The Leelanau Enterprise recently published an article on the LPVA’s newest member, Tandem Ciders. A unique stop on the Leelanau wine trail, Tandem Ciders specializes in artisanal hard ciders. They use Michigan apples in their ciders and work closely with neighboring growers that produce the fruit. They sell their product where the apples are grown, promoting the farmers and the valuable agricultural land of Leelanau County, as well as the cider itself. Below is an excerpt from the article and if you would like to read the entire piece head head over to leelanaunews.com and see “A ‘tandem’ approach in business, love!”

While the proprietor of a microbrewery in Greenfield, Mass., called “The People’s Pint,” Dan Young began noticing a bright young woman who would occasionally stop by his place with friends on weekends to hoist a mug or two of his specialty beer.

Her name was Nikki Rothwell, and she was a Ph. D. candidate studying entymology at the nearby University of Massachusetts.

“She was just such a Michigander,” Young said. “You could hear it in her voice – the accent, the long o’s and everything. She’d earned her master’s degree at Michigan State; and I expected that she’d wind up back in Michigan eventually.”

But not before Rothwell herself began taking notice of Young – and decided that he was someone who might be worth getting to know a little better. The pair began hanging out with each other, and enjoyed going on long bike rides together through the Massachusetts countryside. Fermentation tanks are located in the basement of the facility (above) while the trade name on the front of the building on Setterbo Road is reflected by the tandem bicycle (right) that he and his business partner, Nikki Rothwell, rode around England. Fermentation tanks are located in the basement of the facility (above).

In fact, they began riding together so much that a mutual friend loaned them a tandem bicycle. They ended up vacationing in England, and brought the tandem bike with them.