Fall Wine & Color Tour | Point to Point
When you think wine country, what comes to mind? California? Italy? What about Michigan? Yes, you read that right… Michigan has a wine country and it’s absolutely gorgeous! The Traverse City area is home to over 30 wineries between the Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas. There are several vineyards, orchards, and so much breathtaking scenery! Traverse City’s wine country falls on the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the North Pole, which is where some of the best wine regions, including Italy and France, are also positioned across the world. You can read more about what makes Traverse City such a great place for growing fruit and wine production here.
Between the hills, the bays, and the picturesque countryside, Traverse City area and the Leelanau Peninsula are gorgeous to visit anytime of year. When you add the incredible colors of fall, the trip becomes magical. The views are absolutely breathtaking and some of the wineries hold some of the best views. What could be better than combining a wine tour with a fall color tour? It’s surely near the top of my list. 😉 Of course this presents the question: should we be drinking AND driving? Our solution to this has been to split the tour between a couple of days and to spend more time enjoying the scenery than the wineries; hitting only a couple/few wineries in a day. Anymore than this, and those sips do add up. If you’d like to hit as many of those wineries as possible or plan to enjoy a little more than a few sips at each stop, which can be a lot of fun, you might consider bringing a designated driver or doing a bus tour. A list of transportation companies that offer these types of tours can be found here. When booking one of these tours, you might consider planning this trip with a group of people to split the cost and share the fun. Be sure to book well in advance though, as I’ve heard these companies stay very busy during the fall season.
Teddy and I try to do a fall color and wine tour every year, but with having two babies in the last two years, we haven’t made it every fall. We did get the opportunity to spend an afternoon touring early this fall and I’ve compiled a collection of photos from our trips over the past four years to share our experiences with you. We have by no means been to every winery and when we know our trip will be short, we tend to hit our favorites versus trying new wineries.
Old Mission Peninsula
We typically start our tour on Old Mission Peninsula, and one of our favorite wineries to visit is Brys Estate Vineyard. Aside from having some of the best wine, Brys Estate has a beautiful setting with vineyard and bay views, a very nice patio where you can enjoy a glass of wine and some food, an elevated lawn with chairs and yard games, and they also have gardens and a gift shop called the Secret Garden on the property which are well worth checking out as well.
I love the look and feel of this winery with the way they have used beautiful wine barrels in their decor, exposed brick, gorgeous chandeliers, and other elegant design elements.
The upper patio and tasting room off the deck are just as beautiful and lead to a Bridge Above the Vines that offers a stunning view over the vineyard and across to the bay. The photo below was actually a shot from a summer trip, but shows the Bridge Above the Vines and the view. The next photo is a panoramic I took with my phone of the view from the end of the bridge in the fall.
At the outdoor tasting room off the deck, you can purchase wine by the glass and there is a small selection of food, such as charcuterie and cheese boards or hummus with pita chips. At our recent trip, we ordered a charcuterie and cheese board and enjoyed the view from the elevated lawn, where you can find chairs, small tables, and even some yard games. It was a perfect little lunch for our whirlwind afternoon trip through the area.
A couple of my Brys Estate favorites are their Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Blanc. If they have an ice wine available when you go, I’d highly recommend trying that as well! Also worth mentioning, they have some incredible recipes on their website! Before you head on to your next stop, swing by the Secret Garden, where you can stroll around the gardens, purchase pumpkins, handmade lavender products, bunches of lavender, and more. We bought a couple apple scones that were TO DIE FOR!
Our next stop is usually Chateau Chantal, which is worth the visit for the view alone, but offers a tasty selection of wines as well.
Chateau Chantal offers breathtaking views from both sides of the winery as it sits on top of a hill surrounded by acres of gorgeous vineyards. Because they sit high on the hill of Old Mission Peninsula, you can take in bay views from both sides of the winery as well.
Inside, you can purchase bottles of wine, enjoy a wine tasting, or purchase wine by the glass. Last time we were there, there was a small selection of snacks you could purchase as well. Weather permitting, you can enjoy your glass of wine on the large patio on the east side of the winery. My favorite Chateau Chantal wines to purchase in store are their Nice White and Nice Red wines (I like the sweeter wines, but some of the reds are growing on me), but I usually order a glass of their Bubbly Cherry and sit on the patio while we’re there.
Planning to be there during the peak of the fall colors can be difficult, so we try to plan for mid to late October and hope for the best. We keep an eye on the color forecast, but sometimes, like this year, it can be hard to predict and the colors peak earlier or later than expected. Some might think the further north, the earlier the peak, but Traverse City area actually tends to be a bit behind most of the rest of the state when it comes to the leaves changing. They can hold their colorful leaves for a while after other areas have already lost theirs. This year, we went the last weekend in September because they were predicting the colors to peak between October 7th-14th. We though we would catch some early colors, but hardly any of the leaves had changed yet. The photo above was taken in 2013 near the peak of fall colors and the photo below is from 2014, when we caught the tail end of the colorful trees. Both photos are of the same view. (Definitely a difference in photo quality, too. Always learning in the photography field.)
Keep an eye on their website  for a list of events like wine dinners, enhanced tastings, Mimosa Sundays, cooking classes, and more.
On the way out, we stopped to snap a few photos and admire the picture perfect grapes on the vines.
From Chateau Chantal, we headed down to Old Mission Point. We made a couple stops along the way to check out the views.
The views at Old Mission Point are spectacular and there is a cute little lighthouse to explore as well as an adorable log cabin and a beautiful yard and beach.
On the way back down Old Mission Peninsula, we like to stop off at Chateau Grand Traverse. We had a wonderful winery tour here, tasted a few wines, and walked out to their deck overlooking the vineyard with more stunning views. When you leave Chateau Grand Traverse and head down the peninsula, there’s an overlook you can pull off at for an incredible view of their vineyard and the bay. I save this stop for the trip down because it’s easier to pull off here when you’re heading south down 37.
Aside from these wineries, we have also stopped and tasted at Peninsula Cellars in the past. Their tasting room is located in an old schoolhouse and some of their wines are cleverly named “Detention”, “Homework”, “Summer Vacation”, and other school related terms. Unfortunately, my photos here didn’t turn out and so I do not have any to share.
Old Mission Peninsula is beautiful to explore and I look forward to heading back and checking out more of their amazing wineries in the future. For a complete list of Old Mission Peninsula wineries and trail map, visit the Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula website.
After a full day of exploring Old Mission Peninsula, we headed back to Traverse City to grab some dinner and head back to our hotel. We have stayed at both Turtle Creek Casino and Hotel and The Lodge at Leelanau Sands Casino in Suttons Bay. Both stays were very nice, provided nice clean rooms, and weren’t too far from the wine trails.
Leelanau Peninsula
Day two was a Sunday, and whether it was because of timing or the day, some of the wineries were not open. We did more exploring this day than tasting and stopped at only two wineries. Along M22, which wraps around the Leelanau Peninsula, you can find more amazing bay views, vineyards, cherry orchards, apple orchards, incredible farmland, and more.
The first winery we stopped at was a little ways off M22 and appears to possibly have closed sometime since we were last there (I can no longer find their site or Facebook page), so I won’t spend a lot of time explaining it. Silver Leaf Winery was a gorgeous peaceful vineyard and winery with an adorable little cottage you could rent.
After this stop, we headed further up the Leelanau Peninsula and found a park near the water to picnic. After lunch, we drove up to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse at the Leelanau Peninsula’s northernmost tip. This was a beautiful area to explore with its rocky beaches and Northern White-Cedar trees. The lighthouse yard was decorated for Halloween and there are stories about the Grand Traverse Lighthouse being haunted. We spent more time outside than inside here, checking out the tons and tons of stacked rocks along the shores and the wavy lake views.
Heading back down the east side of the Leelanau Peninsula, we ended our trip at Black Star Farms. Upon entering the winery, we purchased a tasting and started with a delicious mulled cherry wine that makes my mouth water thinking about it! Their cherry wine is equally tasty served chilled, as are their ice wines and many others. At our recent trip, Black Star Farms was one of the two wineries we stopped at, and this time they were serving tastings of a mulled hard apple cider. Needless to say, I walked out of there with a bottle of their cherry wine, a bottle of their hard apple cider, and a recipe card! 😉 Look for mulled wine recipes to come!
After our tastings, we explored the beautiful grounds and vineyard and soaked up some late-day sunshine before heading back home.
On another trip, we also visited Bel Lago Vineyards & Winery in Cedar. They had a nice tasting room, some food samples, and beautiful lake views. We enjoyed their Rose and purchased a bottle to bring home.
We have not visited many wineries on the Leelanau Peninsula, but look forward to returning and trying more of them. We will likely start on the Leelanau side this time so we can check out more of their wineries. You can find a list of Leelanau Peninsula wineries and their wine trail map here.
I hope you enjoyed this virtual fall wine and color tour through the Michigan wine country. Although much of fall is ending and many are already transitioning into Christmas mode, I know that there are some fall colors left and there is still a little time to squeeze in a Michigan fall wine and color tour. Please remember to drink responsibly and plan ahead for transportation if you plan on drinking. You can find another list of area wineries here.
If you have any recommendations for other Traverse City are wineries, restaurants, etc. that I should check out, please share them in the comments! I’d love to hear about them!