The annual Leland Wine & Food Festival takes place this Saturday (June 9) from 12-6 PM in the Leland Harbor. Admission is $15 ($10 for under 21 or non-drinkers) and includes an etched wine glass and two tokens for wine tasting. Additional wine tasting tokens are available for $2. LPVA wineries in attendance are: Brengman Brothers, Bel Lago, Black Star Farms, Chateau Fontaine, Ciccone, Good Harbor, Good Neighbor Organic, Silver Leaf, Verterra & Willow. You can check out a video below.
Also don’t miss this great feature from Midwest Wine Press on one of the architects of the Leland Wine Festival, Bruce Simpson. His wife Debbie recalls:
“He was a gentle giant. Bruce always had a lot of class. He was my first date who brought me a bottle of wine with a cork in it – a Christian Brothers Napa Rose.”
“My husband was a pioneer in the wine business,” Simpson says of the early days of winemaking in Leelanau County.
Twenty-five years ago, Bruce Simpson helped found the Leland Wine and Food Festival, an annual event that attracts 5,000 people each summer. He also was integral in starting the Leelanau Peninsula Vintner’s Association and was one of the first members of the Michigan Grape and Wine Council.The few wineries that were around in the late 1970s and early 1980s didn’t compete with one another, Simpson says: “Everyone helped each other.”
Come on out to Leland this Saturday and enjoy the fruit of the early vision of Bruce and others!