2 Michigan wine trails join worldwide alliance to protect names of wine regions

Kylie Martin, Detroit Free Press
Updated ·2 min read

The Wine Origins Alliance has announced that two Michigan wine regions, the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail and the Old Mission Peninsula Wine Trail, as well as the Virginia Wineries Association, are joining the alliance.

Representing nearly 90,000 wineries across 36 regions, the Wine Origins Alliance has worked to protect wine place names as well as to eliminate the all tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in wine.

According to the Wine Origins Alliance, when it comes to wine, location matters; so much so that in 2005, the Alliance created a Joint Declaration to Protect Wine Place and Origin to educate consumers on the significance of location to the process of winemaking.

Four thousand five hundred grape plants cover thirty-four acres used in the eighty-acre parcel of land at Brys Estate Vineyard & Winery located on the Old Mission Peninsula in Traverse City on Wednesday May 15, 2013. The winery produces 8,500 cases of wine grown on the property a year.
Four thousand five hundred grape plants cover thirty-four acres used in the eighty-acre parcel of land at Brys Estate Vineyard & Winery located on the Old Mission Peninsula in Traverse City on Wednesday May 15, 2013. The winery produces 8,500 cases of wine grown on the property a year.

“The Alliance is excited to grow even stronger with the addition of Leelanau Peninsula, Old Mission Peninsula and Virginia,” said Charles Goemaere, director general of the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne and co-chair and founding member of the Wine Origins Alliance. “We are delighted to work together to reach our goals alongside these organizations and their extraordinary wines.”

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The Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail encompasses 19 wineries in the peninsula northwest of Traverse City. The region is known for its quaint towns, crystal clear lakes and streams, and rolling terrain, said board president of the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail Geoff Hamelin, offering wines like no other.

“We look forward to a long and successful partnership with the Wine Origins Alliance and supporting its mission to protect the integrity of wine region names worldwide," said Hamelin.

“Old Mission Peninsula has a distinctive and cool microclimate that allows for the production of a variety of whites, reds, sparkling and dessert wines that cannot be replicated elsewhere,” said Marie-Chantal Dalese, president and CEO of Chateau Chantal and secretary of the Old Mission Peninsula Wine Trail, which includes 10 wineries directly north of Traverse City. “We are excited to join the Alliance and its efforts to make clear that when it comes to wine, location matters.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2 Michigan wine trails joining Wine Origin Alliance