So, you're hosting a dinner party, and you want to have a little fun, hence you organize a quick blind taste test. You pour a white wine for everyone from a bottle wrapped with foil or brown paper, and ask your guests to take a shot at naming the grape and the origin.

Kurt Friese Table Wine

Your friends find the wine delicious, dry with a pleasant green apple fruit, nice acid balance and structure. All are agreed that it makes an excellent choice for these hot summer days.

"Sauvignon blanc from New Zealand!" one quickly and confidently shouts. "No," says another, "California chardonnay." Perhaps someone will offer a more adventurous guess, such as pinot blanc or viognier.

It worked. You've stumped them all. Sure, chardonnay was close. Your secret wine was made from a new hybrid cross of French chardonnay and American ceval blanc now known as chardonel; they never would have gotten that. You were even more confident that they would miss the appellation, too.

"No way!" they seem to shout in unison. "Michigan?"

That's right, Michigan.

Meet Tabor Hill, the oldest and most successful winery in the Wolverine State. Nestled on 70 acres of rolling vineyards just a stone's throw from the shores of Lake Michigan, Tabor Hill has been making wine since 1968. This is not the sort of winery that makes nothing but weak, sweet wines from fruits like strawberries and cherries for the amusement of the RV tourists who cruise the great lakes every summer. Nor is it a struggling little operation that makes wine from grapes you never heard of.

Tabor Hill produces 100,000 gallons of wine every year, a vast majority of the varieties from vitis vinifera, the classic wine grapes such as pinot noir, chardonnay, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Most impressive, though, is their "Chardonel." The vine was created in a joint venture between Tabor Hill and Michigan State and Cornell universities to develop a variety of chardonnay that could withstand the harsh winters of the Great Lakes region. They succeeded admirably, and did it through old-fashioned botany and careful selection rather than messing around with genetically modified frankenwine.

Sadly, no state-licensed wholesaler here in Iowa has seen fit to import this wine, but until one does and makes it available at your favorite wine retailer, you can order it direct from the winery by calling them at 800-283-3363, or better yet, visit the winery near Buchanan, just north of South Bend, Ind.

For your Great Lakes wine, serve some Great Lakes fish.

SAUTEED LAKE MICHIGAN WALLEYE WITH HERBS
2 8-ounce walleye fillets, skinned and pinboned
Flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, for dredging
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Tabor Hill Chardonel
2 tablespoons fish stock
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh marjoram, chopped
Lemon slices, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Dredge the fish in the flour. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a non-stick sauté pan over medium-high heat. Dredge the fish in the seasoned flour and sauté 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until golden brown.

Deglaze with the wine, then remove the fish and place on a sheetpan in the oven to finish to desired doneness, 3 to 5 minutes.

Meanwhile simmer the wine and add the herbs. Reduce heat to low and add remaining butter, 1 teaspoon at a time, swirling constantly. Taste this sauce and adjust salt, then serve over the fish with lemon garnish.

Next time: South Africa finally arrives

Table Wine is a weekly feature of The Press-Citizen. Prices listed are estimated retail. Chef Kurt Michael Friese is co-owner with his wife, Kim, of the Iowa City restaurant Devotay, and serves on the Slow Food USA Board of Governors. Questions and comments can be directed to devotay@mchsi.com.