SUTTONS BAY, MI – It’s hard to find a road anywhere on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula that isn’t knock-your-socks-off beautiful. But Setterbo Road has to be one of the prettiest of the bunch.

 

Named for a Norwegian settler whose descendents still farm nearby, it twists and climbs its way up from the shore of Grand Traverse Bay through a landscape of steep glacial hills and storybook orchards. In places, one can see the wedge-shaped Manitou Islands floating on the distant blue curve of Lake Michigan, and in late fall the air is sweet with the scent of ripening apples.

 

That aroma is particularly strong around the tidy white barn that’s the headquarters of Tandem Ciders. Tandem opened this fall with a minimum of fanfare but is already attracting a steady stream of customers to its isolated tasting room. The attraction is hard apple cider -- a traditional drink that’s starting to make a big comeback in many parts of the U.S.

 

“We’re seeing a great deal of interest,” says Dan Young, a former brewmaster and restaurateur who owns the fledgling cidery with his wife, plant biologist Nikki Rothwell. “Some people come in purely from curiosity; most of them have heard of hard cider but have never tasted it.”

 

Unlike the familiar sweet cider sold in plastic jugs each fall at farm markets and fruit stands, hard cider is a clear, fresh-flavored slightly carbonated beverage that’s usually served in bottles or fresh from the tap. Like wine, it can be sweet or dry, and its alcohol content can be anywhere from 3 percent to 7 percent or more.

 

“People expect it to taste like a wine or a beer, but it’s really its own animal,” says Rothwell. “Sometimes it doesn’t even taste particularly like apples. It’s light in flavor and very easy to drink, especially with food.”

 

A traditional favorite in Europe, especially in England and northern France, hard cider was America’s beverage of choice in colonial times and remained popular right up to the Prohibition era in apple-growing regions like New England and upstate New York. Today it is making a serious comeback in many parts of the country, thanks to growing consumer appreciation for locally-produced artisanal food and beverage products.

Just as small-scale wineries and microbreweries have multiplied across the country over the past 30 years, an increasing number of small “cideries” have been making their appearance in apple country, beginning with the successful West County Cider operation in western Massachusetts in 1984. Like their counterparts in the craft beer and wine industries, the new generation of cider makers are experimenting with new varieties and methods.

For over a century, thanks to its proximity to the cool waters of Lake Michigan, the Grand Traverse Bay region has been one of the most productive fruit-growing areas in the U.S. In recent years, its growing reputation as a wine-producing region has prompted some farmers to replace their apple and cherry orchards with vineyards – but there are still many frost-prone areas that are better suited to apples.

In fact, it was a nearby winery, Black Star Farms, that created the first Leelanau Peninsula cider to grab national headlines – a fresh and slightly bubbly drink that won a gold medal in the 2006 INDY international wine competition and elicited praise from Eric Felton of the Wall Street Journal, who declared it “far and away, the best cider out of more than a dozen I tried.” This year, Black Star has added the region’s signature fruit to the mix with the creation of a new cherry-apple sparkling cider.

 

At the northern tip of the peninsula, near the village of Northport, the owners of the Good Neighbor Organic Vineyard & Winery decided to produce hard cider while waiting for their vines to reach maturity. They now produce three crafted hard ciders, including a popular blend known as Quatro Loco.

 

But Rothwell and Young don’t want to make cider as a sideline; they want to devote themselves to it. With his brewing background, Young could have gone into business making craft beers and ales -- but buying hops from the Pacific Northwest and barley from Canada wouldn’t have allowed him to do business with the fruit growers who are his friends and neighbors. By contrast, the cidery creates a healthy agricultural niche that complements the vineyards and orchards around it. 

 

“For us, it’s all about sustainability, about working with the people we know,” says Rothwell. “We want to make cider that’s true to the apples.”

 

Using four popular local apple varieties (Northern Spy, Red Delicious, Rome and McIntosh) Young and Rothwell have created two bottled ciders for 2008 – a dry cider called Farmhouse and a sweeter, honey-scented cider christened Bee’s Dream – as well as several that are available fresh from the tap in their tasting room. They’re also producing fresh sweet cider in season  -- in this part of the world, that means October and November -- and hope to introduce traditional varieties like Reine de Pomme and Kingston Black that are grown specifically for cider-making in France and England.

 

Tandem Ciders is located at 2055 N. Setterbo Rd. in Suttons Bay, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m.; to 7 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. They can be reached by phone at 231-271-0050.

 

WHEN TO COME: Autumn is the season of apple harvest, but the cideries and wineries of the Grand Traverse Bay region don’t close down during the rest of the year. Young and Rothwell envision Tandem Ciders as a sort of refreshment stop for summer cyclists and winter skiers who tour the Leelanau Peninsula countryside. (The name of their company should give some hints about their love of cycling, as should the tandem bicycle hanging over the front door.)

 

WHAT ELSE TO SEE: More rural and less developed than the well-traveled resort areas around Leland, Glen Arbor and Suttons Bay, the northern half of the Leelanau Peninsula is an unspoiled scenic treat for travelers. Just north of Tandem Ciders is the 19^th century Bohemian settlement at Gill’s Pier, with its charming neo-gothic church of St. Wenceslaus. To the east is the native village of Peshawbestown, headquarters of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, and a short drive to the north brings one to the fine harbor at Northport and the imposing Grand Traverse Lighthouse.