It’s the first week of May, and the busy spring/summer season is just getting rolling here at St. Ambrose. The bees at Sleeping Bear Farms next door have been returning for the past few weeks, and there’s a buzz in the air as the weather (kinda) starts to warm up and we get to see the sun again.
We’ve got a lot going on this weekend, and here’s the rundown:
This event is going to feature two musical performances – Cheryl Wolfram in the early afternoon, and the supremely talented Brett Mitchell in the early evening. Both those performances are free for anyone here.
In addition, there will be a silent auction. Local music sensations The Accidentals have generously provided some items for auction, like a signed ukulele!
Along with that, community sponsors and businesses will be providing other items up for auction, with all proceeds going to the Odyssey of the Mind team.
You’ll also have the opportunity to see two super performances from the OM team during the event.
The fun starts at 2PM and runs til 6PM. Suggested donation is $5, and we’ll also be accepting pop cans for the fundraising drive.
Weekend Music Acts
Along with the two musical performances during the fundraiser, we’ll have our usual Friday and Saturday night music in the tasting room.
Friday, May 5th – Alex Mendenall
Alex Mendenall is a nationally touring songwriter based in Lansing, MI. Drawing from soul, folk, funk, and jazz, Alex’s music features carefully crafted wordplay, rich chord progressions, and dynamic arrangements of foot percussion. His expressive melodies and heartfelt storytelling focus on universal ideas of life, death, love, and what it means to be human.
Performing in venues and festivals across the Midwestern and Eastern United States, Mendenall has worked with acts like Tyler Hilton, Ryan Cabrera, Hayley Kiyoko, Royal Teeth, and Young Rising Sons. He has toured extensively across the the U.S. in addition to dates in Canada.
In his home state, Mendenall has had the opportunity to take his music to events like the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, Beaver Island Music Festival, Traverse City Film Festival, Dunesville Music Festival, the East Lansing Summer Concert Series, Roots on the River Concert Series, and many others. He has worked with talented local groups like The Ragbirds, The Accidentals, and The Appleseed Collective along the way.
Barefoot returns to the tasting room on Saturday night. Barefoot, features Jenni Rae, Bee Jay Reffitt, Phil Coryell and Nathon Lane. Playing rich, soulful tones and acoustic vibes, raised on Michigan’s shores, this is always a fun night at St. Ambrose.
You can listen to a bit of their music on their Facebook page.
Thirsty Thursday
We hope for a full day of roaring electrical power this week, after last week’s abbreviated Thursday due to the whims of nature. Assuming the lights stay on – and the forecast says that shouldn’t be an issue – we’re back to our normal Thirsty Thursday schedule with 35% off your growler and howler needs.
Might I suggest that you dedicate one of those delicious fills to the new member of our lineup, Cool Breeze? This lavender mint seasonal mead has that light, crisp, and refreshing taste that you crave. Did I mention this was a gold medal winner at the 2017 Mazer Cup? Because I should have mentioned that. Try out Cool Breeze and all your other favorites on Thirsty Thursday.
New Wines
You may have heard, but in case you didn’t, we’ve got three new wines bottled and for sale in the tasting room right now.
Secret Beach
You know Secret Beach. You love Secret Beach. And it’s back!
2016 Pinot Grigio
The sequel to our last run of Pinot Grigio, this wine features a cool new foil label with a green tint, and the great taste you expect from our white wine lineup. This is a light, citrus-y, food-friendly wine with a subtle flavor that fits right in on the dinner table.
2016 Pinot Noir Riesling
A new variety for us, this Pinot Noir ( (66%) and Riesling (34%) blend has a seductive blush color and a bouquet of flavors including watermelon, strawberry, and cherry. This unique wine just might end up on your list of favorites!
St. Ambrose Cellars Near You
Can’t make it to the tasting room? Our store locator helps you find our meads and wines in a place near you. No store near you? Tell your favorite shop to give Imperial Beverage a call and stock up!
One of our newest additions to the list this week is the hottest spot in Grayling – Paddle Hard Brewing. Featuring several of our meads and wines – along with an awesome lineup of Sleeping Bear Farms honey products – Paddle Hard is the place to be if you’re looking for St. Ambrose mead and wine in Grayling or the surrounding area. They’ve got a great setup and have truly set a new standard for craft beverages in their neck of the woods. We can’t recommend them enough!
And if you can’t find it near you – or just want the convenience of St. Ambrose beverages coming direct to your door – remember that we ship to 37 states through our partnership with VinoShipper. You can view all of our products available for purchase in our store here or in one big list at VinoShipper.
Every good Northern Michigan resident has their favorite secret beach – a spot they can go to relax and enjoy some peace around the big water that surrounds us.
We strongly believe everyone needs a secret beach to call their own, to escape from the day to day grind, and that’s why we bottled one for you. We give you … 2016 Secret Beach – our table white wine blend that has finally returned to the tasting room and a store shelf near you.
One of our most popular wines, Secret Beach is a tropical delight of flavors. This year our blend is 65% Vignoles, 31% Riesling, and 4% Muscat Ottonel. You’re probably familiar with vignoles and riesling, and also (if you’re anything like me) shaking your head at muscat ottonel.
What is Muscat Ottonel?
Let’s head to the ever-helpful Wikipedia:
Muscat Ottonel is a white wine grape variety that is a member of the Muscat family of Vitis vinifera. It is most notable for its use in dessert wines from Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Serbia as well as dry wines from Alsace and Hungary. In Alsace, the varietal designation Muscat d’Alsace is allowed for the varieties Muscat Ottonel, Muscat blanc à petit grains and Muscat rose à petit grains blended in any combination -or not- (but not for other members of the Muscat family), and blends between these are not allowed for most Alsace Grands Crus.
First cultivated in Alsace by the Loire grower Moreau-Robert in 1852, Muscat Ottonel is believed to be a cross of Chasselas with Muscat de Saumur(which was originally given as “Muscat d’Eisenstadt”).
That clears it up, right?
The Flavor of Secret Beach
Secret Beach is a jubilee of tropical fruit flavors. You’ll notice hints of peach, pear, passion fruit, and pineapple in your glass. You can also pick up just a hint of coconut. It’s a light body wine, with bright acidity, and 10% alcohol by volume.
The Stats
Harvest Date: October 2016 Brix @ Harvest: 20.8* pH: 2.9 Blend: 65% Vignoles, 31% Riesling, 4% Muscat Ottonel ABV: 10% Residual Sugar: 3.6% TA: 10.6 g/L Fermentation: Stainless Steel Level of Acidity: High Tannin Level: Low Oak Level: None Ageability: Short-Medium (2 years) Bottling Date: 3-1-2017 Vineyard: Daddy Long Legs, Benzie Co. Winemaker: Michael Altesleben
Food Pairings
We recommend a tropical flair to go with Secret Beach. Some ideas include coconut shrimp, a jerk-seasoning (perhaps on some chicken), or a dessert with tropical fruits. For cheese, go with vlaskaas or cow milk gouda.
Find Your Secret Beach
You can get Secret Beach in our tasting room, in our web store, or request it at your favorite local wine shop.
It’s been another big month here at St. Ambrose Cellars, and we’re going to take a look at all the far flung places that our meads and wines have made it to this month.
First order of business – our store locator is up to date as of the end of January, and our distribution continues to grow across the country. Take a gander with the locator here and check to see if we’re available near you. We have 400 total locations listed as of today, with the bulk of those in Michigan but also a growing number of stores in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. If you live in Michigan – and want St. Ambrose at your local store – you can urge your good shopkeeps to make a call to Imperial Distributors and see what can be done.
Some of the new locations include Tavern on Main in Clawson, MI, Jojo’s Natural Markets in Gaylord, and Coach Liquor Shop in Waterford, MI.
As always, you can order our mead and wine to 37 states from our store here on the website. You’ll go through our good friends at VinoShipper to make your order.
Untappd
We love checking out our profile on Untappd. It’s so fun to see all the cool places people drink their St. Ambrose, and what they think about it.
Let’s take a look at some statistics – first, we’ve got our most popular check-ins for the month:
What we see here is that Black Madonna is a huge hit with the Untappd crowd. With 46 check-ins, this was our most popular beverage in January. That’s followed a bit behind by XR Cyser and Evil Twins, two long-standing popular meads in our arsenal. Is your favorite a bit behind? Download the app and get ratin’.
Now, we take a look at who drinks more St. Ambrose – men or women:
The dudes take this one, but maybe it’s just because more dudes use Untappd. We’re not dealing with a scientific sample here, folks. This isn’t your University stats class.
Finally, let’s see what states were most checked in:
It might be surprising, but Michigan only narrowly carries the day here. Our great friends at Savannah Bee in South Carolina and Georgia represent pretty well! You can see some of those VinoShipper customers as well, with check-ins from places like Florida and Virginia, where we don’t even have retail stores. Those are the diehards. We love you for it.
Overall, here’s some numbers:
We had 164 check-ins
Our average rating (of 5) was 3.89
And my favorite comments:
Best investment in South Carolina!
Evil Twins, South Carolina
Very sweet! Holy cow its sweet!
XR Cyser, South Carolina
Yes!! This lemon is turned up to eleven. Boom!! Love this!!
John Lemon, Saginaw, MI
We’re always curious about where folks are enjoying the bee goddess – send us cool pics, stories, or what-have-you via the comments here or on our many social media outlets!
This Saturday night the very talented rising star Syd Burnham joins us again at St. Ambrose! The fun starts at 6PM. Before the show, we got a chance to ask her a few questions about her career and music.
1. Has it been challenging to do so much touring at a young age?
There can be ups and downs of touring and playing all the time but being able to share and make music with other people overcomes all the small bad details.
2. What are some of your biggest inspirations, musically?
I am a true sucker for lady rockers so of course I look up to Grace Potter, Janis Joplin, Tori Kelly and Stevie nicks. Though I have grown up around lots of other music including Stevie Ray Vaughn, Stevie Wonder, The Foo Fighters, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and other like those and they have all really shaped who I am as a person and musically.
3. What other performers have you been listening to lately?
This is kinda a difficult question for me because I am always listening to new music so to choose just a couple is difficult. I have recently joined a band called “Red Herring” and all the dudes in the band are super into Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, and The Who so I’ve been listening to those artists and artists like them. I also try to listen to local talent like The Sweet Water Warblers, Jill Jack, Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers.
4. This will be your second time at St. Ambrose – what’s your favorite part, so far, about playing here?
St. Ambrose is really so beautiful! I love that it is nearly in the middle of nowhere but as soon as your there its so lively. From the church windows to the big barn and great outside space its hard to choose a favorite thing about this place but I think I would definitely have to go with the wonderful people that work there! All the staff and the owner(s) were so inviting and made a wonderful experience for me all together!
5. Do you have any exciting plans for 2017? Anything fans should be on the lookout for?
2017 is going to be a great year for music! We have lots of fun summer festivals planned and hope to maybe release some new music!
Thanks Syd!
And here’s a preview of what to expect on Saturday night from this performer …
1. You’ve got a lot of influences (like the ones listed on your site – Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Suzanne Vega, Nina Simone, Eastern European, Arabic and Celtic musics) that is verrrry diverse, which is cool. But how did that come about? Do you have a family history with any of those regions that drove you to explore specific regions or style? Just an interest?
We do share a strong dose of Eastern European blood. I believe the thread that connects all of our influences is passion, and a sort of dark romanticism. Saldaje is a fusion of all the music our hearts were ever broken to.
2. How challenging has it been over the years to merge all of those diverse interests into your sound?
It happens naturally, it is not generally something we set out to do. The songs just come.
3. What’s your favorite thing about performing at St. Ambrose? You’ve been here a few times recently, so we assume you must enjoy it 🙂
St. Ambrose is a special place that just keeps getting cooler, bees are magical and mead is good!
4. Where’s your favorite place to shop for the awesome band wardrobe? Custom made? Thrift shops?
Ahh, the wardrobe…my favorite part…I design and make much of it. We are also avid thrift store up cyclers. I am a visual artist as well, so how we are painted on stage is important to me. Shaun is just dapper in general.
5. Any awesome new projects in the works?
We are presenting a special, winter-themed show at Higher Art Gallery in Traverse City in February that will involve a bit more theatrics. We are also recording a new CD, probably out next year.
Check out some Saldaje performances in the videos below!
