A new winery called Three Trees Vineyard has cropped up in Suttons Bay Township, and is expected to open this summer, according to its four co-owners.
Three Trees Vineyard located at 5200 S. Elm Valley Road in Suttons Bay is the newest grape on the vine, at least for this brief moment, as the Leelanau vintner industry continues to grow.
The pair, husband and wife duo co-owners of Phil and Lyle Cifuentes, and Scott and Laurie Muschong, bought the former Blackstar satellite farm back in 2021.
The crew refurbished a barn on the property into an elegant building proper for a tasting room.
“We’re in the final stages, and we’re hoping that we’re gonna open before the start of summer,” Lyle said. “It’s been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.”
Scott and Phil moved out of the automobile industry into the wine industry after working together for over 20 years.
After the 2008 crash, Phil and Scott started their own automobile business that focused on automation on the assembly line. When the pandemic happened, the crew made another pivot, this time into the wine industry.
The biggest challenge has been migrating from one widely different career path to another.
“This vineyard was producing grapes and we decided to take it to the next step and get a tasting room and start having the wine ... we’ll be able to make it here onsite once it’s harvested.”
Three Trees has managed to jump through the copious amount of hoops to make this business a reality. Now all they await is the final State of Michigan approval.
“The township and the county were actually great to deal with. They were awesome,” Lyle said. “It was more of our understanding of what needed to happen since we are coming from different industries.”
Lyle, worked for WXYZ-TV Channel 7 for 23 years in the hustle and bustle of Detroit.
“Our neighbors have been great. The community’s been awesome. People are interested in what we’re doing, and have folks stop by and just wonder if we’re open,” she said. “There’s a buzz going on, and we love that. We want to be a part of the community.”
Three Trees Vineyard will primarily focus on its red wine vintages of merlot, cab franc and other blends. They also have planted Pinot Gris, chardonnay in 2021, while pinot noir just went into the ground. Three Trees Vineyard adds to the Leelanau wine trail, neighboring Mawby, Suttons Bay Ciders, Two K Farms, Blackstar Farms, Shady Lane, Bregman Brother, Ciccone, among others in the surrounding area.
“People just love to hop around and test out the different places and see what fits their needs. I think that we’re trying to stand out and be a little unique,” Lyle said. “We just welcome everybody from all walks of life, and we’re excited to open and give people an experience that they won’t forget.”
The key to running a vineyard as four co-owners is that they were already friends before this venture and plan to remain friends in future years ahead.
They all stay in campers on the property and will be continuing to live in metro Detroit during the offseason. “The trade off is it’s a quieter community. It’s a great place to summer in Michigan, it doesn’t get much better,” Phil said. “When we came up here, we had some pretty pie in the sky ideas, with our tasting room ... We actually want to make a minimalist type of footprint here ... We’ve been fans of the region for a very long time.”
The four co-owners are in agreement that they want to preserve the land, make exceptional wine and give people a good experience.
“We’re hands in, not hands off,” Lyle said.
Three Trees vineyard hasn’t any issues with its septic system, according to Phill.
Three Trees vineyard is priding itself on being direct to consumers with no distribution plan as of now.
“We’re actually venting no younger than 18 months on our reds. The proper way. We feel it’s the proper way,” Phil said. “We’ve got some good backup in industry experts that agree with what we’re trying to do ... no super young reds ... we’re gonna get the most bang for a buck taste wise.”
The name ‘Three Trees’ vineyard is an homage to the moms of the co-owners after a special place on the property with three trees was discovered in the middle of a vineyard.
“They never got to see our property and dream... that resonates between us,” Laurie said.
Phil and Lyle, who are also musicians, made a song called ‘The Three Trees.’
