Each year on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, satiated diners abandon the turkey leftovers and overcrowded shopping malls and head to northern Michigan for a day of wine and macaroni and cheese. Yes, macaroni and cheese. But this is a dish your grandma wouldn’t recognize, and neither will you.
The seven vintners of Traverse City’s Old Mission Peninsula — Chateau Chantal, Chateau Grand Traverse, Bowers Harbor Vineyards, Brys Estate, Peninsula Cellars, Black Star Farms and Two Lads — invite the public to the seventh annual Great Macaroni and Cheese Bake-Off on Nov. 29. Restaurants throughout the peninsula will supply each of the wineries with at least two mac and cheese platters, and each restaurant will do its best to get creative with this all-American casserole.
In past years the menu has included concoctions like cavatappi pasta with goat cheese and white truffle oil sprinkled with crumbled biscotti, and a Reuben dish with noodles, corned beef and Thousand Island dressing. Lobster and brie have made appearances at the event, as have cheddar and ale combinations and walnuts and gorgonzola. Participants buy the opportunity to try each winery’s dishes, each paired with the vintner’s wine selection, along with four additional wine tastings. Then, it’s on to the next winery and the next mac and cheese sampling — and all of this for the bargain price of $20. Tickets to the Great American Macaroni and Cheese Bake-Off are limited and go on sale Nov. 1.
Using macaroni and cheese to entice visitors to northern Michigan’s wine trail isn’t as odd as it seems. The wineries of Michigan’s Old Mission Peninsula have a reputation for producing crisp pinot grigios, fruity rieslings and dry cabernet francs — wines that just happen to pair beautifully with creamy cheeses.