Tastemakers: Tastes Black Star Farms/Black Star Farms Pear & its Spirit

Dec. 2, 2007

Tastes Black Star Farms


The Village at Grand Traverse Commons (the former Traverse City State Hospital complex) is abuzz with activity with several new businesses opening in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, Taste of Black Star Farms opened in the Mercato (the basement of what is known as Building 50), bringing with it a new concept to the region.
While Tastes Black Star Farms offers a full menu of all wines made by Black Star Farms, the focus is on their dessert wines and distilled spirits (fruit brandy, eau de vie and grappa) paired with food. And not just any food, as Don Coe and his team have carefully selected items prepared by their neighbors at The Village and other delicacies from the region.
With Tastes Black Star Farms, Coe hopes to create a relaxed (“oasis”) setting for guests to enjoy and learn about brandies and dessert wines.
“What we found in the regular tasting room environment in Suttons Bay was that the focus is really about the wine. Because we close at 6 p.m. and we don’t have food, it just wasn’t conducive for dessert wines or brandies,” said Coe. “At Tastes, we are open during the winter from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. (10 p.m. in the summer), Tuesday through Saturday, with the food menu available at 5 p.m., and we have tables and food pairings.”
Coe hopes to attract both pre and post dinner patrons, and says that Tastes will be focused on the residents of Northern Michigan. The menu includes savory items ranging from paté made by the students at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute to cheese dishes from Leelanau Cheese Company. Breads come from the Pleasanton Bakery (located at The Village) and whitefish paté comes from Carlson’s of Leland.
“We really want to have a local focus with everything we offer,” said Coe. All savories are served with two recommended wine parings (you may substitute).
For dessert, there is a sweet menu with a range of items from on-site businesses including The Underground Cheesecake Company, Silvertree Deli and Higher Grounds Coffee, as well as biscotti from Stonehouse Bread of Leland. All sweet menu items come with two recommended brandy and/or dessert wine pairings, again with the option to substitute your choices.
And now, here’s the real kicker: each menu item is only $8.00 and includes the two pairings, and then guests are welcome to take their glass to the tasting bar and try up to five wine samples at no additional charge. Tastes Black Star Farms is managed by Kevin Culloty, is available for private parties, and, in 2008, Coe will introduce a series of classes focused on chocolates and cheeses. For additional information visit www.blackstarfarms.com or call them at 231.944.1349


Black Star Farms
Pear and its Spirit


The opening of Tastes Black Star Farms (see Tastemakers) has created the perfect setting that managing partner Don Coe has wanted for the line of spirits distilled at his Black Star Farms winery. Right from the inception of his Suttons Bay winery (Black Star now has a tasting room on the Old Mission Peninsula where they have located their distillery), Coe had a vision of showcasing the high quality fruit from Northern Michigan, and, along with his winemaker Lee Lutes, he felt that distilled spirits would be the best way to honor the region’s rich fruit-growing heritage.
In 1999, When Lutes and Coe learned that a Suttons Bay farmer was considering pulling up his pear orchard because the farmer was only getting a few pennies per pound for his pears, the two approached him with a concept that would save his orchard. The result is Black Star Farms Pear and its Spirit (Pear in the Bottle). Each spring, bottles are tied over budding branches at the Keswick Farms’ pear orchard that eventually lead to a mature Bartlett Pear grown inside the bottle. The bottle and pear are then harvested and washed, and then the bottle is filled with pear brandy made from 15 to 20 pounds of pears (that is what it takes to make one bottle of pear brandy) from that very same orchard.
Pear and its Spirit is a great gift any time of the year, and certainly a gift worth giving to yourself. Black Star Farms sells a 375 ml bottle that may be used to refill the Pear in the Bottle, making it a true collectors item. Fruit brandy or eau de vie (“water of life”) as the French call it, is a great digestif, clearing the palate and aiding in digestion. Serve as a stand-alone after dinner or pair with a dessert or cheese plate; use a brandy snifter or one of the eau de vie flutes that Black Star Farms sells. 1.5 ounces is the recommended portion. Black Star Farms produces several different fruit brandies and all work for flambéing and making sauces. Eau de vies and grappas along with the full line of wines made by Black Star Farms, may be sampled (via a special paid tasting program) at all three of their tasting rooms. Find out more at www.blackstarfarms.com.