Good Harbor Vineyards — Attraction in Leland Township

We have been members of this wine club for at least 2 or 3 years. My husband canceled our membership this afternoon after we visited them while up in Leland on our once a year vacation. I am sad about it because I love the wine, but the way my family was treated by the staff today completely justifies my husband’s decision.

We brought sandwiches from Fishtown and planned to eat lunch on the patio outside of the winery, not bothering anybody. All five of us in the party ordered wine, and we also ordered a charcuterie board for the table. But the only food this place serves are charcuterie boards and modest cheese appetizers. They do not serve meals of any kind. There are no signs around the building to signify that bringing food is against any kind of policy.

After we ordered our wine and appetizer, we started eating lunch on their patio. A woman brought one of our wine glasses out to us a few minutes later, and she didn’t say anything to us, but then a different woman came out to serve us our charcuterie board, and she’d clearly already been briefed on the situation inside. She told us we can’t eat other food here because “we do serve food here, and it wouldn’t be fair to the other guests that you’re eating something else.” Her tone was not friendly, and she barely gave us the time of day before walking away. But we ALSO ordered food from them! AND we spent $150 at Good Harbor. That is nearly four times the amount we spent on the food that we brought.

About an hour later, I went inside to order our twice annual 6 bottles of wine, and although it was busier than usual, everybody saw me walking around for several minutes looking for a wine list or trying to get someone’s attention to acquire a wine list. Finally, I sat myself at the bar and took someone’s marked up wine list who had previously been sitting there. The woman who served us the wine glass helped me at the bar. And she spoke to me in a very bored and dismissive tone at first - likely assuming I was just ordering another glass - until I told her I was buying bottles.

THAT’S when she perked up all of a sudden and started treating me in a friendly and respectful way. Curious. I’m 30 years old, and I could tell exactly what was going on there. My husband and I do well for ourselves, but we’re clearly not the “old money” older couples I watched this winery serve with plenty of manners and friendliness. And it was rather obvious that Good Harbor treats customers differently depending on age and what they think we’re going to purchase. I do not tolerate that kind of patronizing behavior, especially not when we came to spend money and support a local business we thought we loved.

It seems clear that Good Harbor doesn’t really want our business, so we will find other, more welcoming places around Leland that serve cherry wine. And that’s where we’ll go from now on. Please do better, and having some signs that advertise your food policy would...

Our group of four went in for a wine tasting. The building is nice and the interior is nicely decorated. We approached the ‘bar’ for our tasting and were each given a menu. My husband’s menu was different than the rest of ours so I asked the employee serving us if he had an incorrect menu. She answered, extremely annoyed, and said it was a different menu but most of the wines were the same as ours. We each did a tasting but the pours were very inconsistent in size. After our flights were filled the employee only spoke to us when she asked how we were paying. She did not explain any of the wines to us, did not give us any tasting advice and never asked if we liked any of the wines. While she was pouring our wine she interacted with another employee and we were shocked at how rude she was. The other employee spilled some wine on herself and the employee helping us said ‘and that’s why we don’t wear white’ followed by an extreme eye roll. We would’ve loved to stay and try more wines but we were extremely turned off by the employees attitude. Needless to say we will...

I really want to give this place a good review, as the wine was delicious, and the facility quite lovely. But, at the end if the day, customer service is king. The lady who helped us with our tasting treated us like something the cat dragged in, then out, then back in again. Throughout our tasting, while I could hear other giving notes and other pleasantries in regards to customers selection, she seemed far more interested in playing on her phone, rudely correcting our pronunciation of Austrian nouns, and generally making us feel as welcome as field mice. The real trophy moment was when she accused my girlfriend of trying to steal a complimentary reading copy of the Detroit Free Press😂. Sorry, but we will gladly take our tourist dollars further into the Leelanau Pennisula where we met many other fine vintners and cider makers who were glad to make us feel welcome at their facility with warming conversation and wonderful informative visits. Shame we bought glasses from Good Harbor. I suppose they will be relinquished to the land of glasses from which to drink...