A weekend excursion to Michigan included a visit to a fairly new winery in Manistee, Douglas Valley. As you drive into the rolling hills of the valley you spot rows and rows of apple trees, then grape vines and finally a modern farmhouse with a wrap around porch. The porch is filled with tables and chairs in which to sit and sip and take in the pastoral view. Inside the small but modern "tasting house" is an indoor seating area, plus a gift area carrying dozens of Michigan-made food products and a refrigerator stocked with local cheeses and spreads, more eats to enjoy with a bottle of the DV wine. Douglas Valley makes a variety of sweet and dry wines, mostly from grapes grown elsewhere though a few bottles do contain some of the wine grapes from their own vineyards. But their hard cider comes from their own apples. And it is delicious. Hard cider can often be one extreme or the other-- too sweet or too dry. Douglas Valley is producing hard cider that finds that perfect in between balance.

I delighted in the STONE HOUSE SEMI SPARKLING CIDER-made from several of the DV grown apple varieties then fermented like sparkling wine so it had a nice refreshing FIZZ at the end. Lovely nose and flavors of golden delicious apple, d'anjou pear and a clean dry finish.

STONE HOUSE SEMI SWEET CIDER-really wasn't sweet at all. The leftover residual sugar in the blend gave the cider a note of honey and more of a round silky finish. I got more red apple notes from this one. Also delicious.

On tap that day DV was pouring some fruit infused hard ciders. I was ready to try, when a wedding party pulled into the winery. Out from an Escalade limo came 14 young people, all of whom said they were 21. The staff was a bit overwhelmed and the wedding party just wanted "pretty wine" to put in glasses for pictures.

On the wine side, I sampled the BUNK HOUSE WHITE a blend of chardonnay, vignoles, riesling and pinot grigio. Wacky combination reflected in the white wine. It was pleasant but I felt like all of the distinguishing notes of each of those tasty grapes were lost in the mix.

Same for the BUNK HOUSE RED-a blend of Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Merlot. It was heavily oaked so most of what I got was smoky, earthy dark red fruit.

I'd choose the ciders over the wines any time. And the sparkling cider would make a terrific Fall brunch beverage.

www.douglasvalleywinery.com