Leelanau Cellars

Leelanau Wine Cellars Ltd. has been part of the Leelanau Peninsula wine story since 1974, when the Jacobson family planted its flag in one of its Leelanau County cherry orchards and bet that northern Michigan could make serious wine. That early leap matters here: this is one of the region’s long-running family wineries, and it now operates at a scale few local producers match, with broad distribution across Michigan and the Great Lakes region. The range is wide, from cool-climate staples like Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Baco Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Meritage to fruit wines, bubbly cans, and the seasonal bottles that made the brand famous well beyond wine country.

The headliner is Witches Brew, the winery’s Halloween-season juggernaut, but the tasting room gives visitors a fuller picture of what Leelanau does. The winery pours more than 30 wines that are not typically found in local stores, including late-harvest bottlings, sparkling options, and a deep bench of sweet and semi-sweet crowd-pleasers. Awards back up the breadth: 2024 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition medals include Double Gold for the 2022 Gewürztraminer and Best of Class for Lakeshore Farms Peach Sparkling Moscato, while the 2026 competition brought Double Gold for Cherries Galore and the 2023 Late Harvest Riesling.

What it’s actually like to visit is refreshingly unfussy. The tasting room sits directly on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay in Omena, right along M-22, with a seasonal waterfront patio that does a lot of the heavy lifting on a nice day. Reservations are not required, groups of eight or more should call ahead, and the pricing stays friendly: tastings run $5 for five pours, glasses are $6, and bottles generally land between $8 and $22.