Midwest Wine Country: New Buffalo, Michigan

By Carrie Becker in Food on Jul 22, 2010 6:00PM

Local wine growers promote expanding the localvore movement to wine.

There are several tour options, like this open wagon. We opted for an enclosed mini-van to prevent any tipsy friends from going over the edge.

Founders Winery, one of the more lively wineries on our trip, auditions lip prints for their First Kiss wine label.

Your lips could be on this bottle!

Our favorite winery of the trip. They also supply grapes for Lynfred Winery\'s late harvest wine.

The Roundbarn offered the perfect patio for our picnic lunch.

Tabor Hill is one of the most popular wineries in the area and boasts a full, service high-end restaurant with beautiful views.

Midwest wine country. Sounds a bit like an oxymoron but today our state and neighbors are growing grapes on par, or better, than some of those grown in the romantic wine country known as Napa Valley. Midwest wine country may not have Thomas Keller or Screaming Eagle but it has proven to be the perfect weekend get-away from city living folks like us.

For a recent “gal pal” weekend, we picked New Buffalo, MI and its surrounding wineries for its proximity to the city and centralized tasting rooms, all at a fraction of the cost of a flight to California. During our stay, we hit up several wineries with the help of mini-van drivers (a must do!) and enjoyed a spacious rented home just blocks from downtown New Buffalo.

Our top pick was Lemon Creek winery for their friendly staff and nice variety of wines that were not, all too sweet. We found much of the wine in this region to be much more fruity and sweet than we prefer. Luckily, the Round Barn Winery recently opened a brewery and tasting room to help us refresh.

Check out some our photos (above) of our trip to help you plan your local wine weekend get-away.