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78 WINES&VINES December 2015 BUSINESS PRACTICAL WINERY & VINEYARD 50 years. It is pretty clear what things will be like in 50 years. If we want to grow grapes and make wine here then, we need to make changes today in our vineyards. "We produce L. Mawby traditional-method sparkling wines with three to seven years of tirage aging, and 10% to 30% reserve wines carrying the Leelanau Peninsula appellation, at retail prices ranging from $21 to $50 per 750ml (bottle). Talismøn is our signature wine, a field blend of Pinot Noir, Vignoles, Chardon- nay and Pinot Gris, with 30%-plus reserve wine held as a solera beginning in 1992, held en tirage for four years, retailing at $37. "Our M. Lawrence tank-fermented spar- kling wines (charmat or cuve close method) with reserves of only one or two years of age, with no appellation, are priced from $11 to $19 per 750ml (bottle). 'Sex' is the biggest seller, a rosé brut whose composition varies but is chiefly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, re- tailing for $15." Leelanau Wine Cellars After trying nearly every job at Leelanau Cel- lars as a child and teenager, Bob Jacobson, president of one of Michigan's largest wineries, became an executive "when I first got out of a delivery truck and put on a tie for a sales meet- ing. At 22 I was a sales executive." After planting grapevines in 1974, the win- ery grew to an annual production level of 15,000 cases. In the 1980s, the winery experi- enced a rapid decrease to 4,000 cases. By 1994, when Jacobson graduated from college, the Jacobson family had re-established sales to 15,000 cases per year, yet Bob thought that the level was, "not 'up' enough. It was time to start doing the investment and upgrades that did not happen in the 1980s." Asked about the best and worst decisions at Leelanau Wine Cellars, he responded, "I can give you a different answer every week. "My father's biggest mistake occurred in the 1970s, when he and his partner chose the 100-person unincorporated village of Omena to open the winery—not the greatest choice to establish a business simply due to its relative remoteness. Then my biggest mistake was in 2006, when I 'doubled down' in Omena, but this was also the best decision. "Omena is an idyllic village—when it is not snowing in May. It is a great place to visit in a great grapegrowing area, but it is far from commerce. Our tasting room is two car lengths from the shore of Lake Michigan, and people are naturally drawn to Northern Michigan for the water, so we built next to the water and have not regretted that decision. "It can be expensive to be in Omena when you are 25 miles up a peninsula away from Traverse City, our nearest population center. Tourists drive by all the other wineries before getting to us, and then pass by them again when leaving. Plus, when you are looking for employees, most businesses would look within a 30-mile radius, and 90% of our radius is water." Despite the pros and cons of its location, the winery has managed to prosper during the past 20 years. The past few years have seen annual case sales hovering around 150,000. In 2014, Leelanau Wine Cellars sold 165,000 cases. Its distribution footprint also has grown from its local origins in Leelanau County. The wines, many of which can be purchased for between $6 and $9 per bottle, can now be found in five states in the Midwest: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois. Leelanau Cellars has established its reputa- tion on several of its fanciful wines such as Winter White, a proprietary blend of white grapes, and Witches Brew, a mulled, spiced red table wine. It also has become well known for an award-winning Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Riesling. Verterra Winery A former global pharmaceutical executive, Paul Hamelin told of his relatively recent foray into being a winery owner, which was spurred by a "convergence of wine drinking, 30 years of collecting wines and ultimately wanting to create a retirement business. This allowed me to explore without any technical winery back- ground the possibility of creating a winery." "My biggest nightmare was creating a win- ery that produced poor quality wines, and I would be pouring inferior wine to guests in our tasting room. I made a personal pledge to craft quality wine and pour inferior wine down the drain. Luckily, we have only had to pour two wines down the drain in five years. "In the initial dreaming stages, my son, Geoff, without any prompting from me, began researching Ph.D. theses from Cornell, Univer- sity of Virginia, Washington State University and other sources to understand the start-up relationship between winery size (case produc- tion) and financial considerations. "This niche was where the intersection of capital, equipment and vineyards balanced best with long-term, successful financial sus- tainability and creation of high-quality artisan wines. We created a 20-year financial plan with a 5,000- to 6,000-case annual production (70% white and 30% red). "We chose to put our first tasting room in the village of Leland, which sits on the shore of Lake Michigan and on the mouth of a river that connects a 21-mile-long inland lake that empties into Lake Michigan. This village has a long history and is one of Michigan's most visited tourist destinations. "One of our most important and distin- guishing unique strategies was to create clonal diversity in the vineyard for every wine. That was critical to creating artisan wines and one of the best decisions we made. We believe some of the early results of these decisions are apparent in the quality of our first five vin- tages, however we have already removed vines planted only six years ago, as we have unfor- tunately learned that some promising clones do not produce the best fruit in our growing conditions. We are adapting. "The right decisions can produce great wines in the glass, but many people take the safe route and plant single clones of existing grapes successful at neighbor wineries. How- ever, that will not necessarily yield unique, artisan wines of distinction and character. "Everybody focuses on their own terroir, but you have to step back and ask why there are so many clones of any given variety in the world? The key is to ensure that you have matched the right clonal selection for your area to allow you to express the uniqueness not only of the clones but of your terroir. It is this matrix that allows you to create outstanding, artisan wines of distinction." Tourists must drive past more than 20 wineries to reach Leelanau Wine Cellars, located at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, where the tasting room is just two car lengths from the shore of Lake Michigan.