A brief history
At Folklor Wine & Cider, we believe that delicious wines and ciders start in the field with healthy soil, well cared-for plants and a thriving ecosystem. It's part of our winemaking philosophy too - to let the fruit shine and add or take away as little as possible on its journey to the bottle.
We think of ourselves as fruit growers first and wine and cider makers second. We love navigating the seasonality of Northern Michigan. Deep, snowy winters. Blustery springs. Summers full of lake swims. It’s a challenging and exciting place to farm and the fruit that thrives here is really special.
Our Home Farm is located on the south side of Charlevoix, just a couple miles from the shores of Lake Michigan. The Home Farm is situated on 52-rolling acres at 750 – 800 feet above sea level. The Home Farm is made up of 3 distinct ridges with slope between 2 – 12% grade, facing both southwest and southeast. Our soils consist primarily of Emmet-Onaway sandy loam on top of a clay moraine left here by the glaciers that formed the Great Lakes. The farm is littered with rocks of all shapes, sizes, color, and fossilized sea creatures.
We purchased the Home Farm and planted our first two acres of vines here in 2021. In 2023 we expanded our vineyard plantings with an additional 8,000 vines. We grow cold-hardy hybrid and vinifera grape varieties that are well-suited to our Northern Michigan climate. Our goal is to produce our wines and ciders with 100% estate-grown organically farmed fruit from our home farm. In the meantime, we’ve had the opportunity to work with some special vineyard sites across Northern Michigan.
