Spartan Profiles: Lee Lutes

BLACK STAR FARMS

            In 1,000 Places To See Before You Die, author Patricia Schultz cites Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula and its increasingly popular wineries.  Leading that surge is Black Star Farms near Suttons Bay, a 160-acre farm featuring a bed & breakfast, a 20,000-case winery and distillery, the creamery of Leelanau Cheese, a farm market and a full stable operation.  The winery collected 17 medals at the 12th Annual Great Lakes Great Wine Competition in June.  Black Star winemaker Lee Lutes, ’87, earned the only “Double Gold” honors with his 2004 Leorie Vineyard Merlot Cabernet Franc—considered one of the state’s great reds—and his Sirius Raspberry. 

            “We take great pride in our wines and are delighted to see the critics appreciating them as we do,” says Lutes, who learned about winemaking in Australia’s Barossa Valley and Italy’s Abbazia di Valle Chiara before settling down in Michigan in 1993. 

            Since 1998, he has been winemaker, distiller and general manager of the 20,000-case Black Star Farms.  “Our mission with the winery is to continue providing ever-better quality, locally grown wines, which represent the profile of northwest Michigan produced fruit,” says Lee, who serves as president of Parallel 45 Vines and Wines, Inc., a trade association for northwest Michigan viticulture.  “To further enhance this mission, we recently completed an expansion project on the Old Mission peninsula.” 

            Lee credits MSU with helping him succeed.  “The business education garnered there was beyond my expectations,” he notes, adding that he continues to have a relationship with MSU primarily with the horticultural department and its connection to enology and viticulture, and also with the support of student internships and regional agricultural extension.  “MSU is literally a component of my life on a daily basis and I am proud to be one of its alumni,” says Lee.