Perfect Vintage Wine Weekend with Mari Vineyards' Sean O'Keefe & Cook's House
Though it straddles the 45th parallel, a prestigious wine-growing latitude around the world, Michigan’s Old Mission Peninsula can be a punishing place to grow grapes.
But it can also be the perfect place, as it was during the banner year of 2016, according to Mari Vineyards winemaker Sean O’Keefe, who’d formally left the family business (Chateau Grand Traverse) that year for an upstart outfit down the road dedicated to growing dry Italian varietals.
They all thought he was crazy, but they said the same thing about his father 50 years prior when Ed O’Keefe put Michigan’s first large-scale commercial planting of Vitis vinifera in the ground on an old cherry orchard on Old Mission. Like his father before him, Sean’s risky bet paid off, and was rewarded with the perfect growing season, leading to a textbook year of Mari classics that Sean still looks to as benchmarks of what is possible for Michigan wine.
Seven years later, we’re thrilled to welcome Sean O’Keefe to the Frame dining room to celebrate that perfect 2016 vintage — and the beginning of Michigan wine’s next evolution.
And he’s bringing his friends, Chefs Jen Blakeslee and Eric Patterson of The Cook’s House in Traverse City, to create the perfect seasonal plates to pair, both highlighting the best of Michigan’s bountiful agriculture. We’re talking local asparagus with black lentils and smoked whitefish; cornmeal gnocchi with goat cheese, ramps, and brown butter; lamb shoulder roasted under hay; and lemon curd shortcake dressed in lilacs.
This communal celebration is all-inclusive, with tickets covering wine and food.
Join us as we host and toast the best of both worlds.
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SPECIAL SUNDAY WINE WORKSHOP
Mari Vineyards Winemaker Sean O’Keefe will lead a Michigan wine workshop Sunday at Frame, covering the ins and outs of viticulture on the Old Mission Peninsula.
Tickets for the workshop are sold separately and space is very limited.
Perfect Vintage Dinner Menu
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Mari 2016 Simplicissimus Methode Ancestral Sparkling Riesling
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Mari 2016 Blackletter Grüner Veltliner
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Asparagus, Black Lentils, Smoked Whitefish, Fried Egg Sauce
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Mari 2016 Cabernet Franc
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Cornmeal Gnocchi, Goat Cheese, Roasted Peppers, Ramps, Brown Butter
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Mari 2016 Proserpina Merlot/Teroldego
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Lamb Shoulder (roasted under hay), Heirloom Beans, Mushrooms
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Mari 2016 Ultima Thule
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Parmesan, Brown Bread, Olives (marinated in orange and rosemary), Dried Cherries, Arugula
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Mari 2016 Dry Riesling Riesling/Jamieson Vineyard
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Lemon Curd, Mascarpone, Shortbread, Lilacs