Explore: Following the vine in southern Michigan

Experience a day in the life of a Michigan winery as the Burtka family strives to make more award-winning wine

By: Deuce Morgan and Cody Ewers

Clear gel oozes from a four-year old Vidal Blanc grape as its skin splits open between my fingers at Tony's Vineyard, a part of Cherry Creek Winery in Brooklyn, Mich. This one tastes sweet, but if the grape is bright green and clear it will be bitter - too premature to pick.

John Burtka, owner of Cherry Creek Winery, instructs me as we make our way through 400 vines at the Michigan winery just off US-12, about a 30 minute drive from campus. The best grapes ready for plucking have a frosty colored texture, he explains, showing me a good bushel.

As we start snipping at the bushels the Cherry Creek planted four years ago, Burtka tells of the work put into every juicy little grape. Days upon days of building trellises, planting buds, watering the grapes, training the vines to grow around the trellises, spreading pesticides, and chasing out birds and deer are just the first problems of a young grape's life.

The numbness in my toes and the freezing rain on my face remind me of the winter months each grape must brave totally exposed, and it all comes down to the harvest.

This is not the south of France; this is a grape harvest, Michigan-style.

"It started out as a hobby," said Tony Birg, the head grower for Cherry Creek. "Winemakers showed me some stuff, but you need to experience the growing. Some days you might say that you know all you need to know and then something happens."

Burtka's son Johnny, who also works with the family business, said this year Starlings cleaned out most of Cherry Creek's Pinot Noir fields, reminding Tony of the constant perils facing his young crop.

Birg first started in the wine business in 1997, working for St. Julian's Winery after he quit teaching agriculture at Springport High School.

There's an old saying Birg quotes, through his aged face and shaggy gray facial hair: "Bad grapes make bad wine; good grapes make good wine. That's the bottom line."

Birg issues each of his five pickers small pairs of red shears and square tubs called lugs to be filled up and then emptied into two bigger containers called totes, which each hold 1,000 pounds, laying the bed of a Ford pick-up.

The harvest crew is relatively quiet, working diligently to separate the good clusters from the bad. Every few minutes Tony or John will break out exclaiming about a picturesque cluster, raising it proudly into the air like a scalp.

The day escapes over the rolling hills of southern Michigan and as the last glimmer of sunshine peers through the vines, the crew is nearly finished. Four hours of picking yields nearly a ton and a half of grapes, which, once pressed and fermented, equates about 550-700 bottles of wine. Burtka said he gives usually about a 150 bottle leyway to each harvest.

The workers break for the day, but the work is not over for the Burtkas. I tag along with the two men as they haul the grapes to the presser at Cherry Creek's Somerset Vineyard.

"The harvest is sort of family tradition," Johnny said. "It's hard work but it's how we make a living. It's rewarding to see the work you put in finally come to fruition."

Johnny was in the seventh grade when his dad started Cherry Creek and he has taken part in every harvest for the past seven years.

By the time we reach the Somerset vineyard, it is night and hovering around 40 degrees. Our next task is to load the grapes into a basket press were they will be mulched into juice and pumped into even bigger plastic containers.

Cold juice runs down our sleeves chilling our arms with the sticky gel, as bucket after bucket plummets into the giant press. The grapes pile up to the brim of the press signaling the end of our labor; it's time to let the machine do some work.

Burtka flips a lever and the machine roars into action. As the press grinds the grapes, the juice slowly gurgles into a pan below. A little later another flipped switch sends the light greenish juice shooting down rubber tubing - all that's left of the ton and a half of grapes is a pile of dry white dust called tannins.

Soon the juice will be inoculated with yeast from France and kept at a cool 60 degrees for ten days while it ferments, turning into alcohol and eventually Cherry Creek's newest addition: "Woodstock White."

Burtka disappears for a moment and returns with a shiny clear wine glass. He dips it down into juice, takes a sip and concentrates, swirling it around before swallowing. Seeming pleased, he passes the glass around. It tastes sweet and intense.

As Johnny tastes he looks at his father, and I know they both taste something I cannot. They taste the hard work, dirt, and countless hours of tending vines in the early mornings and late nights and freezing cold.

For the Burtkas, this extra ingredient makes wine their wine, and you'd have to spend years growing grapes to taste that.

© Copyright 2009 The Collegian

You can 'wine' in Burtka's class

Southern Michigan family turns 1870s schoolhouse into a modern winery

By: Mark Hensch

Drive down U.S.12 and three miles west of the Michigan International Speedway sits an 1870s schoolhouse. Surrounded by fields of ripening grapes, its still-functioning school bell no longer summons students but rather wine aficionados.

Converted into the Cherry Creek Winery, the old school is one of two vineyards owned by Hillsdale College sophomore Johnny Burtka's family.

"Wine has always been a hobby in my family," Burtka said. "We love wine and food and showing hospitality to others."

Burtka's father, John, said he opened the original Cherry Creek Winery in 2002 off Interstate 94 near Parma, Mich. It proved so successful, he said, that he obtained a second alcohol license and opened the U.S.12 winery, which now boasts 2,000 vines.

How wine is made from Collegian Webeditor on Vimeo.

"You feel like you're somewhere else here," John said of the new winery. "You don't feel like you're on the Irish Hills on U.S.12. It is an escape and reasonably priced."

John said generations of Burtkas passed down the craft of winemaking, exposing him to the art at a young age.

John said he was astounded by a Best In Show victory from one of his De Chaunacs he entered into the 2001 Michigan State Fair. After this, he said, winemaking went from passion to profession.

"It is an artistic expression," John said. "It is a family and laughter and celebration."

Burtka said his father's love for wine was so contagious he started working at the winery at age 12, a duty he still fulfills today. He said his family now grows five varieties of grapes on the 30 acres between the two wineries.

"We have a big selection of wines, from big, dry reds to really sweet fruit and dessert wines," he said. "The biggest advantage in coming to a winery is you get to come in and talk to people who grow the grapes, make the wine and bottle it themselves. There's something for everyone."

John said his winery's variety attracts many different palettes. He said in one instance, he heard from a restaurateur friend Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey split a bottle of his 2003 Montage wine during a dinner in Chicago.

"Oprah supposedly shrieked and said 'I can't believe this is a Michigan wine,'" he said. "I wish I could have gotten them to sign a bottle!"

Burtka said the quality of his family's wine surprises wine aficionados given its homegrown subtleties and Michigan origins.
Traditionally speaking, he said, fine wine comes from outside of Michigan.

"People love fine wine but it is something that has always come from far away," he said. "In the past people had to go to California or Europe for good wine. Now there's quality local wine. It is new and unique in the area."

Senior Trevor Shunk said he recently attended a dinner party at Cherry Creek with Burtka and some other mutual friends. Having tasted the winery's wares, he said he now recommends it as an enjoyable excursion for other students.

"The winery is like Napa Valley near Jackson, Mich.," he said. "The wine is phenomenal."

Burtka said the wine takes a backseat in the Cherry Creek experience, as his family's work aims to provide guests with a fun time first and foremost.

"I like being a host every day at work," he said. "It is about engaging the customers and meeting new people. I like sharing my passion for wine."

© Copyright 2009 The Collegian

Take time to enjoy the pleasures of our region before summer's gone

After tomorrow August will be gone, and summer won't be far behind. It will be more difficult to bring the curtain down on summer 2009 than in most years because of the near-perfect weather we have experienced. Many times in the past several weeks, when the days have been temperate and the nights cool, I have told friends "this is a Maui day."

Granted, that takes considerable imagination here at Posey Lake, where the only surf is the wake from a high-powered speedboat and sandy beaches are hauled in in bags. But the hundreds of geraniums that stand tall in my yard are testimony to a summer when we have been able to limit air-conditioning, and a light blanket is comfortable at night. This is the fourth summer for my geraniums, and each time I pluck off buckets of the giant salmon-pink blossoms that have died I wonder if I will take them into the warmth of the sun porch one more time this winter, or let them bite the frost and end up in the burn pile.

That decision doesn't have to be made for several weeks. In the meantime, let's move into September ready to savor all the good things this seasonal change from summer to fall offers, including taking a break for a short trip.

In fall, our tastes turn to squash, pumpkins, and apples, but the unpretentious sign at the corner tells me that Jim, who lives down the road, still has homegrown sweet corn to sell. Can we ever get enough of our wonderful locally grown sweet corn and tomatoes? I cringe when people put tomatoes in their market carts in the dead of winter. They just don't taste like tomatoes.

That brings up a question that has bothered me for years. Why do most supermarkets ignore local produce in summer and continue to sell products from California, Mexico, Brazil, and goodness knows where else?

If you must have tomatoes in your salad in winter, freeze the homegrown varieties now. Wash, remove the skins, cut in halves, place them on a cookie sheet, and put them into the freezer. When they are frozen, transfer to bags and return to the freezer.

Last summer when I entertained Detroit friends I realized that some city folk don't know a lot about agriculture. It was the end of the season and they wanted to return home with a bushel of sweet corn. They doubted me when I said it was difficult to find corn that late in the season, because they saw cornfields on the road. I had to hide a smile when I said, "No, that's corn for farm animals. There is a difference. If you tried to cook and eat it you would know."

With that true story as a prompt, it may be a good time to take a drive through the countryside in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan and drink in our rich agricultural treasures. You will see that the corn really is as high as an elephant's eye in some fields, especially those in Williams County.

The notebook in the front seat of the car reminds me that on another drive in that direction I will turn off highway 127 South and drive a mile and a half to the Stoney Ridge Winery at the corner of Williams County roads G and 16. I have seen the sign for years on trips to Bryan and Pulaski, Ohio, but never took the time to stop until last week. The long driveway up to the winery surely looked inviting from the road, but I had decided to return when there was more time. From the annual production of 12,000 gallons of wine, owners Pam and Phil Stotz say their Barn Dance Red, Blush, and White are the big sellers. Seating for 100 outdoors and another 100 indoors attests to tasting attendance. Stoney Ridge is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m.

There was no lack of time or wines to taste at the Cherry Creek Winery in Michigan. Cherry Creek, on U.S. 12 near Michigan International Speedway, is in a charming old schoolhouse that has been restored as a tasting room. Owners Denise and John Burtka added live entertainment this summer that will continue in September. Check the Web site, cherrycreekwine.com, for dates. Summer Breeze, a semisweet white, won the gold medal from the Michigan Wine and Spirit competition, but Mr. Burtka is particularly proud of Montage, a dry red.

The First Family has endorsed Montage. Last November Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were given the bottle of Montage that the Burtkas had given to the owner of Blackbird and Avec restaurants in Chicago where the President and his wife dined. Later Mrs. Obama ordered six bottles for a luncheon. That was before the inauguration, so we don't know if Montage has made it to the White House, but in these parts it's a warm, bubbly story. And it helps sell wine too.

Mary Alice Powell is a retired Blade food editor.

Contact her at: mpowell@theblade.com.