Nature Batters Northern Michigan Wine Grapes
During May of 2013, Midwest Wine Press ran a story titled The Wine World Discovers Northern Michigan. This story was one of the first to document the flurry of serious investment in the Traverse City area wine industry. During 2013, it seemed Northern Michigan was on the cusp of reaching a level of prominence that no Midwestern grape growing region has reached since Prohibition.
But as Erwin Elsner of Michigan State University chronicles for Fruit Grower News, since 2013, Michigan has had a spate of apocalyptic weather that sounds like the last days weather in the Bible. If there is any benefit to this run of bad luck, we will soon know how much punishment a grape vine can withstand and still survive.
In the meantime, we are going to make a bold weather prediction for the upcoming winter: The Great Lakes will not freeze over again this year and the vines will be protected from the wrath of nature.