Rove Winery blends family tradition with conservation

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Land Trust Alliance, its staff, its board of directors or any other individuals associated with the organization.

The Gallagher family has a vision for the future as they secure a conservation easement on their beloved vineyard. With roots stretching back generations, they are not just cultivating grapes but nurturing a legacy that celebrates the land and the joy of winemaking for their children and beyond.

Sugar Loaf comes to mind when thinking about the highest point in Leelanau County. You might be surprised that the highest point on the peninsula is a wooded hilltop bordering the Rove Winery vineyards. These rolling acres are now protected forever with a conservation easement, a legal agreement that allows landowners to protect their property from development or other changes, ensuring that it remains preserved for conservation purposes forever.

Funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program helped to make the easement possible.

As young farmers, Creighton and McKenzie Gallagher are in a busy season of their lives. Their youngest, Rory, will be a year old this winter. The pair are proud parents to five and have introduced the ways of farming to them throughout their childhoods.

“We’re very intentional in having them do things at the farm, but they work here too,” said Mr. Gallagher. “It’s a big thing for us because it’s a tradition in our family.”

Gallagher is a fifth-generation farmer and has family roots in the area dating back to the mid-1800s. When his grandfather bought a farm in the ‘70s, he grew various cherries.

“He had grown up on a dairy farm, and broke away from that by planting cherries,” he said.

A farmer is constantly improving, whether that means planting a new orchard, learning new management tactics, or shifting what kind of crops they produce. Gallagher grew up with an innate sense of the pragmatism farming requires.

“My dad continued cherry farming, but we broke away and started growing grapes,” he said. “Each of our generations has had its own path. We changed the name from Rove Estate to pay homage to our family’s farming heritage.”

Rove Winery at the Gallagher Estate brings in a sense of home that is especially important in the world of wine.

“We are an estate winery which means we are focused on our unique terroir and microclimates that can only be found on our farm,” Mrs. Gallagher said.

Undoubtedly, part of the lure is the Gallagher family’s warmth, but the estate’s grapes make for popular local wine. The vineyard grows twelve different types of wine grapes.

“They’re vinifera grapes, which originated in Europe and grow in places like France and Italy,” said Mr. Gallagher. “We make wines like Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Franc and others.”

The family has nearly 34 acres of vineyards.

A love of grapes drew the Gallaghers to pursue cultivating them, but there is more to it than that. Once a harvest is complete, farmers cannot control how much their crops will sell for. With grapes, the Gallaghers saw a path to more control over the outcome of their product.

“Farming is already difficult,” Mr. Gallagher explained. “And it’s only getting harder. We wanted to have a value-added product and be able to sell to the end consumer.”

Growing their own grapes to produce their own wine was the perfect answer. In 2011, he and McKenzie bought the farm from his dad. They started planting grapes in 2012 and opened Rove Winery in 2016.

Most farmers do not have to deal with branding and marketing efforts, but the Gallaghers embraced the challenge. Their logo, a goose in flight, represents their Irish heritage. Irish soldiers, known as the Wild Geese, fled Ireland in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. They sought military service abroad, primarily in European armies, to escape English rule and the loss of their lands. Some of these Irishmen went on to become prolific winemakers.

“So, there was this society of Irish winemakers worldwide, and they started calling themselves the Wine Geese,” said Mrs. Gallagher. “We felt so inspired by that. We were in our 20s when we started this, and it felt like such a pipe dream. When those exiles fled on cargo ships, they had no idea where they were going, and we initially felt a little like that. Rove means to go on a journey without knowing the destination.”

The Gallaghers do not know where their journey will continue to take them, but they do know that the land they farm will remain constant for the future.

“We enjoy farming, the products we make, and sharing them with others,” said Mr. Gallagher. “And we enjoy sharing this with our kids. We want to pass down that appreciation for the land and the fulfillment of farming. It is a privilege in this day and age to be able to farm.”

This blog originally appeared on the Leelanau Conservancy website.