Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail

"I am not looking for anything nor do I need anyone to reachout to me. I am just providing feedback for the event that can be awesome, but wasn't because the wineries didn't seem to care.
I live in Leelanau county and I am in the wine industry. I ran tasting rooms in TC and manage events like this. Before we moved up here 9 years ago, we would come up and do Taste the Passion with 4 other friends and we always had an amazing time. The wineries were happy to see us, they explained what they were doing, the wine, food pairing and any additional offers. After we moved up here we stopped doing the Taste the Passion event. This year 2025 we decided to do it again.
It was very hit and miss and overall a little disappointing.
Our first winery was Verterra and they knocked it out of the park. We came in, they all said hi or welcome, they had a table setup to check our tickets, pour our wine and give us our food pairing. They explained everything and we enjoyed our food and wine pairing and went up and sampled two more wines at the bar.

Then we headed off to Good Harbor, where they did have a table setup to check us in, but they poured us a wine, gave us an undercooked potato and walked away from the table. We had no idea what wine we were having or the food. We didn't know if there were any additional pours or just that one sample. So, we finished our wine and left.

It got worse at some places, no check-in, told us to "just pick whatever wine you would like for your sample" So, no wine and food pairing, just randomly pick a wine and hope it goes with the food.

It felt very different than 9 years ago. Some wineries were excited to see us, explained their pairing and what we could do and others didn't have a check-in and didn't seem to care if we were there.

Finally, I have to say after spending years listening to tasting room managers complain that they don't sell any wine at events, you would think they would learn that communication and a couple additional samples can help to sell wine.

The wineries we went into (11 total) that communicated, provided two additional pours, we bought wine from. Why, we got to try something else, but more importantly we got to have a personal interaction with the wine guides.
The wineries that said nothing, gave no samples, we had a wine and food and left. Why would we buy when you don't care.

Finally, so many of the wineries didn't put their best wine forward, they put their cheapest wine at 2 of the places we went. It's good to have a variety of options as you go around the wine trail. But pouring your cheapest just was sad to see.
Last note, so many of the wineries posted little to nothing about this event. They didn't post about their food and wine pairings.
Why do the event if you aren't going to show up and bring the winning attitude?"

Ralph Kridner II

"I participated in Vino-Madness along the Leelanau Wine Trail and had a really good time! For $25.00 a person, we sampled wine and food pairings at 8 of the maybe 15 or so wineries along the trail over the course of 2 days. It was a really neat event, and a fun way to experience the wineries for a reasonable price. Each of the wineries was very welcoming and we walked away with several bottles of wine that we probably would not have normally tried and saw some beautiful wineries. I would love to come back again for another event and highly recommended it to any wine lover!"

Jacquelynn Crabb

"We paid $75.00 for a ticket to the toast of the season, been coming every year since 2007. It seems we pay more to come and get less. If you want to sell the wine, you need to treat the participants who attend better. Some places put us in tents, some wanted us to wait outside until we could enter as they only let in 8 people, and some did not give us extra tastes. I don't buy products I can't try first."

Coessa Kenney