Today, Black Star Farms encompasses an awarded winery, a boutique inn, a distillery, an event center, and a dining destination. Yet, that wasn’t always in the cards for the one-time dressage farm and family residence. It was the brainchild of a chemical engineer who became a wine enthusiast almost by accident. “Starting a winery wasn’t on my bucket list,” admits Kerm Campbell, the owner and original visionary of Black Star Farms.

“I grew up on a wheat and cattle farm in Kansas. I’ve still got dirt under my fingernails,” he says. After graduating high school, Campbell opted to study chemical engineering at the University of Kansas. It was a tough decision to make, he says, but not because he wanted to return to farm life. “I’m an operatic tenor and had to decide between music and chemical engineering,” he says.

Campbell is happy with the choice he made. While he has been able to sing in various settings over the years, his decision to study chemical engineering led him from Kansas to Dow Corning in Midland, MI. One of his early assignments found him relocating to Europe, first to Wales, then to Brussels, Belgium, the European headquarters for Corning.

Brussels is centrally located in Europe and, most importantly, is just an hour and a half from the wine regions of both Germany and France. “I got hooked on fine wines,” Campbell says. “In four years there, I became a reasonable wine connoisseur.”

Much to his surprise, Campbell returned to Midland and found a nascent wine industry in the state. “I discovered while I was gone the wine industry had sprung up around Traverse City,” he says. He and his family felt the lure of the north and bought a home in Traverse City.

Campbell and his wife Sallie were driving around Old Mission Peninsula when they found a parcel of vacant land surrounded by vines. "That may be the best spot on the planet to build a home." It took four years from that first sighting in 1987 to purchase the land and plant an initial 10 acres of grapes to envelope the homesite.

Six years passed when the property outside Suttons Bay came on the market. He immediately fell in love and wasted no time sharing his vision. "It was so stunning—120 acres. I could see the future by looking at what was there. I immediately thought it was perfect for a winery. "The 13,000-square-foot home could be an inn." The Campbells brought in three other couples and signed the papers on March 31, 1998.

By then, Campbell had already hired winemaker Lee Lutes, and the two of them had started ordering equipment that summer. They bought 100 tons of grapes from a local farm, and by October of that year, they were in the wine business. “It went so fast, it was meant to be,” Campbell says.

Since then, he bought out the other partners, the last in 2015 when Don Coe retired. At that time, Campbell’s daughter, Sherri, was raised to the helm, keeping the vision just as fresh as when her father first saw the paddocks and imagined them transformed into terraces for grapes, similar to what they saw from family trips down the Rhine River. “It recalls being in Germany, seeing the grapes growing on the hillside.”

He even saw that this region could someday challenge those European locales. “What we have that they don’t is we are downwind from 100 miles of fresh water. The most important thing is the effect of the lake during summer. The temperature drops when the sun goes down. That’s what grapes love, especially white. They rest overnight.”

Then he boldly says, “Twenty-five years from now, our white wines will be known as some of the best in the world.”

Nearly 6 months following this statement, Black Star Farms won the competition for the best Riesling in the World, the 2017 Arcturos Dry Riesling taking Best in Show at the Canberra International Riesling Challenge, beating 567 entries from 6 of the best Riesling-producing countries!

Over the years, the Black Star Farm’s offerings have expanded past the point Campbell originally envisioned. The Bistro uses many of its products for its farm-to-table cuisine, and the centennial barn and the vineyards host events such as weddings. In 2007, the winery expanded to include the Old Mission location, which houses a state-of-the-art processing facility and a second tasting room.

Campbell takes it all in, from first seeing the property on Old Mission Peninsula to turning paddocks into a terraced vineyard in Suttons Bay. “I believe that unique combination of science and art helps me with wine and growing grapes,” he says.

Today, you will find Campbell content with his self-professed role as CFM, Chief Friend Maker, at Black Star Farms.