In the United States, California enjoys a particularly robust reputation as a wine producer…but what many Chicagoans might not realize is that there is a burgeoning wine country just across the lake, in Michigan.

As one of the leading fruit producers in the nation, Michigan has largely focused on producing sweet fruit wines, and is especially well known for wines made from their famous cherries. However, Michigan has also recently been developing more vineyards that grow a healthy variety of different European grapes—some of the varieties produced include Chardonnay, Merlot, and Riesling. You can learn quite a bit just by visiting the official site of Michigan’s wine industry, which offers you a stunning gallery of its vineyards, a calendar of upcoming wine events, and more. Or, if you’d like to check out where others find the best Michigan wines, you can check out reviews and tasting profiles over at Cork’d.com

There are well over 100 wineries operating in Michigan today, and recent estimates show that they produce nearly a million gallons of wine yearly (425,000 bottles). With that kind of output, it’s hard to ignore Michigan’s contribution to the American wine industry. If you are already a fan of Michigan wines, let us know your favorites, and we’ll share your recommendations with the rest of our readers.