As Michigan wine country has developed and grown over the years, it has garnered quite a following of Michigan wine superfans. These are the Michigan wine enthusiasts who systematically tick off visits to the state’s nearly 200 wineries, annually haul vanloads of friends to the same tasting rooms, or simply visit their one favorite place — a lot.
Meet a few of them here.
Michigan Wine Superfans Dave and Kay Erickson
Sunbury, Ohio, and Curtis
Dave and Kay Erickson live in Ohio but are quick to beg forgiveness for it.
A 1992 Michigan Technological University graduate, Dave loves the Upper Peninsula and recently purchased a cottage in the small town of Curtis.
The semiretired couple’s newfound foothold held a nearby surprise: Germfask’s End of the Road Winery.
“We had never been to a U.P. winery before,” says Dave, who along with Kay has been visiting northern Michigan wineries for 20-plus years. “It was just down the road from our new cottage — bonus!”
The Ericksons enthuse about the owners, Jim and Robin Barker, who invited the couple and other customers to join one of their recent harvests.
“We picked and crushed the grapes,” Dave says. “What better way to exercise?”
The couple has zeroed in on special favorites, such as the winery’s cranberry-raspberry wine (All That Crazz) and award-winning cherry wine (Mount Me Cherry).
The wine, the people, and the atmosphere keep them coming back to the End of the Road.
“It’s great now to take a short drive on any given day to enjoy a favorite glass or something we haven’t had in a while,” Dave says. “It’s always fascinating to see a variety of folks, both travelers and locals, enjoying good wine and conversation.”
Michigan Wine Superfans Mandy and Matt Caterino
Grand Ledge
After her first wine-tasting trip to northern Michigan in 2009, Mandy Caterino was hooked.
The line and sinker came seven years later when she booked a surprise winter birthday stay for her husband, Matt, at Chateau Chantal’s bed-and-breakfast on the Old Mission Peninsula. The experience was so memorable that the couple decided to share the joy. They started inviting their friends to participate in a special getaway to their newfound vacation spot.
“We needed to share this experience with friends so they could see Traverse City in a slower time,” says Mandy, who along with Matt works for the state of Michigan.
Since their first trip, the couple have booked multiple stays at Chateau Chantal, which they always schedule for March.
It’s not just Chateau Chantal that the Caterinos enjoy. The couple are also fond of Amoritas Vineyards in Lake Leelanau. In fact, these two tasting rooms are always on the itinerary, and the Caterinos are enthusiastic wine club members at both. They visit other wineries as well while they’re Up North.
Aside from going on the big annual trip with friends, the Caterinos have also made summertime tasting room stops when they’ve gone camping Up North.
From these regular visits through the years, relationships have blossomed, Mandy says.
“Getting to know the people that work there and hearing the stories has been our favorite part,” she says. “They are now long-distance friends that we love visiting over and over again.”
Michigan Wine Superfans Katie and Ross Abraham
Brighton
“Superfan” might seem like a superlative already, but Katie Abraham takes it one step further.
“To say my husband and I are superfans might be an understatement; we are superduperfans!” says Katie, who lives with her husband, Ross, and three children in Brighton.
The Abrahams’ journey to superduperfandom started during their 2015 honeymoon in northern Michigan. There, the newlyweds — who weren’t particularly into wine before — started morphing into bona fide buffs.
At one of the first tasting rooms they visited, they picked up a copy of Michigan Wine Country and discovered the magazine’s regional listings.
“Goal-oriented husband and wife that we are, we decided we wanted to visit all of them,” Katie says. Seven years later, she and Ross celebrated their 100th winery visit at Ferndale’s B. Nektar meadery.
You might think that after so many visits, the tasting rooms would start to blend together, but “each Michigan winery is unique and special,” Katie says.
The pair have been to every region in the state and have loved every minute of it, Katie says, even with their family in tow.
“We have fun making them part of the adventure as well,” she says. “We have even set up scavenger hunts at wineries to keep them occupied while we taste away. Of course, the wineries that have embraced family by providing yard games, toys, activities, juice boxes, oyster crackers, and other snacks are always a hit!”
It also doesn’t hurt the Abrahams’ hobby that Katie’s job as the executive director of the Michigan Municipal Electric Association means frequent trips up and down the state to visit the organization’s 40 members.
“I have to say, the geography works out really well because any time I go visit a member, we look at the map and research which wineries are in the area,” Katie says. Visiting the wineries is a “wonderful way to end the day,” or they might even tack on a vacation day to the trip for that purpose.
Undaunted by work and family obligations, the Abrahams say they will continue their quest to visit all of Michigan’s wineries — and not just for the wine.
“What keeps us coming back every single time is [when] we go, we meet someone, whether it’s the owner or another guest,” Ross says. “It’s never failed to be a magical experience.”
Editor’s note: In response to a prompt from Michigan Wine Country, these interviewees emailed the magazine detailing why they considered themselves Michigan wine superfans. They were later interviewed via phone. The quotes included here come from both the original written responses and the follow-up calls.
A version of this article originally appeared in the 2024 Michigan Wine Country magazine.
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