2025 Dirt to Glass: Taste the MSU Difference Walk-Around Tasting

Theme: The Company We Keep — A Dirt to Glass 2025 Tasting Experience

Date: Aug. 21, 2025  Time: Early VIP access begins at 5 p.m. General admission opens at 6 p.m. The event ends at 9 p.m.

Location: Kirkbride Hall — 700 Cottageview Dr., Suite 200, in The Village at Grand Traverse Commons

Regular Ticket Prices: General Admission: $75. MSU Alum: $60. Dirt to Glass Day 1 registrants: Tickets included in registration. 

VIP Experience Tickets: General Admission: $100. MSU Alum: $80. Dirt to Glass Day 2 registrants: Ticket included in registration.

After a full day of ideas, insights, and action, we close Day 1 of Dirt to Glass™ 2025 with a tasting that brings it all to life. The Company We Keep is a curated, walk-around exploration of 80–100 wines from Michigan and around the world, arranged across ten themed tables.

Each table will showcase Michigan wines alongside exceptional counterparts from other states and countries—not to compete, but to provide context. These wines are united not just by geography or grape variety, but by character, precision, and intent. This is a tasting designed to celebrate Michigan’s place in the global conversation about wine—a statement that our wines belong in the room, on the list, and in the glass.

A featured highlight of the evening will be an expanded pour of wines originally selected for the recent James Beard Foundation dinner—a historic, all-Michigan lineup curated by a statewide panel of sommeliers and industry professionals led by Madeline Triffon, Amanda Danielson, and Taylor Schmidt Johnson. These wines were chosen from over 100 submissions, tasted with a singular focus on excellence.

Many of the winemakers will be in attendance, offering guests a rare opportunity to connect directly with the hands and minds behind Michigan’s most compelling wines—including library selections, limited releases, and bottles that tell a deeper story.

Call to Producers:
We are currently accepting additional submissions for consideration in this expanded tasting. If you’ve crafted something worthy of the company we aim to keep, now is the time to bring it forward.

This tasting is both a celebration and a challenge—to see Michigan wines not in isolation, but in conversation with the great wines of the world. The company we keep says everything about who we are and where we’re going.

VIP Access | The Company We Keep

Elevate your Dirt to Glass™ experience with VIP early entry to The Company We Keep walk-around tasting. Begin the evening with exclusive access to rare Michigan wines, including library selections and limited bottlings not available during general admission hours.

These are small-production, cellar-worthy wines poured in limited quantities—many of which are no longer available to the public. Meet the winemakers, taste with intention, and experience Michigan wine at its most distinctive, before the crowds arrive.

Space is limited. Early VIP access begins at 5 p.m. General admission opens at 6 p.m.