Neu Cellars ‘Vitality’ Pinot Meunier 2020

Location: United States, Michigan

Winemaker: John Keller

Grapes: Pinot Meunier

Winemaking: Pinot Meunier was hand-harvested in early October. 80% of the grapes were placed into sealed stainless steel tanks as whole clusters. The other 20% were lightly foot trod and pressed with stems into a stainless fusti tank to ferment spontaneously. After 2 weeks of carbonic maceration, it was pressed and blended with the 20% direct press in a neutral oak barrel. It aged for 5 months before being racked off and bottled in mid-March. Unfined, unfiltered, unsulfured.

From the Importer Jenny & Francois: John used to work in a lab at Ravenswood in California but wasn’t into industrial winemaking so he quit and started the Neu Cellars project with his Dad. ‘Neu’ in German means new, fresh, or young and all his fruit hails from the Old Mission Peninsula. In the cellar, everything is fermented spontaneously and there are zero additions or subtractions. If there was an ingredient list on the label, it would read simply– grapes.

Michigan agriculture is the second most diverse in the nation next to, of course, California. There are 112 operating wineries in Michigan and the wine scene dates back to the 1800s. Like other regions in the US, prohibition set back the wine industry there and for a long time, most of the grapes grown went to the production of grape juice like Welch’s.

The Great Lakes, specifically Lake Michigan make the difference for growing here. The giant lake tempers the air along shoreline regions, protecting fall crops from harsh, early frosts, and preventing spring crops from blooming too early. Lake effect snow is important too, as it insulates vines from extremely cold temperatures. Also, the state runs between the 41st-47th parallels with a lot of vineyards on or near the 45th. Most vineyards are planted either in the south across the lake from Chicago called the Lake Michigan Shore region, or in the north on Leelanau Peninsula and Old Mission Peninsula…like Neu Cellars! It’s definitely a cool climate wine region, similar to the wine regions of Germany in grapes and style with some native grapes similar to upstate NY.