From humble beginnings to taking the country by storm, Leelanau Cellars will be celebrating its 50th anniversary all summer long with new, affordable prices to honor the customers that have supported the family business for a half of a century.
Leelanau Cellars founders Mike Jacobson and Charles Kalchik started the vino business back in 1974 after talking grapes one faithful day.
“(Charles) believed that (grapes) were going to become more active in our area, given the propensity and recognition for (Leelanau) being really a great fruit growing area,” Jacobson said. “We had a piece of ground that was suitable for it, and we decided to plant a vineyard.”
Since 1974, Leelanau Cellars has provided quality wines for everyone to enjoy. As it celebrates its 50th Anniversary, the family-owned winery is excited to take the next step by reducing the price of wine in its tasting room and online.
“This is an exciting year for us. My parents and the Kalchik family founded this winery 50 years ago and set a goal of crafting quality wines at affordable prices; today is another step in that direction by updating these prices,” Leelanau Cellars President Bob Jacobson said in a press release. “We hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy our wines and share them with their friends and families. That’s what it’s all about.”
In the past decade, Leelanau Cellars has experienced tremendous growth, now distributing almost 300,000 cases to 34 different states every year, according to a press release. The winery also recently expanded its production and warehouse facilities to 100,000 sq. ft., in 2023. The estate varieties will feature the greatest change, with an average price of $10.50 per bottle with new case discounts.
“I’ve been wanting to get all of our wine prices to a more affordable range for our customers, and by increasing our volume, we can now do that,” Jacobson added. “The fact that it’s our 50th anniversary makes it a perfect time to do this.”
Nestled on the picturesque Omena Bay, Leelanau Cellars’ tasting room will feature free wine tastings three days a week, and customers can enjoy tastings for just $5.00. Wine by-theglass will also be just $5 for the foreseeable future.
“We have so many different wines to enjoy, including several new ones coming out this year,” Jacobson said. “These changes will allow people to try those new wines and have a fun experience in our tasting room with the best prices in the region.”
Leelanau Cellars has been the largest and oldest in the county ever since Boskydel Vineyard shut down after their long run ended in 2017.
Bob remembers coming on board in 1993 when they were selling 15,000 cases which began a long journey of mountains and plateaus to climb up to 300,000 cases.
“It’s building blocks,” Bob said. “I believe in infrastructure a lot. We have the production capacity and do an incredible amount of volume ... And that’s normally the part that wineries leave behind.”
The biggest change in volume happened when Leelanau Cellars pivoted into making seasonal fruit wines, moscatos, sparkling fruit and more that have caught the national markets eye.
“Our geographic name isn’t always the easiest way to sell a product around the country. When you’ve built the infrastructure and human infrastructure is another big piece. We looked pretty long and hard for the right people to bring them in,” Bob said.
In 2006, Leelanau Cellars moved into its current building from a 850-square-foot tasting room to 1,700-square-feet at their Omena tasting room.
Mike, 89, can assure everyone that back in the 1970s, they didn’t think they would have a local market for a wine product.
“We weren’t sure we would and we certainly didn’t think it was something that would evolve into what it has,” Mike said.
Mike remembers the first few years of the vines doing quite well and by the third year there were conversations with wineries in the southern part of the state to do business with Leelanau Cellars French hybrids. After opening a small vineyard the business evolved into opening up its first tasting room in the 1980s.
Mike and his wife had three children including one boy, Bob, and two daughters.
As a teenager, Bob spent his summers working in the vineyard before ultimately going off to college at the University of Michigan. Bob originally had the idea of following his fathers original footsteps as a lawyer in the world of housing, representing housing developers. He was even able to secure an internship at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, but poor funding dried up that opportunity. Bob then pivoted back to the winery and dove-in head first, and has since been president of Leelanau Cellars for 30 years.
The Jacobsons are originally from Grand Rapids and Mike would bring the family to Northport for a summer vacation.
“In the first few years, we produced and marketed everything pretty much as a varietal wine ... primarily French hybrids. French hybrids were never and haven’t yet, except for a few exceptions, become a really well known form of grape,” Mike said. “I hired someone to work for us to talk about serving as sort of a general manager at one point, and he came up with the idea of taking our French hybrids and creating what we call our seasonal blends.”
Once that decision was made, supermarkets began to take notice. Eventually, Leelanau Cellars planted chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and pinto noir in later years.
Bob’s creation was the Witches Brew, which is arguably the biggest wine and seasonal wine they have created.
“It’s led to us having the ability to grow as we have,” Bob said.
Mike’s advice to new and old wineries that are engaging in the wine industry should tread carefully as they want to pursue a dream of the area.
“We’ve got a heavy concentration (of wineries) and I think that poses some serious challenges for anybody trying to embark on it. Time will tell whether that continues as it is. But I think it served as an interesting attraction to the area. I think it is something that one ought to explore pretty carefully before they embark upon it because it’s a lot of work to be disappointed if it doesn’t work,” Mike said. “Nationally, the wine industry is facing many challenges, there’s a significant amount of wine available that people aren’t able to market in the traditional fashion.”
Mike says Leelanau Cellars doesn’t have the next 50 years completely planned out, but success will depend on the business being able to sustain itself and the ability to grow grapes, find the marketplaces and the products that are going to continue to be accepted and desired.
“We’ve done a lot of exploring during the past 50 years to try and develop some lines of products that will enable us to sustain the growth that we have,” Mike said. “That’s not to say that an individual who wants to have a vineyard in the tasting room can’t be successful at it. “But he has a lot of company in competition while he’s doing it. They may need to look at other avenues to do a complex, what his goals are.”
