Purple pager Ron Perry, professor of horticulture at Michigan State University, kindly collected me at the tiny Lansing airport and took me on a whirlwind tour of his university's experimental vineyards and winery a few miles away in East Lansing. It was a timely introduction to Michigan viticulture/winemaking, as it came one day before I judged the 2009 Michigan Wine and Spirits Competition, and after I had tasted only a handful of the state's wines in the last few years. Michigan wines simply don't get to California, due to their limited production, local demand, fierce competition from California-made wines, and an absence of...