midwest weather. Add glacial soils, rolling hills, and a long agricultural history, and Michigan becomes a strong home for cool-climate wine. Those conditions helped growers move from native grapes and hybrids toward vinifera varieties.

Today, grapes like Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, Cabernet Franc, and other cool-climate varieties thrive here. Because of Michigan's unique growing conditions, our wines can develop bright acidity, clear fruit character, and freshness in the glass. These characteristics have become some of Michigan wines' biggest assets. It gives the wines energy and makes them especially food-friendly. It also gives winemakers room to create still wines, sparkling wines, dry wines, sweet wines, and styles that feel deeply connected to Michigan.

The rise of Michigan’s wine regions

As Michigan wine grew, so did the recognition of its distinct growing areas.

By the mid-1970s, the state’s wine regions were entering a new phase. Eddie O'Keefe, founder of Chateau Grand Traverse, planted Michigan’s first large-scale vitis vinifera vineyard on Old Mission Peninsula in 1974, which confirmed that European varieties had a future here.

Fennville became Michigan’s first federally recognized American Viticultural Area, or AVA, in 1981. The Leelanau Peninsula followed in 1982, Lake Michigan Shore in 1983, Old Mission Peninsula in 1987, and Tip of the Mitt in 2016.

An AVA identifies specific grape-growing regions with unique geography, climate, soils, and growing conditions.

Here in Northern Michigan, the Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas helped shape the state’s modern wine identity. Both AVAs showed that Michigan could grow high-quality wine grapes in a cool climate, especially along the water, and helped build the tasting room culture that now brings so many people to our corner of the state.

MAWBY’s place in Michigan wine history

Northern Michigan’s modern wine story took shape in Leelanau County.

Bernie Rink, fondly referred to as the godfather of Northern Michigan wine, helped prove that wine grapes could grow in this region. He planted a one-acre test plot in 1965, then expanded to 15 acres in 1970. That planting became Boskydel Vineyard, the first commercial vineyard in Northern Michigan. In 1976, Rink opened the Boskydel tasting room, Leelanau’s first.

Boskydel paved the way for the wineries that followed. Our founder, Larry Mawby, was part of the next wave. In 1973, he spent the winter talking with Rink about the grape varieties Boskydel had tested and the varieties still worth trying. That spring, Larry planted about 20 varieties, most of them French-American hybrids, and began making still wines.

In 1978, Larry officially opened the MAWBY tasting room. After Boskydel closed in 2017, MAWBY remains the oldest operating winery in Northern Michigan.

After recognizing that the Leelanau climate was especially well suited to high-quality sparkling wine production, he made the first MAWBY Méthode Champenoise wines in 1984. That decision set the direction of the winery and, in many ways, helped show what Michigan sparkling wine could be.

By the late 1990s, MAWBY began exclusively producing sparkling wine. It was a bold choice at the time. Sparkling wine still carried a narrow reputation, and was often reserved for holidays, celebrations, and milestones.

MAWBY saw it differently. Yes, sparkling wine can be serious, but it can also be playful. It can be beautifully made and still easy to love. It belongs at a celebration, but it also makes sense with takeout, beach days, or a really good bag of potato chips.

In 2004, MAWBY introduced a line of Cuve Close Method sparkling wines. These fresh, fruit-forward options made sparkling wine more approachable and brought even more people into the world of Michigan wine. Wines like Sex, Detroit, and Us became part of MAWBY’s identity, proving that quality and fun can exist in the same bottle.

Helping Michigan wine make a name for itself

The Leelanau Peninsula AVA was established as Michigan's second and the nation's tenth federally recognized wine appellation on March 30, 1982 after a petition submitted by Larry Mawby, on behalf of local vintners proposing the viticultural area be named "Leelanau Peninsula" was approved by the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

That designation helped distinguish Leelanau's unique grape-growing region and gave local wineries a stronger way to tell the story of place. That matters because Michigan wine has always had to make its own case.

For a long time, wine drinkers outside the state didn't necessarily think of Michigan as a world-class wine region. To this day, many people still don't fully understand what grows here, what styles thrive here, or the level of quality being produced here.

With decades of hard work and dedication, that sentiment is changing. Every bottle poured, every vineyard planted, every tasting room visit, and every person who says, “Wait, this is from Michigan?” movea the story forward.

Michigan Wine Month: celebrating where we've been and where we're going

Michigan Wine Month isn't just a reminder to drink local. It's a chance to celebrate the growers, vineyard crews, winemakers, cellar teams, tasting room staff, restaurants, retailers, and wine lovers who have built this industry. It also reminds us that Michigan wine is still evolving.

New varieties are being explored. Farming practices are becoming more thoughtful. Winemakers are experimenting with styles that would have felt unexpected here a generation ago.

For MAWBY, Michigan wine is personal. Our story started on the Leelanau Peninsula. Our wines are shaped by this climate, this community, and more than 50 years of blood, sweat, tears, and joy invested in this place.

So this Michigan Wine Month, we are raising a glass to the whole story:

To the people who took big risks before anyone was totally sure they would work.

To the land and lakes that make grape growing possible.

To the wine professionals pushing the industry forward.

And to everyone who chooses Michigan wine, whether you have loved it for decades or just found your first favorite bottle.

There is plenty to celebrate here. Lucky for us, we make exactly the right thing to celebrate with.

Cheers!