Chateau Chantal Impresses with Tapas Tour

My wife and I decided to do expand our horizons and signed up for Chateau Chantal's Tapas Tour. I wrote a preview of the event, which you can read here, when we originally made reservations.

I have done wine tasting events, food pairing events, and winery tours before but I was really impressed with what Chateau Chantal put together in one 2 1/2 hour educational journey.

The Tapas Tour started at 12:30, when our tour guide Mike rounded up all 20 of the participants and escorted us out onto the patio. For starters we ate cold cucumber soup with wasabi cream and paired it with half glasses of Tonight, a dry sparkling blanc de blanc. It is interesting to note that these are not tasting room pours, but very generous half glasses of the bubbly.

As we enjoyed our first pairing, Mike talked about the history of the winery, the family, and the reasons why Old Mission Peninsula is a great place to grow grapes. We stepped into the vineyards as he talked about the specific wines that Chateau Chantal makes and how they properly care for and manage the vines.

He then took us to the crush pad where he explained how the grapes are collected, separated, de-stemmed, and crushed. We enjoyed white wine biscuits with brie, blueberry Malbec jam, and grape skewers paired with an unoaked Chardonnay.

Our next course was a mushroom and cheese tartlet paired with Pinot Noir. He talked in great detail about each pairing as we entered the cellar and explored the different stainless steel fermenting tanks and oak barrels.

Mike went into an in-depth discussion of corks, synthetics corks, and screw tops as we munched on roast beef and red pepper pinwheel and washed it down Cabernet Franc. This part was interactive as we got to pass around he different style of corks and compare each.

At this point, we figured that we were coming to an end and were quite satisfied with the event. Little did we know, we were only half way done! There was much more food and wine to be had.

We went back into the Bed and Breakfast for the rest of our courses. It was a good thing because after 4 half glasses of wine, we were ready to sit down. Here we enjoyed a chicken mini-pizza made with Chateau Chantal's Malbeque BBQ sauce. Of course, we matched it with a glass of Malbec.

I was a little concerned when they brought a bacon-wrapped date and cheese appetizer to the table. Much to my surprise, it was like heaven to my taste buds! Paired with a Nice Red, this combo made me really appreciate how much better food is when paired with wine that compliments it.

Another one of my favorites was the whitefish pate crostini and Semi-Dry Riesling. This pairing embodies Northern Michigan as much as anything we had all day. The final pairing before dessert was a blue cheese and walnut twist and Late Harvest Riesling.

Two and a half hours is a long time for a tasting event, but no one was looking at their watch because everyone was engrossed in the seemingly endless food and wine combinations that kept appearing.

For the encore, they paired a Cerise truffle with their Cerise Cherry Port. The dark chocolate and deep flavor of the Cerise was a perfect ending to a perfect day. At $25 per person, the Tapas Tour was a bargain. I would estimate that we each drank an equivalent of 4 full glasses of wine and had a great sampling of tapas.

I spoke with a few of the other participants and everyone agreed that this was a fabulous way to spend a couple of hours enjoying and learning about wine, while touring one of the premier wineries on Old Mission Peninsula.

The Tapas Tour runs daily through August. They request that you make reservations at least 24 hours in advance.