Larry Mawby, owner and winemaker at L. Mawby Vineyards in Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula AVA has grown, produced and estate-bottled Leelanau Peninsula wines since his first harvest in 1978. At the outset, he made a wine from every grape he could grow successfully. Today, Mawby chooses to make only sparkling wine because that's what he's done best since 1984. He makes sparkling wines for the same reason the champenoise do – in their climate, grapes don't always ripen completely. This is an advantage when it comes to sparkling wines because they require high acid grapes and that is exactly what one gets with grapes harvested at low sugar on the Leelanau Peninsula.

(See our reviews of L. Mawby wines on our Wine Recommendations section.)