New York Riesling Diary: Day 1 – Back in my NYWC Book Writing Cell

Today I was back at the small desk in my New York Wine City (NYWC) writing cell and I had my head down all day in order to complete the Northern Michigan chapter of ‘BBWOE The Riesling Book’ and make a serious start on the Ontario chapter. Going over all the impressions I gathered last week in those regions I couldn’t help thinking about meeting up with Shawn Walters, the winemaker at Chateau Fontaine on the Leelanau Peninsula in Northern Michigan, as well as a large handful of other small wineries who also use that cellar facility. As you can see from the photograph of our right forearms Sean has an even more impressive Riesling tattoo than I do! What the photograph doesn’t show is the buckle of one of his belt, which says “FUCK”. He told me that when it came to wine he was only interested in doing, “Rock Star Shit”, and hard as it may be for the citizens of NYWC or Planet Wine to believe that the Semi-Sweet White Riesling from Chateau Fontaine really rocks, although it costs less than $15!

This was all just too much to fit in my posting giving general impressions of Northern Michigan’s wine industry, but here it is now. I think it’s only fair to show Shawn Waters (left) with Chateau Fontaine’s owner Dan Matthies (right), as they make a strange duo, but judging form most of the wines I tasted – I loved the dry Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois and liked the Grüner Veltliner – it is a strangely dynamic duo. It’s amazing stuff like this which nobody outside the region has written about seriously which inspires me here in my NYWC book writing cell!