glowing globes, photo by aimeeern.

We’re at the tail end of Regional Wine Week. The folks at drinklocalwine.com say:

In the global economy, we are lucky to be able to drink wine and eat food from anywhere. Yet increasingly the trend is away from giant agribusiness and toward a restoration of local farms as we insist on produce and meat “from around here.” Vineyards are farms. Local wine should be part of the local food movement. Wine Country is Everywhere.

Indeed. The Michigan Wine & Grape Council has this to say about Michigan’s exploding wine industry:

• About 2,000 acres are devoted to wine grapes, making Michigan the eighth state in wine grape production in the nation.
• Vineyard area has increased more than 60% in the last 10 years.
• Michigan’s 73 commercial wineries produce more than 1 million gallons of wine annually, making Michigan 13th in wine production. The vast majority of production is from Michigan-grown grapes.
• Wineries are popular tourist destinations, attracting more than 800,000 visitors annually.
• We have four wine trails that provide concentrated wine touring experiences: Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail, Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail, the Southeast Michigan Pioneer Wine Trail and the Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula
• The wine industry contributes $300 million annually to Michigan’s economy.
• All that, plus a lot of it is really, really good!!

Drink Michigan Wine … another way to help this state be all it can be!

Check this out bigger and in Amy’s slideshow.

More Michigan wine from Michigan in Pictures and also check out lots of articles about Michigan wine & wineries from Absolute Michigan.