Good Harbor
Week 26 - June 25-July 1, 2023
Good Harbor Vineyards Website
34 South Manitou Trail, Lake Leelanau
(Seems closer to Leland to me)
AVA: Leelanau
Color-coded map of their vineyards - see how close this is to Leland
Something to Love
It's the garden, but also it's the rebrand and the everything. I visited with a tourist friend in 2016 and my main memory was of the Labernet, how this intentionally gimmicky wine was actually pretty good. I couldn't wait to try it all again, and I admit I was surprised in the best way that almost everything had evolved. The garden was spectacular, there are incredible ice cream sandwiches with homemade cookies, and the wine is tasty.
Summary
The garden is unbelievable - there is someone here who really knows what they are doing with horticulture and how to marry it with the hospitality aspect of patrons being able to sip wine among the flora and enjoy both. There are wines here that are not available at any other wineries, such as Albariño from Spain and Tocai from France. This long-time winery rebranded a few years ago to a more modern look and feel.
Two Wines* (Three)
Albariño 🍇🍇🍇
Tocai 🍇🍇
Labernet 🍇🍇
TCWY Wine Ratings:
🍇🍇🍇Best of the region (top 10%)
🍇🍇As good as the rest of the region
🍇Not as good as the rest of the region
To learn more about our wine rating system, click here
Something to Do
Don't take my daughter's word for it - get the ice cream sandwich! Or, another thing to do is check out the new Glen Lake School playground, a massive playground built on multiple levels that just opened, and which we did after this visit. There is a tennis court across the street, I don't know if it's fair game or someone's house. Something to do is check that out?!
Flowers and gardens everywhere!
Something to Hope For
The complicated wine club policy pits retail customers against the wine club. I assume they have a reason for doing this and I am okay with it. I do think it's strange to have a policy to not sell something from a retail environment to an interested buyer and really I am saying I hope for a way to buy a bottle of the Albariño. I'm sure it's my own sour grapes which looks good on an internet writer exactly never, but...I'll stop talking now. I just want a bottle of that Alabariño.
OK- there's more. My daughter made a friend. She heard a baby crying in the tasting room and wanted to see what was happening. We met the baby and their mom, and around the corner comes another 4-year old. These two were best buds for 2 hours. Enough for the parents to talk and the coloring books to be exchanged. I didn't get their info because that's not the point and they don't live here anyway- the environment here is what made this sweet one-time friendship possible, and that matters.