After a long winter, the wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula Vintner’s Association shake off the snow and celebrate the return of spring with the Sip & Savor wine tour. The event features wine & food pairings at each of the wineries on the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail along with a tasting room certificate to help you purchase that special bottle.
Wine tasting can sometimes feel a little intimidating, so the Sip & Savor has always featured an element of fun. The event takes place on the weekend of Cinco de Mayo in 2012, and our wineries have decided to hold a “Sip-o de Mayo Hat Contest” in which every winery will offer an award for their chosen category of hat, allowing you to kick loose and have a chance to win all kinds of prizes from wineries and local businesses.
The ultimate is a fabulous Grand Prize awarded by popular vote of participants. The winner will receive two nights lodging at The Homestead in the heart of the Sleeping Bear Dunes during any season of the year, dinner for two with appetizers and dessert at nearby La Becasse, Sunday Brunch for two at the Bluebird in Leland, a wood-fired pizza from the Hearth & Vine Cafe at Black Star Farms and a pair of tickets to any LPVA Weekend tour or the Traverse City Wine & Art Festival!
Spring is also about new growth and planting in the vineyards, and in 2012, the Leelanau wineries have decided to encourage some new growth in our community by allocating $5 from every Sip & Savor ticket to migrant worker education in Leelanau County.
“Our program provides educational services to the families of migrant workers in the region so that they’re not behind when they get back to their home schools in Florida, Texas, California and elsewhere,” says Northwestern Michigan Migrant Education executive director Jean Franco. “One of our challenges is in getting kids to want to come to school. We’re hoping to use the money raised to create a new robotics program. We know it will be exciting for the students, and it will also provide them with an engaging and hands-on experience that teaches them a lot about science and technology.”
Tickets for the Spring Sip & Savor are $35. Packages with area lodging partners are also available – click here for all the details and get your tickets before they sell out!