Beam Me Up!

Coming with Forty-Five North’s Michigan Winery License in 2007 was an automatic licensure of a tasting room; imagine our excitement upon receiving that news. Since then, picture if you will, a tent, a production room wannabe tasting room, an antique barn heretofore designated as “tdb” (that darn barn; see photo), a raised trunk lid, and even one suggestion of a good humor wine truck which have all served the purpose of a Forty-Five North tasting room. Eternal optimists all, the staff has referred to them as the light at the end of the tunnel, but each indicated an oncoming train, not a formal tasting room.

However, now I can assure all future tasters at Forty-Five North that the light is truly Valhalla, an official, permitted, and partially paid for barn, a.k.a. the tasting room. As proof, I offer a hole in the ground and footings for the basement. The barn is being built in Amish country, Holmes County, Ohio, and will arrive late April for Tim King and Justin Carlson plus a host of sub-contractors to finalize. Through the hard work of architect Fred Campbell of JML Design Group and Christopher Willman of Beam Barnes, LLC., a neo-rustic, beam barn is taking shape in Leelanau County, 100 feet from the actual geographic 45th parallel. The ambience is “nostalgic midwest” with old world wines of world class vintage.  Fred has placed a completion date on the project as July 1, 2009, but until then we will be tasting in the production facility as we did last year.

In vino veritas,
Steve