Market Watch, November 2019
NOVEMBER 2019 MARKETWATCHMAG COM MARKET WATCH 87PHOTO BY TK TKMichigan wine has finally hit the big time with its estates emerging as major tourist attractions and winning critics approval On the Leelanau Peninsula in northern Michigan tour buses are often lined up in front of the Black Star Farms winery in the town of Suttons Bay The winery has five bars spread across a sprawling tasting complex crowds can grow immense so the owners put a limit on the number of visitors theyll entertain on any given day We were at some wineries in Paso Robles California a few years ago and they were getting maybe 200 visi tors a day says Sherri Campbell Fenton the public affairs and communications director at Black Star and the daughter of Kermit Campbell a former Dow Corning engineer with a taste for European wines who founded Black Star in 1998 That didnt seem like a big number to us On a really busy Saturday here we can get 1500 visitors As Michigan wineries go Black Star is no oddity St Julian Winery in the village of Paw Paw is produc ing nearly 100 wines and 250000 cases a year crush ing 3500 tons of fruit annually and entertaining upwards of 1000 visitors a day The winery is bring ing on 50 new acres of plantings this year and project ing an increase to 350000 cases annually by 2020 The Wolverine State is rapidly emerging as a wine tourism hubBY H LEE MURPHYBlack Star Farms property left tasting bar below in Suttons Bay Michigan has become such a major tour ist destination that the owners have to put a limit on the number of visitors theyll entertain on any given day
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