CHRIS SOUTHERN

FINDING A SENSE OF PLACE

From Michigan to California and back again, winemaker Chris Southern’s career comes full-circle at Detroit Vineyards

by Erin Marie Miller

For Detroit-based winemaker Chris Southern, getting into the wine business was serendipity: “It was an accident. I was going to go into sustainable agriculture, like urban farming. When I was researching programs, I’d written down that Cal Poly had one. Turns out, they didn’t. But I was already done with the application so I was like, ‘Wine. Sure. I’m not gonna get in anyway,’” Southern recalls with a laugh. As fate would have it, Southern did get accepted to California Polytechnic University’s wine and viticulture program —

Detroit Vineyards bottling line

a chance turn of events that would prompt the Detroit area native to move across the country to San Luis Obispo in 2010 to pursue a concentration in oenology thousands of miles from home.

That degree, and the expertise that came with it, would take Southern’s career to unexpected heights. Over the decade that followed, Southern traveled from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, Sonoma, Washington state and even New Zealand, mastering his new craft while making wine in some of the industry’s most celebrated regions.

By 2019, Southern’s reputation for quality winemaking found its way back to Michigan, capturing the attention of a recentlyopened winery called Detroit Vineyards. After being recruited to take over its winemaking program late that year on the heels of its challenging first several months in business, Southern found his career taking yet another unexpected turn as he left the West Coast to start a new chapter — bringing the art of winemaking back to Detroit.

A year rife with challenges and opportunities

Situated in the former Stroh’s Ice Cream plant in Detroit’s Eastern Market district, Detroit Vineyards’ 15,000-square-foot facility, which includes a winery and an artfully-designed tasting room, feels out of place against the industrial urban landscape that surrounds it on Gratiot Ave.

As the first winery to open in Detroit in nearly 60 years, the renovated building is a beacon of changing times in the city — a fact that hasn’t been lost on Southern since taking over as general manager and winemaker over two years ago.

Located in a region of the country where wineries aren’t common as they are on the West Coast, and in a city where residents are often wary of new developments amid rising housing costs, Southern says building clientele is something the winery is still working on as it heads into its third year of business.

“We are in a city that is experiencing a lot of gentrification, that's just as a fact. And so some people, I think, are a little turned off by something like this for that reason. Other people just don't know what to make of it. … So, there is a little bit more explanation that we need to do,” Southern says.

Still, Detroit Vineyards has been well-received by patrons in the city since opening — even despite the pandemic, which prompted the tasting room to close its doors to the public only months after Southern took over.

“It was a lot. The winery had a bit of a false start under my predecessor, so there was cleanup work to do. I was just kind of getting to the end of that when the pandemic hit,” Southern says.

Over the year that followed, Southern says he and his team overcame unique challenges created by the crisis including a glass shortage that delayed the winery’s fall release until January, tariffs and supply chain disruptions. Despite those experiences, or perhaps because of them, Southern says he gained valuable insights into running the business during that first year.

“I did learn a lot about what was working and what wasn’t. So, in a lot of ways, it really drove home to me that I was making the right decisions. We really want to focus on making quality wines and not make this an event space, because it’s a winery,” Southern says.

Keeping things local

Part of what works for Detroit Vineyards is partnering with local vineyards from different regions across Michigan.

“I think we're doing something neat — there isn't another urban winery that's highlighting all of the parts of the state like we are. We're doing it right,” Southern says.

At Detroit Vineyards, every wine is produced and bottled on-site in the winery situated just behind the tasting room. Featuring grapes from Michigan’s best growing regions, the winery partners with local vineyards like Domaine Berrien in Berrien County, Yuba Vineyards in Williamsburg, Tabone Vineyards on the Old Mission Peninsula and Herman Farms Vineyard, an eighth-generation Michigan farming family. Detroit Vineyards also operates a three-quarter acre “pilot” vineyard at the corner of Mack and Beaconsfield, which Southern hopes will yield a crop within the next year or so.

“Most of the wines I make are single-varietal, single-vineyard,” Southern says, noting that the exception to that rule is the winery’s blends, which sometimes contain combinations of grapes grown in different places. Despite his unique emphasis on highlighting Michigan’s vineyards and growing regions in every bottle, Southern says he’s just following tradition.

“I don’t think I’m doing anything particularly special. I think I just do a lot of what the people I worked for out West did, which is really looking for a sense of place and to highlight those vineyards,” Southern says.

A philosophy of simplicity

Having gone from making wine in locations across the West Coast to producing it in Michigan, Southern says he disagrees with the tier-based rankings consumers sometimes assign to wines from different regions.

“They’re not better or worse. They’re just different places to make wine,” Southern says, explaining that Michigan wines hold up against those produced in other regions so long as the winemaking follows the same standards.

“I think we’re seeing a turning of the tide in terms of recognition of the potential quality (of Michigan wines) … So we’re seeing now what actually can be done, instead of just this reliance on making a lot of sweet Riesling and sweet white wines. We actually can make good red wines here,” Southern says.

That attitude comes from years spent developing his technique on the West Coast — a practice Southern has continued to focus on as he strives to produce wine of the same high caliber in Michigan.

“Really, I just think what I learned, especially during the last five years I was in California, was just sort of an ethos or a style,” Southern says.

In addition to highlighting a sense of place with each wine he makes, Southern says his philosophy for bringing out the best in Michigan-grown grapes, which he describes as lighter and more “esoteric and pretty,” is to prioritize the use of natural barrels during the winemaking process for reds. For whites, Southern primarily uses stainless steel, although he recently acquired an amphora that he’s looking forward to using in the coming year.

Beyond those simple strategies, Southern’s process also avoids additives to keep the wines at Detroit Vineyards as clean as possible: “If we keep our pH and our chemistry in line, we don’t need to use a lot of sulfur …” Southern explains. “My strategy always is like, work clean, be clean, keep your chemistry where it needs to be.”

That chemistry-based philosophy allows for the limited addition of things like sulfur, enzymes and colors that might otherwise impact the quality of the wines Southern produces at Detroit Vineyards, allowing the fruits to shine.

“I try to work with growers that grow fruit that’s up to the quality that I don’t need to manipulate it,” Southern says.

Customers can expect those standards to be evident in the winery’s upcoming April release, which Southern says will include a Merlot and a Marsanne, though the remainder of the year’s releases are still up in the air for now.

After two years of challenges and pivots, Southern is looking forward to more normal times as Detroit Vineyards heads into its third year. In addition to new releases and the possibility of classes and wine dinners, Southern says his focus, for now, is getting back to what the winery does best: connecting with customers.

“What we really want to do is focus back towards spending more time with each guest, talking about the wines, why the wines are special and getting customers in here that actually do care about wine. Because we are making some cool wines from some cool vineyards — and we want to talk about it,” Southern says.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Erin Marie Miller is a freelance journalist based in Metro Detroit. A lover of all things independent, she has written about small businesses, restaurants, nonprofits, the arts and more for publications in Michigan and California Since 2014.