Wine 'paired' with politics

  As most Leelanau Democrats in the know can tell you, it's no secret Larry Mawby is a supporter of presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

  If there's any doubt just visit Mawby's vineyard on S. Elm Valley Road in Suttons Bay Township, where clearly evident on the shelves in his tasting area are bottles of Obama sparkling wine.

  LARRY MAWBY holds a bottle of Obama
sparkling wine that he recently began
selling.

  Mawby said the idea for a sparkling wine that celebrates Obama developed when county Democrats held a fundraiser at the Old Art Building in Leland in August.

 “They were having the governor of Kansas come in and asked me to provide a special wine. I took our US sparking wine and made up a label, put Obama’s name on it. It was a big success at the event and I’ve had a lot of people asking for it,” he said.

  Mawby has approached the initiative with both humor and purpose. For every bottle of Obama that’s sold, $1 will go toward the candidate’s campaign fund.

 “However, it should be noted that what I am doing is not officially endorsed by Obama campaign. This is something I did on my own, and it’s a little fun,” he said.

  The US brut is blend of pinot noir and chardonnay and is made under Mawby’s M. Lawrence process. M. Lawrence wines use the cuve close method, or tank fermentation method, versus the methode champenoise.