Sparkling wine hot during the holidays

TRAVERSE CITY -- 'Tis the season for some of northern Michigan's best bubbly.

Sparkling wine represents a small but popular segment of Michigan's wine industry, and the weeks around the holidays typically generate more buzz for the fizzier selections crafted by area wine makers.

But making sparkling wine is no easy chore. Its double fermenation process means more time, effort and products like yeast and sugar are needed to produce sparkling wines.

"They're decidedly more work," said Charles Edson, wine maker at Bel Lago Winery & Vineyard, who produced the top sparkling wine in Michigan judged at the State Fair this year.

Wine enthusiasts like Lynda Rinehart, of Traverse City, believe the Christmas season isn't the same without an occassional glass of sparkling wine.

"It's a holiday thing," Rinehart said. "Without a glass of champagne on New Year's Eve, it's not New Year's Eve."

Production of sparkling wines varies around the area. For most wineries, sparklers represent a small percentage of their volume. At Bel Lago, sparkling wines account for less than 10 percent of its annual production of about 9,000 cases.

Old Mission Peninsula-based Chateau Chantal produced around 3,500 cases of sparkling wine this year, almost 20 percent of its total. And at L. Mawby Vineyards south of Suttons Bay, sparkling wine accounted for all 8,000 cases produced there, not including sparkling-wine products wine maker Larry Mawby finishes for other Midwest wineries.

But consumers have to dig deeper for sparkling selections that typically cost $2 to $4 more per bottle compared to a still wine. Part of that comes from the added time and expense involved in their production.

Some of the added cost is steeped in its tradition as a luxury item. Michigan's excise tax on a regular bottle of wine is $1.07 per gallon. But the state tax on sparkling wine is more than three times that, totaling $3.40 per gallon.

"It's archaic, but that's why sparkling wine costs more," said Ed O'Keefe of Chateau Grand Traverse winery, where wine makers didn't prepare any sparkling wine this season because of the extra time and expense.

"We've dabbled in it from time to time," he said. "But it's very, very labor intensive, and it's also time intensive."

Local sparkling wines also can be more difficult to find in stores, because of the cost and the intense competition from other national and international brands that are more well-known.

Karel Bush, of the Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council, said the state doesn't track wine production according to variety. But several wineries are developing different sparkling wine and juice products, including wineries in southwest Michigan that have developed popular flavored products using Michigan fruits like apples, peaches and raspberries.