bottle #2: St. Julian Winery, Paw Paw, MI

Hovering in the background with a massive presence, St. Julian Winery stands behind the quaint tasting room at Warner's Vineyard. Literally next door to one another, we headed over to St. Julian's tasting room right after our Cabernet Franc was bagged in those infamous brown wine bags at Warner's. When we walked into the tasting room and store, we had the expectation of seeing the colorful wine labels that we see at our local grocery store. We were not disappointed. The shelves and refrigerators were packed with those, plus some. This tasting room was huge, plus had an extensive retail section to purchase wine, glasses, clothing, etc. We were given the opportunity to try some of the reserve labels as well. Because 2011 is their 90th year in business, St. Julian just released a celebratory wine called "Founder's Red." This wine was poured for us by one of the founder's decendents. (If we remember correctly, she is the niece of someone, but we aren't certain.) That wine was our favorite as a dry, slightly fruity red with the oaky taste. This plesanetly surprised us because we are used to those sweet, simple wines from St. Julian that you can find in the grocery stores. But this complex, dry, oaky red was a welcome surprise.