Wine Tasting in a Strip Mall

            When I told my friends from Traverse City that I was enjoying a wine from Wills Winery of Lapeer, I think I heard an audible scoff come across facebook.  From the land with rolling vineyards they found it hard to believe you can have a winery without vineyards.  I’m here to confirm that you can.  You can even have it in a strip mall.

 I stopped at Wills Winery one day to pick up a bottle of their award winning Chocolate Raspberry Red. The owners,  Bill and Sue, added me to their mailing list after they got me excited about a new chocolate cherry wine they were working on. I’m not a wine snob.  If you can put some interesting flavors together in some grape juice and call it wine, I’m willing to try it. Of the several tastings they offer a year, this one coincided with the visit of my friend from North Carolina. We were all about a free wine tasting in a strip mall winery.

 I was looking forward to a unique experience. When I had stopped in to purchase the wine I had only gotten as far as the huge rack of wine just inside the front door.  I was eager to see their tasting room.  Would there be wine barrel tables with bar stools, or something contemporary, with no pretense of being on a vineyard?  Would they have exotic cheeses and fruit platters on a tiered display?   Would they remind us of the importance of swirling, of smelling, of clearing the palate?  I hadn’t attended a wine tasting in over ten years; I needed a good refresher course on wine.

When we first arrived, I was immediately frustrated by the lack of parking. Generally strip mall connotes ample parking.  Not in this case.  The winery being located at 814 S. Main St, also known as M-24, a busy 5 lane road, precludes any street parking. Was this strike one?  If it was, strike two happened immediately after we entered the front door to a very crowded room.  I was so disappointed to realize that what I had seen on my first visit was what there was to the “wine tasting room”.   There is one large, floor to ceiling wine rack to the left acting as a semi partition from the back of the room where the unattractively stored wine mixes are stored. Lining the far wall was some insignificant shelving with various wine accouterments.  Under the window on the same wall as the door, was a table with two large chaffing dishes, one with rigatoni in marinara and one with rigatoni in alfredo sauce.  Were we going to sample that much wine?  I did end up eating some decent pasta with alfredo so I won’t say the lack of fancy cheeses and fruits was strike three.

The right side of the room had an odd maze like structure of dark, cherry stained cabinetry.  Most prominent was a bar height, curved counter that accommodated about eight people standing.  Behind that, there was yet another L-shaped counter.  To the rear were two U-shaped counters. What purpose all those counters served I don’t know, but enough already!  The walls were papered in a faux stone wall paper with vine accents that screamed cliché.  They should have spared the expense of the wallpaper and cabinetry and invested in real wine glasses so tasters weren’t drinking out of mini plastic cups that are typically used for jello shots. The owners really have a missed opportunity with the set up as it is;  the opportunity to take their tasting events beyond a happening to a real experience.  Painted walls,  some original art work, background music and some bar stools would go a long way toward  capturing the senses and creating a comfort level superior to that of standing under the harsh fluorescent  lighting of someone’s cheaply decorated 90’s kitchen.  No one is expecting Napa, just make it original, like the wine.

And the wine is original. On the menu that evening were ten wines. My favorite, besides the Chocolate Raspberry Red, was Amore, a table red with such smooth and subtle tones that I kept sipping just to identify the flavors that delighted my tongue. Blackberry Mist is a dessert wine that, though sweet like dessert wines are, it had a richness that made it unique. I think they ventured a little too far when they created Mojo, a mint flavored wine inspired by mojitos.  It tasted liked medicine, and was the only sample I did not want a second taste of. All of the wines we tasted were on the sweet or fruity side, along with a couple of dry white wines. They could have offered a wider variety. Prices ranged from $10.99 to $16.99 a bottle. Certainly there are cheaper wines, but these are reasonably priced.

The Wills and their family of helpers were such an enthusiastic and extroverted crew. If it had to feel like someone’s kitchen, at least they felt like friends. My girlfriend and I were so at ease with our hosts and their delightful group of friends and family, who as one put it, “were willing to work for wine,” that we had a very enjoyable evening.  There was no pompousness that is often associated with a wine crowd. I didn’t receive the refresher course on the finer points of wine tasting, but they were all glad to share their opinions on the wines, and stories they had about other wines.   It was an evening of good wine, good humor, and good conversation that I would gladly repeat.

Visit Wills Winery online.