Week 2: January 7-13

Mari Vineyards is my Week 2 pick. I chose Mari because of the attention that their new Maple Wine is getting.

Location: 8175 Center Rd in Traverse City, on Old Mission Peninsula

AVA: Old Mission Peninsula

A summary, the vibe, and the wine

I came here on a Saturday afternoon on my way to a friend’s house who lives nearby. The patio fireplace was raging with a welcoming cluster of chairs around it. I wasn’t dressed to sit outside, even with the aid of the fire; inside was busy but the attentive staff found me a spot at the bar quickly. I noticed a party of 6 coming in just after me, also seated quickly - I don’t know how this staff kept finding space for everyone, it was impressive.

Mari recently released a maple wine. They tapped trees on their property and distilled the sap as part of the winemaking process. The interest in this  is personal for me as I grew up hauling 20-lb buckets of sap to the giant holding tanks of my dad’s maple syrup operation in the U.P. and enjoying the spoils of what he produced using only antique equipment, the natural liquid from the maple trees on our property, and fire. When I told my dad about this wine, he mused that he and his syrup-making team of friends always talked about how to “bottle the smell.” To this day, I can taste the sugary air when I think about that smell, and this very special wine came as close as anything ever has to “bottling the smell.”

I have been to Mari before a couple times; a lot of my friends live on Old Mission Peninsula plus my late father-in-law was obsessed with the Curse of Oak Island TV show and it makes me feel connected to him to be among the corkscrews and hoodies branded with the show’s title. (Mari’s owner is one of the stars of this reality show).

Two Wines:

Stuckfass Riesling 🍇🍇

Maple wine Rating N/A (there's nothing like this anywhere. I highly recommend it though. How about this? 🍁🍁🍁)

I probably should have had a red wine considering Mari plants so many red varieties that are somewhat hard to find in the region. I have had the Bestiary on a prior visit and absolutely loved it, my sensory memory is that of 🍇🍇🍇, but I don't even know if the same vintage is being poured in 2023. [Edit May 2023, their SIMPLICISSIMUS is getting a lot of attention with the publishing of "The Vogue Article" earlier this week.]

TCWY Wine Ratings:

🍇🍇🍇Best of the region (top 10%)

🍇🍇As good as the rest of the region

🍇Not as good as the rest of the region

Learn more about the TCWY Rating System here.

Something to love: 

Do you respect wood? There are massive live-edge wooden sculptures, and refined, minimally-processed wood trays and tabletops.  I stupidly did not take a lot of pictures, as I didn't have the vision yet of how I wanted to document these experiences.

Something(s) to do:

Tour the caves! I stupidly did not review these options on the Mari website until after my visit, and I really wish I would have joined one of the “drop-in” tours to see the spectacularly designed wine caves and thoughtfully laid-out breathtaking views (at 1 and 4 Fri-Sun and an extra Saturday time of 5 PM). I’m interested enough in this that I think I’ll come back soon for one of the tours and post about it later.

Something to hope for:

I hope that someday I can afford to dress like the rest of the clientele. There was more Versace in this room than a Nicki Minaj video.