Kevin Leahy (Left) pictured with David Creighton, wine expert & judge, at State Fair.
Bay City Wine Vintner Wins Big at Michigan State Fair
Homemade Wine Earns Kevin Leahy 4 Awards at State Competition
September 8, 2006
By: Julie McCallum, Entertainment Editor
Bay City's Kevin Leahy, 39, former owner of Bootleggers homemade beer & wine supplier, came home a big winner after entering his homemade wine at the State Fair held in Detroit this past August.
The competition took place August 23, 2006. David Creighton, presented Leahy with three 1st place ribbons and 3rd place ribbon. Creighton is a promotional agent for the Michigan Grape and Wine Council and has tasted wines all over the world.
Leahy entered six varieties and came home with three first places and a third. A spiced (German) Rhubarb was first in the non-grape semi-sweet category. A Mulberry was first in the non-grape dry category.
Leahy said, "My mystery grape came in the top three in the dry-grape category before I suggested it probably belonged in the semi-sweet class where-as they re-classified it and it won first in the semi-sweet red grape category." Leahy's Cherry wine also placed third in the non-grape semi-sweet class.
During Bay City's
2006 East Side Wine Walk - Sept 28th - Leahy will be serving three of his wines at the
Elks 88 which include a green apple Riesling on Chardonnay lees, a mango citrus symphony, and a huge Italian Amarone.
Leahy said, "Those three are kit wines that I retail where-as the wines I entered at the State Fair were only Michigan fruit."
(Above left/right) Leahy explained, "The grape mystery wine comes from a garden of an old German guy who planted them 25 years ago near my cabin but since he passed away and now its the third owner no-one knows what variety of grape it is, but it very much intrigued the judges."
Leahy went on to say, "I took over the care of the vines in 2003 and have been propagating them for the last two years."
Leahy has been making wine since 2001, he currently is involved in home instructional parties on wine making and also is looking for investors to re-open a local winery.
To Contact Leahy call 989-714-4068.
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