City Winery Chicago Making Michigan Riesling
According to winemaker Robert Kowal, City Winery in Chicago will be bottling a Riesling made exclusively from Michigan grapes during spring of 2014. The juice for the wine came from Left Foot Charlie in Traverse City who gets his fruit from a number of Northern Michigan growers.
Kowal moved to Chicago in 2012 to become the winemaker at City Winery, one of only two wine producers in Chicago. Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery in Beverly is the other. Mogen David once had a large wine production facility in Chicago, but appears to have relocated to New York during the 70’s.
Previously, Kowal left a television production career in Hawaii in 1995 and moved to Oregon where he worked as an assistant winemaker at Bethel Heights Winery. While in Oregon, he also developed his own label.
See related story: Left Foot Charlie is on the Right Path