[USER=50775]@Jusatele[/USER] you have options in Oregon that winemakers in the Midwest can only dream of. I've had many Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs and some of them were really world class wines. The quality and character of those wines is hard to find in any other Pinot Noirs produced in the US, and many other places. Those are the grapes I would want to make wine out of. If I was closer, within driving distance to that area, I would go there, make friends, build relationships, whatever it takes to get some of those awesome grapes and make wine with them.
There is nothing like that in Michigan, or anywhere in the Midwest. Most of the grapes grown here are cold-hardy hybrids or a few vinifera varietals that never manage to ripen well. The wines made out of them are just not great. They are good with food, even drinkable on their own with a little bit of added sweetness to offset the sheer amount of acid that comes with cold climate grapes, but they are not great.
I don't make wine just to make wine. I want to make great wines, big and complex reds and sophisticated whites that are unmistakably mine. I experiment with grapes, juice, frozen musts and kits, or combinations of them, and I also experiment with different fermentation thechniques and additives. Sometimes I'm successful, other times I'm not. I've thrown away a lot of wines I wasn't satisfied with, but I also made great ones that people still talk about years after tasting them.
A few things became painfully obvious to me in the course of my wine adventures, but the one that stuck out the most was that I needed great grapes to be able to make great wine. I prefer fresh grapes, but frozen musts are a close second to that. I may use frozen musts and juices more in the future, since I can get them at any time and make wine during seasons other than fall.
