Ten years after Taproot Cider House made its debut in downtown Traverse City, the Taproot brand is expanding with a new Leelanau County cidery. The establishment, dubbed Taproot Cellars and situated on off-the-beaten-path farmland near Cedar, will open this Friday following a soft opening last weekend.

The Taproot brand was launched in 2016 by Jen Viren (née Mackey). Back then, craft cider was still a relatively new commodity for northern Michigan. Tandem Ciders in Suttons Bay had been around since 2008, and Suttons Bay Ciders had opened the year before, but other local cideries like Townline Ciderworks in Williamsburg (launched in 2017) and Two K Farms in Suttons Bay (established in 2018) weren’t up and running yet.

Also in 2016, Jen met her future husband, Andrew Viren, an alumnus of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago. At the time, Andrew was taking on private chef engagements internationally, in countries like England, Croatia, and France. “He would do his visa six months there, six months off,” Jen says. “Then, during his off times, he would often come [to northern Michigan], because his sisters had moved here. That’s when I met him.”

As Jen tells the story, she and Andrew immediately bonded over their shared passion for food and farms. Soon, the two were married, and Andrew was the head chef at Taproot. Now Andrew is taking the lead on the Taproot Cellars project, situated on farmland in Leelanau County the two own together.

One thing the Virens didn’t necessarily share when they met? A love for cider.

“She definitely introduced me to it,” Andrew tells The Ticker. “Strangely, I'd lived in cider regions in England, but I’d never even drank cider until I met Jen. But I was just smitten at the time, so I decided to try it because she loved it, and then I fell in love with it, too.”

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh no, I don’t think this is going to work if you don’t like cider,’” Jen laughs. “But then he quickly starting coming home with cans of cider rather than cans of beer. It was like, ‘Oh good, I converted you.’”

Andrew was so converted that he soon started toying around with making his own ciders, many of which have made their way to the taps of Taproot over the years. Now he’s taking that hobby to the next level with the introduction of Taproot Cellars. The new cidery, located at 8844 East Lincoln Road near Cedar, had “a very soft opening” over the holiday weekend, but will open more broadly this Friday.

According to Andrew, the opening is the realization of a dream he and Jen started talking about a decade ago.

“We spent a lot of years looking for the right piece of land, because we've always envisioned growing our own food to supply the restaurant,” Andrew says. “So, that was a big process, but once we found this property, we fell in love with it instantly.”

The land – 36 and a half acres of it – was only one piece of the puzzle. The uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic slowed everything down, and the process of planting apple orchards proved to be a three-year undertaking all by itself. Even now, with five acres of fruit growing on the property – which the Virens have named the “Taproot Farmstead” – the apples aren’t quite ready for cider production.

“Our apples are still maturing, and this fall is our first planned harvest,” Andrew says. “The juice that we made cider with for this season is organic apple juice from Almar Orchards, an orchard in Saginaw, and it’s a blend of 18 varieties of apples.”

Because of the blended juice, Andrew got creative with his first full run of ciders, using different yeasts or additional ingredients to diversify the flavor profiles. One, made with a Sauvignon Blanc yeast, has a wine-like character, while another is sweetened with farmstead-grown strawberries and elderflowers.

As for the cidery itself, Andrew says the goal was to create an especially homebound tasting room experience.

“We really liked that small vibe, where it feels like you're going into someone's home,” Viren says. “We didn't want a big space here, just a really comfy, cozy, tranquil, get-away-from-the-city feeling.”

That modest vibe means Taproot Cellars is meant for “small groups, without the chaos” of northern Michigan’s tourism machine. It also means reservations are recommended or required, depending on the day. Starting this weekend, Taproot Cellars will be open from noon-6pm on Fridays and Saturdays and noon-4pm on Sundays. Reservations are required on Sundays and recommended for Fridays and Saturdays, and can be made via the reservation link here.