When Chateau Grand Traverse became the first licensed commercial winery in the Grand Traverse region in 1974, it was the start of something big.
It didn't look at that way then, of course. This was cherry country -- and mostly still is, for that matter.
But as more and more entrepreneurs came north to plant vines and make wine, the industry's reputation for good wine grew and growth followed. As the wine improved so did business; as business improved, it drew new people; new people meant new wineries; new wineries meant new products and an enhanced reputation for quality.
Today, the industry is facing a business boom with a host of new wineries, new vineyards and, most importantly, new people. In addition to growth from within, as young winemakers who have learned the craft set out on their own, there are dozens of "newbies" taking a shot at their dream of getting into the wine business.
The range is amazing. There are people like Robin Usborne, a communications manager at Michigan State University who is growing grapes on five acres in a former cherry orchard near Honor. She commutes to the vineyard when she can and is doing much of the work herself. It's hard, she says, but "it's been a great adventure for me."
Steven Grossnickle, an eye surgeon in Warsaw, Ind., and longtime Leelanau County summer resident, is awaiting his first grape crop at his Forty-Five North Vineyard and Winery off Horn Road near Suttons Bay. He has already won awards for wines he made from purchased grapes, but this will be his first harvest.
He's in the process of reassembling a 120-year-old barn he had moved here from near Grand Rapids to be used as a tasting room.
The industry, through academic connections and state efforts, is seeing new talent from around the nation and wine-growing regions around the world. Home-grown wine industry workers are working in California and Australia and just about everywhere in between learning how it's done elsewhere, and some are bringing the knowledge back home.
The number of acres planted with vineyards has more than doubled in 10 years and is now near 1,000 acres. While that pales in comparison to the number of acres of cherries, there is no doubt the two industries are going in opposite directions. The cherry industry, after years of stagnant prices and the retirement of dozens of longtime growers, is contracting. Wine is expanding, many times into former orchards.
In the end, the effect is similar. The cherry industry was long valued for keeping so much land -- much of it the rolling hills on the Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas -- as open farmland, not condos and subdivisions. The wine industry promises to do the same.
Bryan Ulbrich and his wife Jennifer are on the front end of what could be another new trend -- moving the business out of the country and into the city. They opened their Left Foot Charley winery last summer in The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, the old state hospital grounds being transformed into an urban village.
While statistics are hard to come by, there is no doubt that for the Grand Traverse area, wine is the new cherry. It has become a crucial part of the local economy, rooted in the soil and the region's grape- and cherry-friendly climate.
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