BEHIND THE WINE.
Phil & Ann Mahan
The people, the vineyard and the curiosity behind Mahan Family Wines.
THE BEGINNING
It Started With the Wine.
Mahan Family Wines began in 2016 with Phil and Ann Mahan and a belief that wine is at its best when it brings people together.
Independent and family-owned, Mahan has grown around the things they value most: the land, the wine and the people who gather around the table.
What began with a bottle has become something larger—a vineyard in Southwest Michigan, a Secret Door near Chicago and a growing circle of people who have found their way to both.
THE VINEMAKER
Curiosity Comes First.
Phil Mahan has never been particularly interested in making wine by formula.
A fourth-generation agriculturalist, he approaches each vintage with curiosity: walking the vineyard, tasting the fruit and asking what the year has given him to work with.
For Phil, winemaking is equal parts agriculture and creativity. Each vintage becomes an opportunity to explore something—a varietal, a technique, a decision in the cellar—and discover where it leads.
The goal isn't to make the same wine every year.
It's to make the wine that year was capable of becoming.
THE OTHER HALF
Ann Mahan.
Ann has been beside Phil through nearly every part of the journey—from planting and tending vines to harvest and crush.
But her influence on Mahan extends beyond the vineyard.
During a rail-trip through Austrian wine country, they began imagining what it might look like to bring a little of what they loved about wine travel home: beautiful wine, unexpected places and the kind of hospitality that makes people want to stay awhile.
That idea still runs through Mahan today.
The wine may begin in the vineyard. The experience begins when it is shared.
THE PLACE
Granite Ridge Vineyard.
Seven miles from Lake Michigan, Granite Ridge Vineyard is where much of the Mahan story now unfolds.
The vines are tended by hand throughout the growing season. Decisions are made slowly. And every vintage begins by paying attention—to the weather, the fruit and what the vineyard is telling us.
For Phil and Ann, Granite Ridge isn't simply where grapes are grown.
It's where the next vintage begins.
THE TABLE
Why We Make Wine.
Eventually, every bottle leaves the cellar.
It finds its way to a table. A dinner. A celebration. A conversation that lasts longer than anyone expected.
That's the part of wine Phil and Ann have always loved most.
Because for all the decisions made in the vineyard and cellar, the wine isn't really finished until someone opens it.
Preferably with someone worth sharing it with.
THE STORY CONTINUES
Every vintage adds another chapter.
Some begin among the vines at Granite Ridge. Others unfold behind the Secret Door. Most eventually find their way to a table.
We hope one finds its way to yours.
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