"We always had a sense, even in the early days, that there was something to what we were doing. You have to keep an optimistic attitude when you own and run a winery and vineyards."
- Robert Jacobson, Leelanau Cellars

ROBERT JACOBSON sips a glass of wine from Leelanau Cellars, which he owns and operates along with his father, Michael. (Photo courtesy of Leelanau Cellars)

It was the fall of 1973, and Michael Jacobson was looking for new ways to make his Omena-area cherry orchard property more profitable.

He’d moved his family from downstate to Leelanau County in 1969, and had been making a go of it with the orchard ever since.

“At the time Dad was in the cherry business and the MSU Ag extension agent said the county would be a good grape-growing area. So Dad took a risk,” said Jacobson’s son, Robert, who today owns and runs the business, Leelanau Wine Cellars, Ltd., along with his father.

From those tenuous beginnings, Leelanau Cellars has turned into one of the most recognizable and successful county wineries in the state. Its wines have won many awards, and the Jacobson family has renovated two venerable structures, the Omena Harbor Bar and the Northern Michigan Fruit Plant. The family remains focused on developing new ways to continue making Leelanau Cellars an industry leader.

A little bit of history

In 1974 Michael Jacobson and then-partner Charles Kalchik Jr. planted their first varieties of Bacco Noir grapes. Robert Jacobson, who also runs his own construction firm, HD Construction, from his home base in Ann Arbor during the week, said the first wines were bottled in 1977. Michael Jacobson grew the grapes on 221⁄2 acres off Tatch Road, just west of Omena, in a vineyard that is still in use today.

Leelanau Cellars, as the wine side of the business is known, is the county’s largest winery. From its original acreage, the Jacobsons now have 75 to 80 acres of vineyards, and another 40 acres being prepped for additional use. In 2002, the family purchased the Marek family farm along M-204, across from the Covered Wagon Farm Market, and planted row after row of grapes and prepared a spot at the top of the hill for an additional potential use.

Jacobson said at the time the family was considering moving all of its operations out of Omena. “Our wine tasting room was too small, our production facilities were getting too small. It wasn’t a matter of expanding, we really had no room to expand where we are,” he said.

The Jacobsons looked at building a new wine tasting room and facility at the M-204 property hilltop. The site offers panoramic views of Lake Leelanau and West Grand Traverse Bay. Eventually, the Jacobsons developed new strategies elsewhere to address the wine tasting room and expansion needs, though they may yet do something with the hilltop in the future.

Robert Jacobson grew up summering in the Omena and Northport areas. When old enough, he worked in cherry orchards and in the vineyard and wineries. He said he’s done just about every job, from picking the grapes, to shipping, to bottling.

Initially, Leelanau Wine Cellars thrived well through the late 1970s. When the 1980s arrived, however, the nation was in a recession, and wine sales dropped.

“In 1980 we sold 15,000 cases of wine. In 1985, we only sold 5,000 cases. Things were looking pretty grim,” Jacobson said. But, like many farmers and fruit growers in the county, Robert said his father stuck with the business model and that helped turn Leelanau Cellars into the success it is today.

“We always had a sense, even in the early days, that there was something to what we were doing. You have to keep an optimistic attitude when you own and run a winery and vineyards,” he said. “What a lot of people don’t understand is that running a winery is not just running one business; you’re running several small, extremely complicated businesses. Just the wine making part of it alone is very detail-oriented and complicated.”

Jacobsen said business competition is another factor that must constantly be addressed.

“Just go look at any wine section in a grocery store. You go to the canned food aisle and look at the soup, there’s about 10 or 15 different soup companies. The same with cereal. Go to the wine section. There are easily 600 different types of wine. It’s the most competitive section of any grocery store,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson officially started working at Leelanau Cellars in 1994 after graduating from college with a business degree.

“Dad said he needed some help with sales. I wasn’t having any luck finding a job, so I thought I would help out through the end of the year. I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

Jacobson likes wine and knows how to make it, but he concentrates on the business end. “I like to let the winemakers to do what they do. I might have an opinion, but the winemaker makes the final call when it comes to what kinds of wine we make,” he said.

Since Jacobson also works downstate, he relies heavily on general manager Tony Lentych to handle day-to-day responsibilities.

New decade, new challenges

After purchasing the Marek land in 2002, the Jacobsons had more vineyard space but didn’t want to move everything out of their Omena operation. Two years later, Jacobson starting talking with Chad Koster, who had purchased the old Omena Harbor Bar building and property. After Koster encountered zoning issues with the property, he talked with Jacobson about using some or all of the building for a new tasting room and possibly a restaurant.

The plan solidified. The Jacobsons bought the building and property, and in 2006 renovation plans were approved by the Leelanau Township Planning Commission. Part of the old Omena Bar building would become a wine tasting room, with the other part converted into a bar-restaurant. The wine tasting room opened earlier this year, and the Epoch restaurant group is operating what’s called Knot, Just a Bar, which opened for business July 7.

“We haven’t even really gotten the signs up yet for the tasting room, let alone the restaurant,” said Jacobson. He still keeps an eye out on weekends for people who unwittingly pull into the old tasting room, located in a small house next to the production facilities.

“You’ve got to keep in mind a lot of our tasting room visitors are people who only come up for a couple weeks in the summer and are use to going up the hill like they have for the last 20 years,” he said.

Though the tasting room dilemma was addressed, the Jacobsons knew they had to do something about the production facilities. The original structure has been expanded in the past, resulting in what Jacobson describes as a “bad 9,700-square-feet” of building. “There just isn’t enough room to expand on this property. We have wetlands and when we are running a full capacity, the guys are falling over each other,” he said.

After the Weaver family stopped fruit processing production in the Northern Michigan Fruit plant on M-22, just north of the Shady Trail Camp, Jacobson saw an opportunity in early 2005. “Here was this huge facility, sitting on 35 acres, with all the room we would ever need,” he said.

The Jacobsons purchased the 37,000-square-foot plant and property in December 2005, and begin restoration work the following spring.

The buildings had been unused for two years. While they didn’t have to be torn down, a new metal roof over a 16,000-square-foot area was needed as well as a rewiring of the interior.

After some 18 months of work, Jacobsen said the company will begin moving wine production facilities about two miles up the road later this month. Part of the property will be also planted in vineyards, and an existing 3,000-square-foot outbuilding, which is currently being used by the Northport Lions Club for its Saturday summer sales, could be the home for someone in need of a production facility. The old production facility in Omena will still be used for storage.

Jacobson said taking on the task of retooling and rebuilding a facility as large as the Northern Michigan Fruit plant has been a huge undertaking.

“I mean, just think about all the inside doors to offices, bathrooms, storage areas, we have. We replaced them all because they were such a hodgepodge. We replaced all the garage doors. We’re painting walls, it really has been a big project,” he said.

The Future

Jacobson said once the new home for Leelanau Cellars is completed, he’ll focus on working out bugs that might develop. That doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking about the future, however. He said there’s is a section of the new production facility that would make a nice distillery.

“I’m thinking maybe a whiskey distillery. But that’s a long-term project and I’m not even thinking in that direction right now,” he said.