OUR STORY
Our Mission:
The Art of Balance
Falling in love with Michigan wine.
Reconnecting with nature and agriculture.
Dreaming of putting down roots.
Learning the science and the art.
Seeking the unity of location and creation.
Making the journey as husband and wife.
We are not the first to have these dreams and aspirations.
The path we took to get here is what makes us different.
Leveraging our professional backgrounds, education, and work ethic we made the decision to move forward. An engineer and an educator going all-in on the belief that we could make our vision of Michigan wine sustainable and successful. Our passion, sweat-equity, and willingness to learn, overtaking the apprehension and common wisdom.
The goal is not to be everything to everyone.
Our goal is to be ourselves and have that reflected in every bottle we make.
Creating small batch Michigan wine and cider that evoke both a sense of place and emotion.
Making a serious commitment to the soils we farm, without taking ourselves too seriously.
Finding our balance, and sharing the experience between our family and yours.
Located at the intersection of exploration and expression. Less than a mile from the shore of Lake Michigan in Fennville.
The journey to starting Michigan Wine Company
For us (Mr. & Mrs. K) it started with a dream. Somewhere over a glass of wine. The dream gets bounced around for a few years. Eventually some small action puts the dream in motion.
A wine kit shows up on your birthday and challenges you to figure it out. It goes unopened for six months. Too intimidating to know where to start. Eventually you dive in and find it contains just the right mix of science and artistic expression.
Learning to make wine opens a new creative challenge. It turns into making wine from Michigan grapes. Greater challenge and greater reward. The greatest reward came in sharing the creation with others.
The next challenge was in growing our own grapes. The ultimate level of winemaking influence.
After years of research we planted our first grapes on the family property in Freesoil, where Mr. K grew up. Not the fertile, southern facing slope you read about, but the acre-in-the-woods that was cleared of Jack Pines a couple decades earlier. Among a half-dozen apple trees his father planted in the sand years before.
Mrs. K - Educator, Adventurer, Marathon Runner, Vineyard Manager
Mr. K - Engineer, Artist, Tractor Technician, Winemaker
We sought out more land to plant, and a location closer to our home. A long search for the perfect place landed us a small parcel in Fennville. An empty field, long removed from its days as a fruit orchard. Less than a mile from Lake Michigan’s protective lake effect micro-climate. Sandy soils that seemed like home.
The Fennville vineyard was planted in 2017. With the help of friends and family we did almost three acres in a weekend. In Freesoil we added cider specific apple trees. The milestones were small at first: a driveway, a well, building the trellis, and a shipping container to store the tractor and tools.
K Vineyards led to Michigan Wine Company forming in 2018 with our partners Nancy & Travis. We began construction on our winery and tasting room building. Pulling triple duty as we spent our free time being farmers, designers, and builders. Learning the hard way about walnut toxicity, powdery mildew, hydraulic pumps, and nail gun safety.
2019 saw even more milestones: our first commercial crop, the first vintage pressed, MAEAP (sustainability) certification, a website, finished indoor plumbing, and exciting new winemaking equipment.
The excitement continues to build for us. In a few months we will be open to share the fruits of our labor. The hours of planting, weeding, spraying, and growing have led us here. The vines have grown and so have we. We’ve had lots of volunteer help from family and to get this far. The hard work and long hours have allowed us to make friends with some wonderful people in our community.
We look forward to continuing to learn and grow, and to share with friends new and old as our journey continues.
-Mr. & Mrs. K
