Big Little Wines, a new wine venture on the Leelanau Peninsula, has just released its first batch – 150 cases each of full-bodied white wines Crayfish and Tire Swing.

The new endeavor, “big wines from the little peninsula,” is the brainchild of brothers Pete (age 29, the “little” of Big Little Wines) and Mike Laing (age 32, the “big”). The siblings work together at L. Mawby Vineyards in Suttons Bay – Mike as assistant winemaker for the M. Lawrence sparkling wine brand; Pete in operations.

After their day jobs were done, Pete and Mike spent the after (and very happy) hours creating their own vintages. The winners of their experiments were Crayfish, a dry white table wine made of 100-percent Leelanau Peninsula Pinot Gris fruit, and Tire Swing, a tank-fermented blended brut bubbly made of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir grapes from both the Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas.

The wines’ names are inspired by Mike and Pete’s favorite pastimes as kids: hunting for crayfish in creek beds and endless rides on the tire swing in their backyard. But it was their parents’ relationship with longtime Suttons Bay winemaker Larry Mawby that inspired their passion and helped make it a possibility.

In 2003 the boys’ parents planted two acres of Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir vines in a former Lake Leelanau cherry farm they’d purchased. They later sold the vines’ fruits to Mawby. Eventually, all fruit for the brothers’ wines will come from their parents’ wine plot. Currently, eight acres of the 40-acre plot are planted.

Though Pete and Mike, who grew up in Ann Arbor and often vacationed Up North, had only dabbled in the wine industry – Mike had worked for a winery in New Zealand and Pete had worked for a local vineyard management company – they knew enough to know they wanted to become winemakers.

As of this month, they officially are. The brothers’ Crayfish and Tire Swing wines currently are for sale in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Lansing, and locally at Jack’s Market, The Blue Goat and Bayside Market in TC and Hansen’s in Suttons Bay. Coming soon are three more Big Little Wines now vinting: Mixed Tape, Tree House and Dune Climb.

In Other Wine News
The future Bluestone Vineyards has hit a small snag on some proposed site changes. Owners Thomas and Joan Knighton of Glen Ellyn, Illinois are looking to make significant changes to the winery’s original site plan – which at last look straddled the line between Suttons Bay and Leland townships off Sylt Road. The pair recently requested that a second public hearing fee regarding the changes be reduced, but their request was denied by the Leland Township Board.