Mahan Family Wines Founding Story

We always had a big dream on our hearts to own a vineyard (think Meg Ryan & Kevin Kline in French Kiss), but we were two hard working adults with big careers, and bigger hearts for our three children.

Despite years, *cough* decades, going by fully committed to raising the best humans we could, we couldn't shake that dream. The kids left the nest, they found their soulmates, and in the wake, we found our dusty dream of being vineyard owners again.

So what do you get when you cross a newly retired ambitious woman and Chardonnay enthusiast with a never-going-to-slow-down-ever business owner and winemaker?

You get two, totally crazy, out of their mind Vinemakers pursuing their biggest dream for life at an age when most people put unrealized dreams on the shelf once and for all.

On a driving trip through Austrian wine country, the two of us started daydreaming and we dreamt up a future where we could bring the essence of wine travel to our backyard in Harbor Country, Michigan; a future where we could nurture the earth and nourish new relationships with whom we shared a mutual love: slowing down time over a bottle of wine and deep belly laughs.

It's been a multi-year journey, but that dream is being realized with Mahan Family Wines. We are overjoyed to share that Phil is an award-winning winemaker, whose Sauvignon Blanc has won back-to-back medals from WineMaker Magazine's International Wine Competition.

After years of tending to and caring for our thousands of grape babies, our vineyard (a short drive from Chicago and an even shorter drive from New Buffalo, Michigan) is producing bountiful harvests and delicious bottles of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Grüner Veltliner and Viognier.

We're crazy, for sure, but more importantly, we're crazy about you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for caring enough about our story to read this note and to be part of our growing community of Vinemakers.