Our first pairing at the Berrien Springs Epicurean Tasting Room & Estate at Free Run Cellars in Berrien Springs was a dry Riesling accompanied by tuna sushi topped asparagus topped with sesame seed and Siracha mayonnaise.
The woman sitting next to me said she didn’t like sushi but, deciding to be bold, first sniffed and swirled the wine in her glass (because that’s what they told us to do) and then took a taste of both the Riesling and the delicate piece of rice rolled around pieces of tender — and raw — tuna.
“It’s good,” she said. “And so is the wine.”
That’s what it should all be about says Ryan Thornburg, culinary director for Round Barn Winery, Distillery and Brewery, a job which also includes recipe and menu development at Free Run Cellars in Berrien Springs and the Round Barn Public House in Baroda, both in Southwest Michigan.
As with all wineries, at Free Run Cellars you can choose the wines you’d like to sample and order off the menu written on a sheet of butcher paper hanging on the wall. But Thornburg recommends the tasting experience — a prix fixe combination of four wines (each a two ounce pour) paired with such bites as pineapple and soy sauce marinated chicken wrapped with bacon in a house made teriyaki sauce and crème Brule cheesecake topped with strawberry-rhubarb jam and fresh mint.
Called the Epicurean Wine Tasting Experience, it’s a 45-minute exploration of how foods and wines interact, each, if paired correctly, complementary and bringing out the best in both.
“We have people come in and say I don’t like this kind of wine or that kind and then they leave saying I never thought I’d like a Cabernet Franc,” says Thornburg.
Though Free Run Cellars first opened ten years ago, the sleek elemental interior — stone, brick and wood and large glass windows overlooking the vineyard bringing the outdoors in — is part of a large scale re-design.
“When we first opened this was an old building and people had to walk through the garage to get to the bathrooms,” says Matt Moersch, who is a partner in the family owned business that was started by his parents and with his brother Chris runs FRC and the Public House. Moersch also manages his winemaking and spirits teams in the lab and in the vineyard.
The new look is part of the new concept.
“You can taste wine at any winery,” says Moersch noting that this new concept is part of their ongoing goal of turning Southwest Michigan into a major destination (think Sonoma or Napa Valley) for wine and food lovers. “And that’s great. You can do that here too. But we wanted to go beyond that. Ryan makes that happen.”
Thornburg has long been part of Southwest Michigan’s culinary scene. Growing up in Southwest Michigan, his family always planted large vegetable garden and so he learned how to appreciate fresh and local.
Deciding to pursue a culinary career, Thornburg attended the American Culinary Federation and then worked for five years as a chef a Tosi’s Restaurant in Stevensville. Switching gears, he became a wine representative and then joined the team led by Ali Barker who had moved to St. Joseph from New York to to help open and then work as executive chef at the Bistro on the Boulevard in downtown St. Joe.
When the co-owner/executive chef Gary Manigold left Tosi’s, Thornburg returned there to work as executive chef and then, when Barker moved from the area, returned as executive chef at the Bistro. While working there, he and his wife, Julie, started Thornburg & Company where they sourced local produce to make artisan, single batch preserves, syrups, vinegars and other food stuffs. A few years later, with the success of their food business, they opened Thornburg & Company Café in downtown Bridgman.
Always ready for a new challenge, when the Moersch family called, Thornburg said yes.
“The timing was right,” he says. “We had a customer who was interested in buying the business, we’d been doing Thornburg & Company for five years and we were tired. But we also didn’t want to move, we love the area, our kids go to school here and so this was a great opportunity to continue to work with the wonderful foods, vegetables, wines and fruits of Southwest Michigan.”
Colleen Ryan, owner of Traffic PR & Marketing, Inc., describes Thornburg as the perfect fit for growing the culinary offerings of all the Round Barn businesses.
As for the epicurean experience, Thornburg says it’s common on the west and east coasts to have prix fixe tastings but rare in the Midwest.
Here’s how it works. A tasting consultant is on hand during the tasting to answer questions, describe the wines and how they pair well to bring out the best flavors of the foods. The menu changes every month to take advantage of seasonal and local foods as much as possible. The cost is $20 per person and reservations are suggested.
“It’s a way to elevate the wine experience,” says Thornburg.
