New winery in downtown Marine City offers a taste of the Blue Water Area

Julie Swantek, winemaker, host, and proprietor of TwoRivers Winery, opened the enterprise in June on the web site of the previous Roasted Espresso & Café in downtown Marine Metropolis. That includes native art work and an enormous wooden bar, the vineyard and tasting room gives a snug environment with an “up north” really feel. 

There’s a various array of wines starting from dry to candy and fruity, so there’s something to suit everybody’s tastes. It’s shut proximity to standard eating places and a number of theaters gives downtown patrons the chance to get pleasure from a glass of wine throughout intermission or whereas ready on a desk. 

The vineyard at the moment gives 47 totally different varieties with plans to introduce a number of exhausting ciders and new seasonal wines within the fall.
 
“Now we have some new fall wines coming in, so as soon as the summer season wines are gone, they’re gone till Could,” says Julie Swantek. “So we’re at all times going to be altering it up each season.”

“The boathouse blueberry is one in all our prime sellers…It type of tastes like a blueberry pie,” says Julie Swantek, proprietor of TwoRivers Vineyard. “That one we’re having a tough time retaining on the cabinets.”
She manages the enterprise with assist from her husband Dave, who says he helps out generally on the enterprise aspect to present Julie extra free time to create one of the best wine potential.
 
“Julie loves wine and has been making wine as a passion,” says Dave Swantek. “It actually all began a couple of 12 months in the past and simply took off. Individuals liked it and needed to purchase it, so we determined to undergo the method of getting a license.” 
 
From the fermentation course of to bottling and corking, Julie Swantek does it herself. She says that among the wines will not be truly made out of grapes, as a substitute a puree or juice akin to pineapple or apple that she ferments and provides totally different spices or a novel twist to. 
 
A few of the names for the wine are impressed by the native space and its historical past, such because the Marine Metropolis Mule, the Pinot Pickerel, or the Mariner Blood Orange.

Julie and Paul’s daughter, Evelyn Swantek, helps out on the vineyard for the summer season earlier than heading off to highschool at Central Michigan College this fall.
The couple, who are actually empty nesters with three grownup daughters, say opening in Marine Metropolis was a simple alternative and that they’ve needed a vineyard right here since they moved to Cottrellville from Richmond three years in the past. They named the vineyard TwoRivers, referencing the place the St. Clair River and the Belle River meet, to honor Marine Metropolis’s wealthy heritage and its water and boating way of life. 

“We figured as soon as Blue Pike left, if no one else was going to do it, why not us,” says Julie Swantek, who additionally works part-time as a dental hygienist and has no plans to make a profession change.

Dave Swantek says to see clear smiles on the workplace, and smiles and laughter on the vineyard, are each crucial — but very totally different — and equally rewarding. 

“The response has been overwhelming thus far, everybody has been very sort,” says Dave Swantek. “We hope we will reciprocate and provides the very best expertise.”

Prospects can cease in every week to strive a brand new featured taste of wine slushy. Pictured right here is the Moot Mango.
TwoRivers doesn’t serve meals, however clients are welcome to herald carryout.

To see a full wine checklist and costs or to see present hours of operation, go to 2riverswinery.com.