Luxembourg Roots Inspire a Transatlantic Wine Story

Luxembourg’s growing community of dual citizens in the United States continues to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries, with many embracing their heritage and sharing it through language, tradition and entrepreneurship.

Chronicle.lu has partnered with Luxembourg Legacy for a series of articles on Luxembourg Americans - individuals who have reclaimed Luxembourg nationality to become dual citizens.

This third article focuses on Micca (Schanen) Hutchins, a Wisconsin-based wine merchant whose work has helped build cultural and heritage connections between Luxembourg and the United States.

Micca Hutchins was born and raised in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where her parents, William F. Schanen Jr and Marie Jacque Schanen, founded the Ozaukee Press in 1940. 

“My father was publisher and editor, and my mom performed a lot of duties at the newspaper, including writing a weekly column called ‘I See by Marie,’ in which she presented interesting stories about local people and what they and their families were doing,” she said.

While Micca Hutchins works in an entirely different field than journalism, it’s immediately apparent that she loves people’s stories, particularly those about heritage and connections. Through her business, she builds niche links between people and countries through wine.

Micca Hutchins, founder and CEO of Micca, LLC, is a wine merchant, importer and distributor, with a warehouse based at her home outside Mount Horeb, around 20 miles (32 km) west of Madison, Wisconsin. She distributes French wines throughout Wisconsin, including in her hometown of Port Washington, but mainly in Dane County. One of the most notable connections she sparked is between Prince Félix of Luxembourg and former Milwaukee mayor and former US ambassador to Luxembourg, Tom Barrett.

But let’s back up just a bit and set the scene for how this all came to be. 

Micca Hutchins’ husband, Alan, has French-Swiss family roots, and the couple have travelled annually to France and Neuchâtel, Switzerland, for the past 25 years to visit relatives. Hutchins has long had an interest in wine, particularly French wines, and decided she wanted to represent wines from France.

“I was working as a project manager overseeing a range of technical projects when I began thinking about starting a wine business, so I founded my own company, obtained my importer’s licence, built a warehouse and just began,” said Micca Hutchins, who holds an undergraduate degree in French.

Through her travels in France, she identified several vineyards she wanted to work with.

“I started by bringing in a few wines here and there and gradually built that up to where I have nearly 50 wines from around twelve vineyards across France,” she added.

Making Connections Through Wine

About a year ago, Micca Hutchins met Prince Félix, who owns Château Les Crostes, a vineyard in Provence, France, given to him and his wife, Claire, as a wedding gift from her father. According to Micca Hutchins, the rather neglected vineyard flourished under Prince Félix’s care and has been producing “beautiful, elegant wines” for about fifteen years. Perhaps one of its best-known wines is Cuvée Amalia rosé. 

She suggested to Prince Félix that it might be a meaningful gesture to present a case of Cuvée Amalia rosé to former Milwaukee mayor and former US ambassador to Luxembourg Tom Barrett, and said she would be honoured to make the presentation. That idea came to fruition.

This gift of wine proved to be a starting point.

“Prince Félix told me, ‘I want to make a connection to my fellow Luxembourgers in the US and didn’t think about selling my wine there until you presented the idea. You come from the center of this history of Luxembourg and the expansion that occurred, so I would love if you would take my message forward to Luxembourgers there and for the generations ahead through my wine.’” 

Micca Hutchins, now a distributor of Cuvée Amalia rose, recently struck up a conversation with fellow patrons at a bar in Port Washington.

“I started talking about this beautiful rosé wine made by Prince Félix of Luxembourg, and how he wanted to connect to fellow Luxembourgers in Ozaukee County. People started raising their hands, saying, ‘I’m a Luxembourger.’ Everyone wanted to share their story and their experiences. They wanted to know about Prince Félix and his wine, and to me, his symbolised maintaining a strong connection to Luxembourg and carrying on our heritage here,” she added. 

Micca Hutchins quickly sold 54 cases of the wine in Port Washington and plans to bring it back again this spring.

“People wanted the wine because it has meaning. It comes with a wonderful backstory and people treasure that.”

A Lifelong Passion for Wine

Micca Hutchins, who is a winemaker herself, loves being a wine merchant. 

“It’s one of those things where I really do pinch yourself because I’m having so much fun. It’s so delightful to be able to represent the art of making wine,” she said. 

She said people might argue about the birthplace of wine, but she contends the true art of winemaking began in France. 

“There are so many extraordinary wines from around the world, but the French have been making amazing wine for 2000 years. Wine in France is a lifestyle. They are known for their cuisine and extraordinary food requires extraordinary wine. But most importantly, the French make wine that is for everyone, the most exquisite affordable wine you’ll find,” she said, adding that great wine does not need to be expensive. 

Micca Hutchins also noted that most of the French wines she sells come from small vineyards, often run by a fifth- or sixth-generation famillies. 

“These families have passed down the art of growing grapes for many generations and continue to make wine as they always made it, with necessary modernisation, of course.” 

Bringing the story full circle, Micca Hutchins said she credits her father with inspiring her passion for wine.

“He introduced the great wines of the world to me. He was one of the first people I had ever heard of having a wine cellar, which he built himself, and he had an extraordinary knowledge of old-world wines. That is what started me off.”

The family newspaper also remains in the family. It is run by her brother, William F. Schanen III, the publisher, and his son, Bill Schanen IV, the editor. It is Wisconsin’s largest paid-circulation community weekly newspaper.

“The paper is still the voice of the community today,” she added.

Hutchins’ Luxembourg Ancestors 

Micca Hutchins’ great-great grandparents, Nicholas and Margaretha (Pos) Schanen, were from Contern, Luxembourg. Her other great-great grandparents, Francois and Catherine (Genin) Antoine, were from Halanzy and Battincourt, now in the Province of Luxembourg, Belgium. Micca’s great-grandfather, Jacob Schanen, was the longtime owner of the Lake House, the well-known saloon, hotel and general store in Lake Church, Wisconsin, near Belgium. The Schanen family operated Schanen’s Lake House for 70 years.

Luxembourgish heritage was always part of her upbringing 

“It was always there but not talked about tremendously. There were always little statements about how a Luxembourger would do it this way. I almost felt like it was the only other nationality in the world because it was the only one I heard about. My mom made mustreipen once in a while and us kids didn’t really want to get close to it. But there was always a Luxembourg component in the cornerstone of our family.” 

Through her all-male lineage, Hutchins qualified for dual citizenship under Article 7 of Luxembourg’s nationality law and is now a dual citizen.

“I applied because it was just an extraordinary opportunity to become part of your heritage. I didn’t know how much Luxembourgish heritage I had until I began to do research to become a bonafide citizen. Luxembourg takes extraordinary care of its citizens with a high quality of life. It makes me feel really proud and happy to be a part of it,” she added.

Micca Hutchins hasn’t been back to Luxembourg since a post-college European trip with a friend, but she definitely intends to return. 

“My very first touch on European soil was Luxembourg, where we spent a few days traipsing around the beautiful City of Bridges, taking in the amazing architecture, the beautiful old buildings. What a way to step off on our way of wander through Europe. I’ve not been able to get back, but it’s on our list.”