PRESS RELEASE SPRING 2026
Brengman’s ‘Wild Yeast’ venture wins national awards and accolades
The prestigious American Fine Wine Competition 2026 invitational honored Brengman Family Wines (BFW) with ‘A’ ratings for vintages created with wild yeast cultivated from their estate, and four leading sommeliers proclaimed the experiment a success.
Winemaker Robert said, “These accolades come after shifting from current industrial conventional winemaking to include ancient natural practices. That carried some risk, but these accolades prove we made the right decision.
“We’re proud to announce recognition from Ari Bendersky, James Suckling, Brett Davis and Ellen Landis, prominent experts in the fine wine industry.
“And the 2026 American Fine Wine Competition awarding us ten medals in the Double Gold, Gold, and Silver categories is the strongest confirmation anyone could hope for.”
The scores, based on an industry 100-point system, require 90 points or higher for an ‘A’ rating.
Brengman said, “A sign of the success of the wild yeast program was the award received from the 2023 AFWC with the 2022 Riesling Trocken taking Best in Class”
He said these current consistent and increasing scores are not surprising and follow a pattern that BFW predicted.
Instead of trying to improve on the conventional winemaking process, they pursued original, natural winemaking practices since the initial discovery of estate wild yeast in 2021.
The implementation of a wild yeast program has elevated the character and flavor quality of their wines in subsequent vintage years.
By utilizing a harvested and cultured yeast from BFW’s Crain Hill Vineyard, Brengman, along with fellow winemaker Ryan Tompke, take pride in bringing an Old-World twist to modern winemaking.
This process relies heavily on the winemakers’ understanding of their grapes and vineyards, paying attention to the nuances in the natural winemaking process, lots of patience, and a bit of learned confidence.
Utilizing wild yeast is often seen as a risky venture, as the process relies on the skill of the winemaker and gentleness of the farming. Conventional winemaking is generally recognized as more stable and less risky, but not without downsides.
Additionally, renowned wine critic James Suckling recently scored several BFW wines awarding scores up to 92 points for their Chardonnay and Block 65 blend. Suckling, a seasoned wine critic and journalist with over 40 years of experience in the wine industry, is recognized as a world leader in wine evaluation.
And Bendersky said, “I opened the Pinot last night _ love that balance of spice and a bit of smoke with cherry and other red fruit. Cool you added a little cab franc to it.”
Davis praised the Gewurztraminer, “Gewurtz is one of my least favorite varietals, but I sure love yours!
“And the chard acts like a Riesling and Riesling acts like a chard. I drank them with two other wine pros. We really liked both.”
Landis told Brengman, “I continue to be impressed with the wines crafted here, many of which have earned Gold Medal awards.
“Your 2019 Block 7 Pinot noir rose wine created quite a splash when it won the coveted BEST Rose Award at the ”Rose” wine competition run by the American Fine Wine Competition.”
Brengman said some of these awarded wines will continue to stay in the bottle aging program to be released later in the year, the 2024 Chenin Blanc (a wine club members only wine) and the 2023 Cabernet Franc are currently available in the tasting room and website. Sign up for the BFW newsletter on the web site to get release dates and events that will feature these wines throughout the Summer and Fall.
About: Brengman Family Wines is located only 5 miles from Downtown Traverse City where Crain Hill Road and Center Highway meet, on the Leelanau Peninsula side. They specialize in hand-crafted estate-grown wine utilizing naturally harvested yeast and, what we call, pure-winemaking practices. Another award-winning entity on the grounds is their Café Exalt at Brengman’s where handmade dishes are served together with these amazing “A” rated wines.
Contact Information: Erin Britton, Executive Sommelier, Wine Ambassador; (231) 944-0354; email: erin@brengmanfamilywines.com
History
Our last name carries an historic connection to our passion for agriculture and hospitality. Our ancestors from Canada were dedicated to farming for decades before moving to the U.S. Our grandparents, Peter and Augusta (Gusi) Brengman were Detroit area hospitality celebrities.
Pete operated the famous Continental Bowl for three decades. Grandma Gusi served as queen of our large Catholic immediate family. Her daily routine would begin each day with mass and then off for an eight-hour shift to lead the kitchen crew at our family’s ‘Captain’ restaurants. Our love for hospitality and sharing the finer things can surely be traced through our DNA. We were firmly taught that hospitality is both a human virtue and a vocation demanding that people be simultaneously skilled, compelling, and fascinating individuals.
The two brothers, Ed and Robert, began the dream of making great wine in 2003 with the purchase of Crain Hill Vineyard and have experienced growth and success in every year of operation. We owe most of it to our focus and results to deliver delicious, enthusiastic, authentic, interesting, and energetic experiences to our guests.
Our family are people who care about fine wine, local food, and the history and practices of which are all important for Brengman’s focus in creating a five-star experience. 2025 celebrates our 22nd year in this passion program, and we decided to revise our name from Brengman Brothers to Brengman Family Wines. Because, with time, our passion has fermented into our devoted and amazing staff (blood and not-blood) and we wanted to pay tribute to this new chapter in our story. It has become bigger than the two brothers and the new name is part of that recognition. Here’s a toast to the next 22 years!
Founders Robert and Ed Brengman
Colleague Evan Burton with furry friend
Truth in Dirt
France’s finest vineyards are often designated ‘Grand Cru.’ We believe the location and work that goes into Brengman vineyards help grapes to ripen as well as the best vineyards on the planet. Our vineyards have a special spirit that express themselves as the vines mature. Dirt does matter! Entering our 22nd season we find ourselves looking at our past and, more importantly, future. We are excited and grateful to be part of Michigan’s contribution to the world wine revolution. It wouldn’t exist if the wonderful flavors of the vineyards were not here. Those flavors are here, and their existence is crucial to our own. We have found this wonderful gift from the unique dirt that we tend and special climate that nurtures it. The aim is to produce value-premium wines that express the terroir of the soil, the sun, and the wind of the sites.
Cellar Practices
Brengman started growing grapes in 2003 and began making estate wines in 2010. Technical Director Robert has guided the winemaking since its beginning and has taken the cellar reins himself with the 2017 vintage. The goal has always been to develop a Leelanau terroir with an old-world spirit that, through time, becomes the benchmark for the region.
The cellar at Brengman has partnered with Ryan Tompke as the Assistant Winemaker for the past four vintages. Ryan is showing the skill and confidence to be a natural at this profession.
The timing of this brain and brawn addition to cellar operations has created an upward shift in the quality of the finished wines as we have seen in the 2020 vintage and every vintage since. According to Robert, the goal of finding greatness in our wines is about having your nose, tongue, eyes and ears open to the process while morphing the way things are done to always elevate the quality. We feel that all the wines have taken a notch up the quality scale, and we’re hearing it from our members, fans and expert wine competition judges.
Believe in the Yeast
At Brengman Brothers, we’ve returned to a centuries-old winemaking practice—allowing naturally occurring yeast from our vineyards to drive fermentation. This wild fermentation process, combined with the unique terroir of Northern Michigan, has led to wines with a distinct sense of place. Curious about how this approach is changing our wines? Click through to learn more about our journey and the results that have winemakers and sommeliers talking.
Distillery
Making grape brandy is like making whiskey, except that it begins with fermented grape juice — a simple wine. The wine from Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Ugni Blanc (Rotgiphler) is grown, produced, and bottled by Brengman Brothers. Our plan is to harvest slightly later than the norm, to produce wines between 10% and 10.5% alcohol. We want a lot of fruit character in the spirit at the end, so for that we need to have plenty of fruit at the beginning.
Another detail that we add to the process is to distill using both the lees of fermentation and the lees left after the settling process prior to fermentation (the bourbes) in the first distillation. This is technically challenging, but it is proven to produce a finer spirit of greater depth and complexity in taste and aroma.
All the spirits aging program takes place in wooden casks. They absorb flavors, color, and scents from the wood. The spirits are aged in both young and middle-aged French oak casks that were used in the winemaking program.
