May 2, 2025 • 26 mins
What if wine could be simple again?
No jargon. No pressure. Just good wine, made for you—and maybe even by you.
We sit down with Brett Scharnhorst, owner of Vinomondo Winery in Fort Gratiot, Michigan. From his unexpected career shift from IT project management to winemaking, Brett shares how Vinomondo is creating something truly unique: a DIY wine experience where customers can taste, bottle, and label their own creations.
Recently voted Detroit’s Best of the Best for Wine, Vinomondo is more than a winery—it’s a place where community, creativity, and really good wine come together.
Whether you're a seasoned wine lover or someone who's never had a drop, this conversation will leave you curious, inspired, and maybe even ready to craft your own blend.
Address:
4505 Lakeshore Road, Fort Gratiot, Michigan
Website:
Social Media:
- Facebook: Vinomondo Winery
- Instagram: @vinomondowinery
- X (formerly Twitter): @vinomondowinery
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brett Scharnhorst (00:00):
We can enjoy wine at the same time, we're
(00:01):
presenting it to everybody else.
and the way, It just kind of evolved.
It just kind of seemedto fall into our laps.
I, I just don't knowhow else to explain it.
It was, it's such a, uh, it'ssuch a contrast to go from I.
T.
to the world of winemaking.
that's kind of a different avenue to take.
It's it's just a means of just sittingback and just looking at the world
(00:25):
and just saying, you know what?
I'm, just going to take it easy.
The wine is good.
Life's too short to drink cheap wine.
Cliff Duvernois (00:31):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan, where
we interview ordinary Michiganderdoing extraordinary things.
I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.
Let me ask you this, whydid wine get so complicated.
With labels that feel like riddles andrules about what pairs with what, it's
no wonder people can get intimidated.
But what if wine could be simple again.
What if it could be fun,shared with friends bottled
(00:53):
by hand and made just for you?
Well, that's exactly what'shappening at Vinomondo Winery.
Recently voted as Detroit's bestof the best for wine, this place is
changing the way people experienceMichigan wine One bottle at a time.
To walk us through this is the ownerof VInomondo Winery, located in Fort
Gratiot, just outside of Port Huron,and that would be Brett Scharnhorst.
(01:15):
Brett, how are you?
Brett Scharnhorst (01:16):
I'm doing great Cliff.
Thanks for joining us today.
It's an honor to have you here.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (01:19):
Thank you.
And I'm really excited about this.
Uh, We get to talk about, wine, somethingthat I absolutely love and yeah.
So, this is great.
If you would just tellus what is Vinomondo?
Brett Scharnhorst (01:30):
Vinomondo is a basically a do it yourself
winery sort of situation.
So people can come in youcan do a tasting if you want.
We offer flights, wine flights.
You can have a glass of wine if you want.
If there's a particular wine thatyou really just can't get enough
of, then we offer something unique.
You can actually order a batch of wine.
You can either get a batch of 15 bottles,or you can get a batch of 28 bottles.
(01:54):
We will actually go outand order the materials.
We will make that winefresh for you, just for you.
And then, uh, it takes about eightto 10 weeks for it to be ready.
And then when it's ready, we call you up.
So you come on in and bottle your wine.
And if you have bottlesof your own, that's great.
As long as they're clean.
But if not we can sellsome bottles for you.
And they're relatively cheap.
(02:15):
And then, you come in, you caneither come in by yourself, but we
recommend bringing in some friends.
And then we've got a whole facility inthe back of our facility here, uh, the
back of the store where they can come inand they can just bottle their own wine.
They can drink their own winewhile they're bottling it.
And It's really a great social eventAnd it's just something that, to my
(02:37):
knowledge, nobody else in the Port Huronarea or even southeastern Michigan does.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (02:42):
And I've been to a number of wineries throughout Michigan
and, they pride themselves on, we growour own grapes and we bottle it here.
But in this particular case, this is someplace where people can come and literally
just pick out the kinds of wines that theylike, or if they like a red, or if they
like a white, if they like more fruity, ifthey, you know, and they can really, like
(03:04):
you said, customize it to their palate.
Brett Scharnhorst (03:06):
right, right.
So we don't have ourown vineyard, obviously.
We're just on a littlecorner here at Lakeshore and
Kewadin here in Port Gratiot.
But what we do is we order the materialsthey're shipped in by our suppliers.
And the juices and the grapeskins,what have you, they come
in from all over the world.
They can come in from California.
Oregon, Italy, Spain Germany, SouthAfrica, I mean just everywhere,
(03:29):
Australia, everywhere around the world.
And that's, the basis of our name,Vinomondo, which stands for World Wine.
We have all different types of wineto satisfy all sorts of palates.
We've got sweet wines, we've got dryreds, we've got whites we've got blushes.
Just, if there's any sort of wine that youenjoy, or even if you don't enjoy wine,
you know, we think we can convert you.
But we even have our own a handfulof homemade brews here as well.
(03:51):
So something for every palette.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (03:53):
Brett, what I would like to do is I'd kind I'd like
to talk to you about your back story.
Like where are you from?
Where did you grow up?
Brett Scharnhorst (04:01):
So I personally grew up in Warren, Michigan, right
around the 12 Mile and Hoover area.
I ended up going to Bishop FoleyHigh School in Madison Heights.
And that's pretty much just mywhole youth story right there.
I got my degree, my bachelor's ofscience, I got it from Oakland University.
And then some years followingthat, I got my master's degree
(04:23):
from West Texas A& M University.
But that was fairly recently, 2018.
So I was kind of a latebloomer where that goes.
But that's my background is in I.
T.
Actually, I'm an I.
T.
Project manager for a companycalled Taubman, a wonderful place.
And that's just what I've beendoing for all of these years.
That's what my career has been.
But through a series of events thattook place over the course of my life.
(04:46):
I just found myself in a situation whereI was talking to my wife and I said,
i'm not so certain about our retirement.
What are we going to do afterwe get to the point that?
Because you know it is an industrythat is constantly evolving.
We've got people coming out of collegesthat know so much more than I do.
And frankly, they can get paid less.
(05:06):
So it's, it's just something thatkind of weighs on you after a while.
I mean, right now I'm a projectmanager, so I've evolved out of the,
development phase of things, but it'ssomething that always stuck in my mind.
So, my wife and I, having been repeatcustomers of Vinomondo here for eight
to 10 years we thought, well, whydon't we try our hand at making our
own wines and see how that works out.
So we started out somethingthat was a grassroots operation.
(05:30):
And we learned shortly thereafterthat the people who owned Vinomondo
here were looking to retire and sell.
So at that point we thought, well,why don't we maybe just pool our
resources and talk with the ownersand see about buying this facility?
Because we didn't wantthis place to go away.
Our fear was that somebody was goingto come in, put their own spin on it,
(05:51):
change how things worked around here.
The, the batch concept wasabsolutely a must have.
And that is something that wethought would probably be the
first thing that would get cut.
And we didn't want thatbecause that's something that's
really unique to Vinomondo.
we went through the, uh, naturalcourse and channels and everything.
We went through the process of,purchasing the winery and in
September of 2022, it happened.
(06:12):
So Jackie and I have been, in ownersof Vinomondo wineries since then.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (06:17):
You said that you're primarily in I.
T.
So why did you decide to get into I.
T.?
Brett Scharnhorst (06:23):
Well, I like wine.
Let's do that one again.
I thought it was
Cliff DuVernois (2): thought it was coffee. (06:28):
undefined
I thought you had to be a guy to be an I.
T.
an guy.
Brett Scharnhorst (06:32):
So the reason why I wanted to get into IT
was, when I was a little kid,boy, I'm gonna date myself here.
When I was a little kid, there wasa little store on the corner of 12
Mile and Shainer called Radio Shack.
And it was just an up andcoming thing, and all the kids
used to gather down there.
And they had this little TV sittingthere with a keyboard in front of it.
(06:53):
And it was called the TRS 80.
It was a little flat Keyboard kind ofthing that you hooked up to your tv.
That quickly evolved into a love forjust problem solving, you know, and and
coming up with ideas creating thingsout of the blue that You know, maybe
somebody else had never thought of.
So that's how my IT background developed.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (07:13):
Now, at what point in time did you decide, to
start exploring the world of wine?
Brett Scharnhorst (07:19):
So interestingly enough, I wasn't always a wine lover.
I really didn't get intowine until fairly recently.
And I would say it wasprobably in the early 2000s.
Probably right around the sametime that Vinomondo got its start.
And it's not because, you know,we came to Vinomondo back then.
It was just something that I'd neverreally been that interested in.
I was more of a beer guy.
(07:40):
I drank a lot of soda pop.
That kind of stuff.
and when I did drink wine, I gravitatedtoward the sweeter wines as most people
do when, when, you know, they justget started out and drinking wine.
Right.
I didn't really think much aboutgetting into other wines and
broadening my palate for that.
but.
Again, what happened was some friendsof ours would go over to Canada
and they had a place over therewhere you could make your own wine.
(08:03):
Actually, what theymade was wine spritzers.
Remember back in the day, youknow, when you would mix some,
uh, some sweet, soda pop in witha wine and then you had spritzers.
So there was a place over there inCanada that actually excelled in that.
Well, they ended up closing andour friends were like, okay,
well now what are we going to do?
Cause you know, we likedthe wine spritzers.
We would actually, give themsome money and They would go
(08:24):
ahead and buy some for us.
But then our friends found thisplace, Vinomondo, and they said,
you know what, you guys reallygot to come check this out.
This was, this is areally fascinating place.
So we came, the four of us, wecame here and we did a tasting and
I was just, I was struck, I hadnever been that much of a wine fan.
But then I tried the wines hereand this is why I keep telling
(08:46):
people, you know, you got to comehere You got to try this out.
The wine is just so flavorful.
And it's not a super dry wine.
I mean even the dry winesare not that super dry.
It's just very flavorful on the palate.
And I was so struck with the flavorthat I wanted to broaden my sense
Of, flavors for the wine and on allthe different tastes that we had.
(09:10):
So now that's how I started gettingfrom sweet wines into the semi dries,
getting into the whites, getting into thedries, and then even going beyond that.
Now that we've started experimentingwith doing some bourbon, no
confusions with the dry reds.
And that's what we've got today with,with the Chairman of the Board that's
sitting here in front of us right now.
That really expanded my palate.
And it's just, like I say, it's theexperience and really having a taste
(09:33):
of some really good wine that willreally change your mind about any
preconceptions you had about how wine isor how it tastes or anything like that.
And that's what I wouldjust recommend to anybody.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (09:45):
While I think you bring up a good point there.
Because this is something thatI have found often to be very
challenging, is that it's justthe approachability of wine.
Because I know a lot of people outthere, I personally, I, I love a
good glass of wine with dinner.
I appreciate it so much.
But when I talk to other people aboutit, they're almost afraid to try it
because, you know, like if you go toa grocery store or something, there's
(10:09):
just so much that's on the shelf.
You don't know what to pick.
What's going to go good with what.
Even, even if you did, if you evengo back to the old rule about,
red wine goes with red meat.
Right, Even if you remember that basicconcept right there, still, it's like
you're sweating bullets because am Igoing to spend 20 on something that I
am not going to like, So it sounds like.
Vinomondo has found a way around that.
Brett Scharnhorst (10:31):
Well, yeah.
First of all, the rulesare there are no rules.
I mean, when it comes to wine.
There are no rules.
You know, you have some peoplethat will say, well, you got
to drink red wine with a meat.
And you got to drinkwhite wine with a chicken.
You got to drink white wine with a fish.
You know what?
You drink what tastes good to you.
So, so two points to be made here.
First of all, when you mentionedthe fact that you go to the store
and you buy a bottle off the shelf.
(10:52):
That to me has always been a problem.
Because when you go to a big box storeand you pull a bottle off the shelf,
you don't know what you're gettingand you're probably paying anywhere
from 15 to 20 for a bottle of wine.
And you can't just open it up and pouryourself a glass right there and taste
it and go, yeah, I don't like this.
And then put it back on the shelf.
You know, when you takeit home, you're right.
You're stuck with it.
(11:13):
We won't let that happen here.
We want to make sureyou're happy with the wine.
And what's more is that, becauseof the way we make the wines,
we are so competitively priced.
I will stake our wines against anybig box store wine, any big box
store wine for flavor and, for cost.
And for the after effects.
(11:35):
So a lot of these wines that you're goingto see in these big box stores are going
to have these additional sulfites added tothem because they have to sit on a shelf.
They got to be prepared to siton a shelf for who knows how long
Our wine is not designed for that.
Our wine is designed that when you drinkthis, you're, when you taste it, you're
going to be like, I got to drink this.
I don't expect this to last long.
(11:55):
So we don't add any artificialsulfites to our wine.
It's about drinking the wine.
It's not about making somethingthat's going to be worth, a
million dollars down the road.
We want you to enjoy the wine.
We want you to enjoy the flavor.
Now, that's not to say therearen't sulfites in wine.
There's always natural sulfites in wine.
I have heard of some locations that, youknow, make contentions that, you know,
(12:15):
we don't have any sulfites in our wine.
Well, I think what they mean is theydon't have any artificial sulfites
in their wine, which is fair to say.
But you can't put a label on abottle that says there's no sulfites.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (12:24):
Right.
Brett Scharnhorst (12:25):
in any event, what we can do and what we do say is we
don't add any artificial sulfites.
And it's intended to that, you know, our,our bottles last about one to four years.
We've got four years of, uh, winesitting at home and I can still open up
one today and it tastes just as greatas it was when we first bottled it.
It's aged a little.
So it's smoothed out a little, but youknow, it doesn't taste like vinegar
by any stretch of the imagination.
(12:46):
It's still a very good wine.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (12:47):
And you brought that up and I'm glad that you did
because there's been a lot of timeswhere I have gone out and bought a
red, like a California red or somethingfrom Oregon and had one or two glasses.
That's it.
I don't like being drunk.
And I do not want to behung over the next day.
But still, after one or twoglasses the next day, sometimes
(13:07):
my head is pounding so hard.
And I just completely don't get it.
And I, I've always reasoned itwas because of the sulfites.
Brett Scharnhorst (13:16):
I did read, some sort of a report recently that refuted the
notion that it was sulfites, that it wassome sort of a different chemical compound
Cliff DuVernois (2) (13:26):
Sponsored by the national sulfite association
Brett Scharnhorst: Possibly, possibly, right. (13:29):
undefined
But, uh, yeah, I've, myexperience, my personal experience
has been it's the sulfites.
Uh, Like I say, it's the sulfites.
I have never in all my years, andit's been probably 10 years now that
I've been drinking Vinomondo wine.
And all my years of drinking Vinomondowine, I've never had a day after headache.
I might feel a little sluggish.
But that's my own fault for notdrinking water and staying hydrated.
(13:51):
But it, I don't feel any sort ofill effects after the day after
Cliff DuVernois (2) (13:55):
Sweet.
For our audience, we're going to takea quick break and thank our sponsors.
When we come back, we're going totalk to Brett a lot more about the
philosophy of Vinomondo and whatyou can expect when you come here.
We'll see you after the break.
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(14:16):
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Hello everyone and welcome back toTotal Michigan where we interview
ordinary Michiganders doing somepretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host, Cliff Duvernois.
(14:37):
Today, we're talking withBrett Scharnhorst of Vinomondo
over here in Port Huron.
And before the break, we were talkingabout how you've got this career in IT.
You're in project management.
you're now discovering thisworld of wine at Vinomondo.
And all of a sudden, Vinomondo is like theowners are like, yeah, we want to retire.
(14:58):
We want to get out and get out.
And the best way I can describe itis you had this Homer Simpson moment
where you're just like, hey, let'sdo, Let's let's buy this place, right?
So talk to us why would youthink about, cause you didn't
grow up on a vineyard, right?
You didn't grow up growing grapes.
So my question is, is why wouldyou think let's buy this place?
Brett Scharnhorst (15:18):
right?
Well, you know, I like you saidI I grew up in total suburbia.
I'm in classic suburbia.
so what would make me thinkabout something like that?
Well Um First of all, it's the product.
I just have total faith in the product.
When I came upon this and I tastedthe wine, I said, I can do this.
This is something we could do.
(15:38):
I had a lot of talks with,with Jackie, my wife.
And I can't say enough wonderful thingsabout her because she has been so
patient with me, through this journey.
And she's right there,right alongside me with it.
And, she's just awonderful, wonderful person.
But we've had many talks aboutthis and she's supported, she's
been supportive through all of it.
we just kind of felt that, thiswould probably be a decent way to go.
(16:01):
you know, We can enjoy wineat the same time, we're
presenting it to everybody else.
and the way, It just kind of evolved.
It just kind of seemedto fall into our laps.
I, I just don't knowhow else to explain it.
It was, it's such a, uh, it'ssuch a contrast to go from I.
T.
to the world of winemaking.
people when I tell people that theyjust kind of look at me and go, really?
(16:23):
that's kind of a different avenue to take.
But it's it's a lot more laid backI guess in a manner of speaking.
It's it's just a means of just sittingback and just looking at the world
and just saying, you know what?
I'm, just going to take it easy.
The wine is good.
Life's too short to drink cheap wine.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (16:39):
Amen to that.
Yeah Yeah
What is the Vinomondo experiencewhen they walk through that door?
What can people expect?
What can they have?
Brett Scharnhorst (16:50):
Maybe to take a step back, I mean, how Vinomondo
got its start was it was just a, astraight up wit, wine kit sales winery.
A gentleman by the name ofSal Vitale opened it up.
It was just, uh, one little sectionof this building we're in right now.
He didn't do any sort ofwinemaking whatsoever.
That lasted a year, maybe two.
I don't know for sure.
(17:10):
and then the, The new owners,the people we purchased it
from took over the Healy's.
And that's when they got startedinto this concept of doing batches.
And through the course of the next,15 years or so, uh, they expanded it.
So that's when the tasting room gotadded on, which is what we're sitting
in right now, the tasting room.
We also added on the kitchen.
I say we, they added on the kitchen.
(17:32):
provided some, you know,light finger food fare.
And then they would, provideevents and things like that.
You know, uh, birthdayparties, bachelorette parties,
things of that nature.
In addition to providing the, the retailarea where you can buy bottles of wine.
There was a gift shop out there.
And then of course the batches.
Uh, When we came in and boughtit in 2022, we decided we were
(17:53):
going to shift the focus a littlebit away from being a boutique.
We wanted to get the wine up.
And first and foremost, wewanted to get it up front and
get that exposed to everybody.
So getting back to your question now,what is somebody going to expect when they
come walking into Vinomondo Wine Room?
Well, first of all, you're going to comewalking into our retail area, you're going
to see a lot of wine all over the place.
And, as time evolves, we've got plansfor the future that we're going to
(18:17):
have, you know, wine on the walls.
You know, right now we've gotit on shelving units, but we're
going to put it up on the walls.
You're going to come and you'regoing to be surrounded with wine.
You're going to be greeted by somebody,and the first thing we're going to ask
you is, Do you want to try some wine?
You're welcome.
We got some wine for you to try.
If you want standard question, right?
I mean, you're here totry some wine, right?
So at that point, youknow, you have a choice.
You can, come into the tasting room.
If you want to do a flight, sit down,enjoy yourself, have a good time.
(18:40):
Or if you're just kind of meanderingaround you, you're not sure what you want.
So at that point in time, we would askyou, well, what is it you like in a wine?
What is it?
Do you like in general, ifyou come to me and you ask me,
what kind of wine should I get?
I'm going to look at you and I'm goingto say, what do you like to taste?
what flavors you like.
if you prefer sweet, if you prefer dry,then I can guide you in that direction.
(19:02):
And then we can help you find thewine that it is that you enjoy.
And then, you can sample some wines.
Like I said, we do offer a numberof small tastings, you know, just
get a feel for whatever you like.
At that point then you can eitherpurchase a bottle if you want.
Or you can come into the tasting room.
We can sit down, you can get aflight, you can try five different
wines in a flight if you want.
Or if you know what you like, you get afull glass of wine if you want to do that.
(19:25):
If you want to drink an entirebottle here, you can do that as well.
We'll get you a bottle to open up andyou can, and you can drink it here.
Then, if you really like the wine thatmuch, here comes the batch concept.
What you can do is I'll take, for example,the Tremita Riesling we've got right here.
That's one of the onesthat's available in batch.
If you say, I want to, I lovethat Tremita Riesling so much.
(19:45):
I can't get enough of it.
And I just, 12 bottles, that's pricey.
Well, I'll tell you what,let's go with a batch then.
Because that cuts down the costper bottle of of your wine.
And so how that works then isyou tell us, I want to get an
order of the Tremita Riesling.
We go ahead and note your order.
We go ahead and order the materialsto make that wine for you.
(20:08):
It's not something we keep on hand.
We don't have vats of winesitting here ready to be bottled.
We want you to have fresh wine, right?
So we will go out and order the materialsnecessary to make that wine for you.
It takes about eight to ten weeks.
We take it through theentire fermentation process.
In the back here, we've gotthese white buckets, we've got
carboys, uh, we go ahead and makethe wine here on the premises.
(20:30):
And then it goes throughits fermentation process.
Takes about eight to 10 weeks.
And then when it gets through thefermentation and the filtering
process, we call you up andtell you your wine's ready.
Come on in and bottle it.
And when you come in and bottleit, , that is an experience in
itself because it's really a joy.
You, you really don't knowhow fun it is to do it until
(20:50):
you've tried doing it yourself.
We've got a bottler, an automated bottler,bottling machine that sits right there.
You put the bottle in it fillsit up, it stops automatically.
You take the bottle out of there, youturn it around, there's a pneumatic
cork, or you put it in the corkingmachine, drop the cork in, shut the door.
It automatically pushesthe cork in for you.
Done.
You take the bottle out of there.
You move over to another table.
You put a foil on top of it.
(21:12):
We've got a hot air gun.
You shoot the hot air gun at this foil.
It automatically shrinks, shrinkwraps to it, shrinks it down.
Done.
And then comes the label.
Now, most of our wines, not all of them,but most of them come with standard
labels that you can put on there, oryou can get your own label if you want.
The labels that we've gotavailable just run the gamut.
We have had people come up with some,incredibly inventive label labels.
(21:37):
some it's not that much.
It's, you know, it can varyanywhere from, a dollar to a few
dollars per label, It's such fun.
It's just so much fun.
And we can do the labelshere on the premises as well.
Everything can be doneright here on the premises.
Which is probably one of the mostimportant things to, you know, get across,
is that we don't bring anything in.
This is all Michigan made stuff.
We do it right here.
We bring the supplies in fromelsewhere, but we're making
(21:58):
the wine here on the premises.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (21:59):
I can imagine that the appeal for some people doing this
is if you're going to have a bridalshower, or some kind of like a wedding
rehearsal dinner, or something andyou wanted to create a gift that was
completely unique with like your labelon it or You know or like a retirement
dinner or I mean the when I was goingthrough the labels and reading all of them
(22:23):
that you had back there It was amazing.
Just how many different occasionsUh, customized bottle of wine.
You can just, like, elevate
Brett Scharnhorst (22:32):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Now, the bottles you see in front of ushere, these are 750 milliliter bottles.
But we also offer 375 milliliterbottles, which are the half bottles,
right, which are half the size.
We call them split bottles.
but they're half this size.
And they're perfect for weddings.
Like you said, in fact, is Jackie and I.
We just did that for one of our kids,this past August for his, his wedding.
(22:54):
you can do, uh, you know, and soinstead of having 28 bottles in a full
batch, you can get 56 split bottles.
And you know, you fill those up.
And then, you can put a labelon them, congratulations on
your wedding and what have you.
And then you can put them onthe tables at weddings and we
have a lot of people doing that.
We've had, companies come in.
And they will purchase carboys of wineand they will give the wine, bottles of
(23:15):
wine to, customers, to, their employees.
We've had people come in and,they will just, buy, purchase
bottles of wine for their business.
So it's, it's very diverse.
There's a lot of differentapplications that you can use for this.
And again, it's great wine.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (23:31):
And you were talking before about cause it was
just a cute little story you weretalking before about the bottling
the actual bottling of the wine.
And you were sharing a storyabout how you had eight people
Brett Scharnhorst (23:44):
Oh, yes.
Yes.
So we've had some repeatcustomers who come in.
I mean, they've been repeatcustomers longer than Jackie
and I have even been involved.
So we're talking about over 10 years.
They've been the repeatcustomers of Vinomondo.
And they still come around today.
We've gotten to knowthese people very well.
But we do have instances, you know,where it's become a huge social event.
(24:05):
When they come in to bottle wine, we canset up a bluetooth speaker back there.
They can play some music.
In this instance that you weredescribing, you know, there were
eight ladies that came in, they werebottling the wine, they're sampling
the wine and they're singing along.
And they're playing the samesong over and over and over.
It was great fun.
they had a blast.
And it, and that'sexactly what it's about.
(24:26):
It's about having fun and theywere enjoying the wine and then,
they came in here and sat down andhad something to eat afterwards.
but that's what it's all about.
You know, the bottling experienceis all about having fun.
And I, I, putting it into wordsjust doesn't do justice to it.
It's just a great thing to do.
And it's a lot of fun.
Doing it by yourself, it'sprobably not quite as fun.
(24:46):
But you bring people in withyou and it's a huge blast.
It's just a blast.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (24:50):
I don't think that's ever been uttered on the show before.
The words wine and funin the same sentence.
Brett Scharnhorst (24:57):
Well, I don't know.
Some people might argue
Cliff DuVernois (2) (25:01):
argue that.
And I'm not saying it's not.
I'm not.
it's just an observation on my part.
So take it for what It's worth.
Brett, if somebody's listening to thisand they want to come and check out
Vinomondo on your website, stop by,try a sample of this headache free
wine that you have here, what wouldbe the best way for them to do that?
Brett Scharnhorst (25:19):
our address is 4505 Lakeshore Road, and we're
located in Fort Gratiot, Michigan.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (25:24):
Your website?
Brett Scharnhorst (25:25):
VinomondoWinery.
com
And we also have a Facebook page.
We've got an Instagram page.
And we've got a, uh, exformerly known as Twitter page.
best way to So, really the best way tokeep up on all the doings that we've
got going on is, uh, our Facebook page.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (25:42):
Sweet.
Brett, thank you so much fortaking time to chat with us today.
Really appreciate it.
Brett Scharnhorst (25:46):
Thank you, Cliff.
Again, it's great to have you here.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (25:48):
Awesome.
For our audience, uh you can alwaysroll on over to Total Michigan.
com and click on Brett's interview andget the links that he mentioned above.
We'll see you next time when wetalk to another Michigander doing
some pretty extraordinary things.
We'll see you then.
We can enjoy wine at the same time, we're
(00:01):
presenting it to everybody else.
and the way, It just kind of evolved.
It just kind of seemedto fall into our laps.
I, I just don't knowhow else to explain it.
It was, it's such a, uh, it'ssuch a contrast to go from I.
T.
to the world of winemaking.
that's kind of a different avenue to take.
It's it's just a means of just sittingback and just looking at the world
(00:25):
and just saying, you know what?
I'm, just going to take it easy.
The wine is good.
Life's too short to drink cheap wine.
Cliff Duvernois (00:31):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan, where
we interview ordinary Michiganderdoing extraordinary things.
I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.
Let me ask you this, whydid wine get so complicated.
With labels that feel like riddles andrules about what pairs with what, it's
no wonder people can get intimidated.
But what if wine could be simple again.
What if it could be fun,shared with friends bottled
(00:53):
by hand and made just for you?
Well, that's exactly what'shappening at Vinomondo Winery.
Recently voted as Detroit's bestof the best for wine, this place is
changing the way people experienceMichigan wine One bottle at a time.
To walk us through this is the ownerof VInomondo Winery, located in Fort
Gratiot, just outside of Port Huron,and that would be Brett Scharnhorst.
(01:15):
Brett, how are you?
Brett Scharnhorst (01:16):
I'm doing great Cliff.
Thanks for joining us today.
It's an honor to have you here.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (01:19):
Thank you.
And I'm really excited about this.
Uh, We get to talk about, wine, somethingthat I absolutely love and yeah.
So, this is great.
If you would just tellus what is Vinomondo?
Brett Scharnhorst (01:30):
Vinomondo is a basically a do it yourself
winery sort of situation.
So people can come in youcan do a tasting if you want.
We offer flights, wine flights.
You can have a glass of wine if you want.
If there's a particular wine thatyou really just can't get enough
of, then we offer something unique.
You can actually order a batch of wine.
You can either get a batch of 15 bottles,or you can get a batch of 28 bottles.
(01:54):
We will actually go outand order the materials.
We will make that winefresh for you, just for you.
And then, uh, it takes about eightto 10 weeks for it to be ready.
And then when it's ready, we call you up.
So you come on in and bottle your wine.
And if you have bottlesof your own, that's great.
As long as they're clean.
But if not we can sellsome bottles for you.
And they're relatively cheap.
(02:15):
And then, you come in, you caneither come in by yourself, but we
recommend bringing in some friends.
And then we've got a whole facility inthe back of our facility here, uh, the
back of the store where they can come inand they can just bottle their own wine.
They can drink their own winewhile they're bottling it.
And It's really a great social eventAnd it's just something that, to my
(02:37):
knowledge, nobody else in the Port Huronarea or even southeastern Michigan does.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (02:42):
And I've been to a number of wineries throughout Michigan
and, they pride themselves on, we growour own grapes and we bottle it here.
But in this particular case, this is someplace where people can come and literally
just pick out the kinds of wines that theylike, or if they like a red, or if they
like a white, if they like more fruity, ifthey, you know, and they can really, like
(03:04):
you said, customize it to their palate.
Brett Scharnhorst (03:06):
right, right.
So we don't have ourown vineyard, obviously.
We're just on a littlecorner here at Lakeshore and
Kewadin here in Port Gratiot.
But what we do is we order the materialsthey're shipped in by our suppliers.
And the juices and the grapeskins,what have you, they come
in from all over the world.
They can come in from California.
Oregon, Italy, Spain Germany, SouthAfrica, I mean just everywhere,
(03:29):
Australia, everywhere around the world.
And that's, the basis of our name,Vinomondo, which stands for World Wine.
We have all different types of wineto satisfy all sorts of palates.
We've got sweet wines, we've got dryreds, we've got whites we've got blushes.
Just, if there's any sort of wine that youenjoy, or even if you don't enjoy wine,
you know, we think we can convert you.
But we even have our own a handfulof homemade brews here as well.
(03:51):
So something for every palette.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (03:53):
Brett, what I would like to do is I'd kind I'd like
to talk to you about your back story.
Like where are you from?
Where did you grow up?
Brett Scharnhorst (04:01):
So I personally grew up in Warren, Michigan, right
around the 12 Mile and Hoover area.
I ended up going to Bishop FoleyHigh School in Madison Heights.
And that's pretty much just mywhole youth story right there.
I got my degree, my bachelor's ofscience, I got it from Oakland University.
And then some years followingthat, I got my master's degree
(04:23):
from West Texas A& M University.
But that was fairly recently, 2018.
So I was kind of a latebloomer where that goes.
But that's my background is in I.
T.
Actually, I'm an I.
T.
Project manager for a companycalled Taubman, a wonderful place.
And that's just what I've beendoing for all of these years.
That's what my career has been.
But through a series of events thattook place over the course of my life.
(04:46):
I just found myself in a situation whereI was talking to my wife and I said,
i'm not so certain about our retirement.
What are we going to do afterwe get to the point that?
Because you know it is an industrythat is constantly evolving.
We've got people coming out of collegesthat know so much more than I do.
And frankly, they can get paid less.
(05:06):
So it's, it's just something thatkind of weighs on you after a while.
I mean, right now I'm a projectmanager, so I've evolved out of the,
development phase of things, but it'ssomething that always stuck in my mind.
So, my wife and I, having been repeatcustomers of Vinomondo here for eight
to 10 years we thought, well, whydon't we try our hand at making our
own wines and see how that works out.
So we started out somethingthat was a grassroots operation.
(05:30):
And we learned shortly thereafterthat the people who owned Vinomondo
here were looking to retire and sell.
So at that point we thought, well,why don't we maybe just pool our
resources and talk with the ownersand see about buying this facility?
Because we didn't wantthis place to go away.
Our fear was that somebody was goingto come in, put their own spin on it,
(05:51):
change how things worked around here.
The, the batch concept wasabsolutely a must have.
And that is something that wethought would probably be the
first thing that would get cut.
And we didn't want thatbecause that's something that's
really unique to Vinomondo.
we went through the, uh, naturalcourse and channels and everything.
We went through the process of,purchasing the winery and in
September of 2022, it happened.
(06:12):
So Jackie and I have been, in ownersof Vinomondo wineries since then.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (06:17):
You said that you're primarily in I.
T.
So why did you decide to get into I.
T.?
Brett Scharnhorst (06:23):
Well, I like wine.
Let's do that one again.
I thought it was
Cliff DuVernois (2): thought it was coffee. (06:28):
undefined
I thought you had to be a guy to be an I.
T.
an guy.
Brett Scharnhorst (06:32):
So the reason why I wanted to get into IT
was, when I was a little kid,boy, I'm gonna date myself here.
When I was a little kid, there wasa little store on the corner of 12
Mile and Shainer called Radio Shack.
And it was just an up andcoming thing, and all the kids
used to gather down there.
And they had this little TV sittingthere with a keyboard in front of it.
(06:53):
And it was called the TRS 80.
It was a little flat Keyboard kind ofthing that you hooked up to your tv.
That quickly evolved into a love forjust problem solving, you know, and and
coming up with ideas creating thingsout of the blue that You know, maybe
somebody else had never thought of.
So that's how my IT background developed.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (07:13):
Now, at what point in time did you decide, to
start exploring the world of wine?
Brett Scharnhorst (07:19):
So interestingly enough, I wasn't always a wine lover.
I really didn't get intowine until fairly recently.
And I would say it wasprobably in the early 2000s.
Probably right around the sametime that Vinomondo got its start.
And it's not because, you know,we came to Vinomondo back then.
It was just something that I'd neverreally been that interested in.
I was more of a beer guy.
(07:40):
I drank a lot of soda pop.
That kind of stuff.
and when I did drink wine, I gravitatedtoward the sweeter wines as most people
do when, when, you know, they justget started out and drinking wine.
Right.
I didn't really think much aboutgetting into other wines and
broadening my palate for that.
but.
Again, what happened was some friendsof ours would go over to Canada
and they had a place over therewhere you could make your own wine.
(08:03):
Actually, what theymade was wine spritzers.
Remember back in the day, youknow, when you would mix some,
uh, some sweet, soda pop in witha wine and then you had spritzers.
So there was a place over there inCanada that actually excelled in that.
Well, they ended up closing andour friends were like, okay,
well now what are we going to do?
Cause you know, we likedthe wine spritzers.
We would actually, give themsome money and They would go
(08:24):
ahead and buy some for us.
But then our friends found thisplace, Vinomondo, and they said,
you know what, you guys reallygot to come check this out.
This was, this is areally fascinating place.
So we came, the four of us, wecame here and we did a tasting and
I was just, I was struck, I hadnever been that much of a wine fan.
But then I tried the wines hereand this is why I keep telling
(08:46):
people, you know, you got to comehere You got to try this out.
The wine is just so flavorful.
And it's not a super dry wine.
I mean even the dry winesare not that super dry.
It's just very flavorful on the palate.
And I was so struck with the flavorthat I wanted to broaden my sense
Of, flavors for the wine and on allthe different tastes that we had.
(09:10):
So now that's how I started gettingfrom sweet wines into the semi dries,
getting into the whites, getting into thedries, and then even going beyond that.
Now that we've started experimentingwith doing some bourbon, no
confusions with the dry reds.
And that's what we've got today with,with the Chairman of the Board that's
sitting here in front of us right now.
That really expanded my palate.
And it's just, like I say, it's theexperience and really having a taste
(09:33):
of some really good wine that willreally change your mind about any
preconceptions you had about how wine isor how it tastes or anything like that.
And that's what I wouldjust recommend to anybody.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (09:45):
While I think you bring up a good point there.
Because this is something thatI have found often to be very
challenging, is that it's justthe approachability of wine.
Because I know a lot of people outthere, I personally, I, I love a
good glass of wine with dinner.
I appreciate it so much.
But when I talk to other people aboutit, they're almost afraid to try it
because, you know, like if you go toa grocery store or something, there's
(10:09):
just so much that's on the shelf.
You don't know what to pick.
What's going to go good with what.
Even, even if you did, if you evengo back to the old rule about,
red wine goes with red meat.
Right, Even if you remember that basicconcept right there, still, it's like
you're sweating bullets because am Igoing to spend 20 on something that I
am not going to like, So it sounds like.
Vinomondo has found a way around that.
Brett Scharnhorst (10:31):
Well, yeah.
First of all, the rulesare there are no rules.
I mean, when it comes to wine.
There are no rules.
You know, you have some peoplethat will say, well, you got
to drink red wine with a meat.
And you got to drinkwhite wine with a chicken.
You got to drink white wine with a fish.
You know what?
You drink what tastes good to you.
So, so two points to be made here.
First of all, when you mentionedthe fact that you go to the store
and you buy a bottle off the shelf.
(10:52):
That to me has always been a problem.
Because when you go to a big box storeand you pull a bottle off the shelf,
you don't know what you're gettingand you're probably paying anywhere
from 15 to 20 for a bottle of wine.
And you can't just open it up and pouryourself a glass right there and taste
it and go, yeah, I don't like this.
And then put it back on the shelf.
You know, when you takeit home, you're right.
You're stuck with it.
(11:13):
We won't let that happen here.
We want to make sureyou're happy with the wine.
And what's more is that, becauseof the way we make the wines,
we are so competitively priced.
I will stake our wines against anybig box store wine, any big box
store wine for flavor and, for cost.
And for the after effects.
(11:35):
So a lot of these wines that you're goingto see in these big box stores are going
to have these additional sulfites added tothem because they have to sit on a shelf.
They got to be prepared to siton a shelf for who knows how long
Our wine is not designed for that.
Our wine is designed that when you drinkthis, you're, when you taste it, you're
going to be like, I got to drink this.
I don't expect this to last long.
(11:55):
So we don't add any artificialsulfites to our wine.
It's about drinking the wine.
It's not about making somethingthat's going to be worth, a
million dollars down the road.
We want you to enjoy the wine.
We want you to enjoy the flavor.
Now, that's not to say therearen't sulfites in wine.
There's always natural sulfites in wine.
I have heard of some locations that, youknow, make contentions that, you know,
(12:15):
we don't have any sulfites in our wine.
Well, I think what they mean is theydon't have any artificial sulfites
in their wine, which is fair to say.
But you can't put a label on abottle that says there's no sulfites.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (12:24):
Right.
Brett Scharnhorst (12:25):
in any event, what we can do and what we do say is we
don't add any artificial sulfites.
And it's intended to that, you know, our,our bottles last about one to four years.
We've got four years of, uh, winesitting at home and I can still open up
one today and it tastes just as greatas it was when we first bottled it.
It's aged a little.
So it's smoothed out a little, but youknow, it doesn't taste like vinegar
by any stretch of the imagination.
(12:46):
It's still a very good wine.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (12:47):
And you brought that up and I'm glad that you did
because there's been a lot of timeswhere I have gone out and bought a
red, like a California red or somethingfrom Oregon and had one or two glasses.
That's it.
I don't like being drunk.
And I do not want to behung over the next day.
But still, after one or twoglasses the next day, sometimes
(13:07):
my head is pounding so hard.
And I just completely don't get it.
And I, I've always reasoned itwas because of the sulfites.
Brett Scharnhorst (13:16):
I did read, some sort of a report recently that refuted the
notion that it was sulfites, that it wassome sort of a different chemical compound
Cliff DuVernois (2) (13:26):
Sponsored by the national sulfite association
Brett Scharnhorst: Possibly, possibly, right. (13:29):
undefined
But, uh, yeah, I've, myexperience, my personal experience
has been it's the sulfites.
Uh, Like I say, it's the sulfites.
I have never in all my years, andit's been probably 10 years now that
I've been drinking Vinomondo wine.
And all my years of drinking Vinomondowine, I've never had a day after headache.
I might feel a little sluggish.
But that's my own fault for notdrinking water and staying hydrated.
(13:51):
But it, I don't feel any sort ofill effects after the day after
Cliff DuVernois (2) (13:55):
Sweet.
For our audience, we're going to takea quick break and thank our sponsors.
When we come back, we're going totalk to Brett a lot more about the
philosophy of Vinomondo and whatyou can expect when you come here.
We'll see you after the break.
Are you enjoying this episode?
Well, I can tell youthere's a lot more to come.
Jump over to TotalMichigan.
com, enter your email address,and get on our mailing list.
(14:16):
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com, enter your email address today.
Hello everyone and welcome back toTotal Michigan where we interview
ordinary Michiganders doing somepretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host, Cliff Duvernois.
(14:37):
Today, we're talking withBrett Scharnhorst of Vinomondo
over here in Port Huron.
And before the break, we were talkingabout how you've got this career in IT.
You're in project management.
you're now discovering thisworld of wine at Vinomondo.
And all of a sudden, Vinomondo is like theowners are like, yeah, we want to retire.
(14:58):
We want to get out and get out.
And the best way I can describe itis you had this Homer Simpson moment
where you're just like, hey, let'sdo, Let's let's buy this place, right?
So talk to us why would youthink about, cause you didn't
grow up on a vineyard, right?
You didn't grow up growing grapes.
So my question is, is why wouldyou think let's buy this place?
Brett Scharnhorst (15:18):
right?
Well, you know, I like you saidI I grew up in total suburbia.
I'm in classic suburbia.
so what would make me thinkabout something like that?
Well Um First of all, it's the product.
I just have total faith in the product.
When I came upon this and I tastedthe wine, I said, I can do this.
This is something we could do.
(15:38):
I had a lot of talks with,with Jackie, my wife.
And I can't say enough wonderful thingsabout her because she has been so
patient with me, through this journey.
And she's right there,right alongside me with it.
And, she's just awonderful, wonderful person.
But we've had many talks aboutthis and she's supported, she's
been supportive through all of it.
we just kind of felt that, thiswould probably be a decent way to go.
(16:01):
you know, We can enjoy wineat the same time, we're
presenting it to everybody else.
and the way, It just kind of evolved.
It just kind of seemedto fall into our laps.
I, I just don't knowhow else to explain it.
It was, it's such a, uh, it'ssuch a contrast to go from I.
T.
to the world of winemaking.
people when I tell people that theyjust kind of look at me and go, really?
(16:23):
that's kind of a different avenue to take.
But it's it's a lot more laid backI guess in a manner of speaking.
It's it's just a means of just sittingback and just looking at the world
and just saying, you know what?
I'm, just going to take it easy.
The wine is good.
Life's too short to drink cheap wine.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (16:39):
Amen to that.
Yeah Yeah
What is the Vinomondo experiencewhen they walk through that door?
What can people expect?
What can they have?
Brett Scharnhorst (16:50):
Maybe to take a step back, I mean, how Vinomondo
got its start was it was just a, astraight up wit, wine kit sales winery.
A gentleman by the name ofSal Vitale opened it up.
It was just, uh, one little sectionof this building we're in right now.
He didn't do any sort ofwinemaking whatsoever.
That lasted a year, maybe two.
I don't know for sure.
(17:10):
and then the, The new owners,the people we purchased it
from took over the Healy's.
And that's when they got startedinto this concept of doing batches.
And through the course of the next,15 years or so, uh, they expanded it.
So that's when the tasting room gotadded on, which is what we're sitting
in right now, the tasting room.
We also added on the kitchen.
I say we, they added on the kitchen.
(17:32):
provided some, you know,light finger food fare.
And then they would, provideevents and things like that.
You know, uh, birthdayparties, bachelorette parties,
things of that nature.
In addition to providing the, the retailarea where you can buy bottles of wine.
There was a gift shop out there.
And then of course the batches.
Uh, When we came in and boughtit in 2022, we decided we were
(17:53):
going to shift the focus a littlebit away from being a boutique.
We wanted to get the wine up.
And first and foremost, wewanted to get it up front and
get that exposed to everybody.
So getting back to your question now,what is somebody going to expect when they
come walking into Vinomondo Wine Room?
Well, first of all, you're going to comewalking into our retail area, you're going
to see a lot of wine all over the place.
And, as time evolves, we've got plansfor the future that we're going to
(18:17):
have, you know, wine on the walls.
You know, right now we've gotit on shelving units, but we're
going to put it up on the walls.
You're going to come and you'regoing to be surrounded with wine.
You're going to be greeted by somebody,and the first thing we're going to ask
you is, Do you want to try some wine?
You're welcome.
We got some wine for you to try.
If you want standard question, right?
I mean, you're here totry some wine, right?
So at that point, youknow, you have a choice.
You can, come into the tasting room.
If you want to do a flight, sit down,enjoy yourself, have a good time.
(18:40):
Or if you're just kind of meanderingaround you, you're not sure what you want.
So at that point in time, we would askyou, well, what is it you like in a wine?
What is it?
Do you like in general, ifyou come to me and you ask me,
what kind of wine should I get?
I'm going to look at you and I'm goingto say, what do you like to taste?
what flavors you like.
if you prefer sweet, if you prefer dry,then I can guide you in that direction.
(19:02):
And then we can help you find thewine that it is that you enjoy.
And then, you can sample some wines.
Like I said, we do offer a numberof small tastings, you know, just
get a feel for whatever you like.
At that point then you can eitherpurchase a bottle if you want.
Or you can come into the tasting room.
We can sit down, you can get aflight, you can try five different
wines in a flight if you want.
Or if you know what you like, you get afull glass of wine if you want to do that.
(19:25):
If you want to drink an entirebottle here, you can do that as well.
We'll get you a bottle to open up andyou can, and you can drink it here.
Then, if you really like the wine thatmuch, here comes the batch concept.
What you can do is I'll take, for example,the Tremita Riesling we've got right here.
That's one of the onesthat's available in batch.
If you say, I want to, I lovethat Tremita Riesling so much.
(19:45):
I can't get enough of it.
And I just, 12 bottles, that's pricey.
Well, I'll tell you what,let's go with a batch then.
Because that cuts down the costper bottle of of your wine.
And so how that works then isyou tell us, I want to get an
order of the Tremita Riesling.
We go ahead and note your order.
We go ahead and order the materialsto make that wine for you.
(20:08):
It's not something we keep on hand.
We don't have vats of winesitting here ready to be bottled.
We want you to have fresh wine, right?
So we will go out and order the materialsnecessary to make that wine for you.
It takes about eight to ten weeks.
We take it through theentire fermentation process.
In the back here, we've gotthese white buckets, we've got
carboys, uh, we go ahead and makethe wine here on the premises.
(20:30):
And then it goes throughits fermentation process.
Takes about eight to 10 weeks.
And then when it gets through thefermentation and the filtering
process, we call you up andtell you your wine's ready.
Come on in and bottle it.
And when you come in and bottleit, , that is an experience in
itself because it's really a joy.
You, you really don't knowhow fun it is to do it until
(20:50):
you've tried doing it yourself.
We've got a bottler, an automated bottler,bottling machine that sits right there.
You put the bottle in it fillsit up, it stops automatically.
You take the bottle out of there, youturn it around, there's a pneumatic
cork, or you put it in the corkingmachine, drop the cork in, shut the door.
It automatically pushesthe cork in for you.
Done.
You take the bottle out of there.
You move over to another table.
You put a foil on top of it.
(21:12):
We've got a hot air gun.
You shoot the hot air gun at this foil.
It automatically shrinks, shrinkwraps to it, shrinks it down.
Done.
And then comes the label.
Now, most of our wines, not all of them,but most of them come with standard
labels that you can put on there, oryou can get your own label if you want.
The labels that we've gotavailable just run the gamut.
We have had people come up with some,incredibly inventive label labels.
(21:37):
some it's not that much.
It's, you know, it can varyanywhere from, a dollar to a few
dollars per label, It's such fun.
It's just so much fun.
And we can do the labelshere on the premises as well.
Everything can be doneright here on the premises.
Which is probably one of the mostimportant things to, you know, get across,
is that we don't bring anything in.
This is all Michigan made stuff.
We do it right here.
We bring the supplies in fromelsewhere, but we're making
(21:58):
the wine here on the premises.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (21:59):
I can imagine that the appeal for some people doing this
is if you're going to have a bridalshower, or some kind of like a wedding
rehearsal dinner, or something andyou wanted to create a gift that was
completely unique with like your labelon it or You know or like a retirement
dinner or I mean the when I was goingthrough the labels and reading all of them
(22:23):
that you had back there It was amazing.
Just how many different occasionsUh, customized bottle of wine.
You can just, like, elevate
Brett Scharnhorst (22:32):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Now, the bottles you see in front of ushere, these are 750 milliliter bottles.
But we also offer 375 milliliterbottles, which are the half bottles,
right, which are half the size.
We call them split bottles.
but they're half this size.
And they're perfect for weddings.
Like you said, in fact, is Jackie and I.
We just did that for one of our kids,this past August for his, his wedding.
(22:54):
you can do, uh, you know, and soinstead of having 28 bottles in a full
batch, you can get 56 split bottles.
And you know, you fill those up.
And then, you can put a labelon them, congratulations on
your wedding and what have you.
And then you can put them onthe tables at weddings and we
have a lot of people doing that.
We've had, companies come in.
And they will purchase carboys of wineand they will give the wine, bottles of
(23:15):
wine to, customers, to, their employees.
We've had people come in and,they will just, buy, purchase
bottles of wine for their business.
So it's, it's very diverse.
There's a lot of differentapplications that you can use for this.
And again, it's great wine.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (23:31):
And you were talking before about cause it was
just a cute little story you weretalking before about the bottling
the actual bottling of the wine.
And you were sharing a storyabout how you had eight people
Brett Scharnhorst (23:44):
Oh, yes.
Yes.
So we've had some repeatcustomers who come in.
I mean, they've been repeatcustomers longer than Jackie
and I have even been involved.
So we're talking about over 10 years.
They've been the repeatcustomers of Vinomondo.
And they still come around today.
We've gotten to knowthese people very well.
But we do have instances, you know,where it's become a huge social event.
(24:05):
When they come in to bottle wine, we canset up a bluetooth speaker back there.
They can play some music.
In this instance that you weredescribing, you know, there were
eight ladies that came in, they werebottling the wine, they're sampling
the wine and they're singing along.
And they're playing the samesong over and over and over.
It was great fun.
they had a blast.
And it, and that'sexactly what it's about.
(24:26):
It's about having fun and theywere enjoying the wine and then,
they came in here and sat down andhad something to eat afterwards.
but that's what it's all about.
You know, the bottling experienceis all about having fun.
And I, I, putting it into wordsjust doesn't do justice to it.
It's just a great thing to do.
And it's a lot of fun.
Doing it by yourself, it'sprobably not quite as fun.
(24:46):
But you bring people in withyou and it's a huge blast.
It's just a blast.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (24:50):
I don't think that's ever been uttered on the show before.
The words wine and funin the same sentence.
Brett Scharnhorst (24:57):
Well, I don't know.
Some people might argue
Cliff DuVernois (2) (25:01):
argue that.
And I'm not saying it's not.
I'm not.
it's just an observation on my part.
So take it for what It's worth.
Brett, if somebody's listening to thisand they want to come and check out
Vinomondo on your website, stop by,try a sample of this headache free
wine that you have here, what wouldbe the best way for them to do that?
Brett Scharnhorst (25:19):
our address is 4505 Lakeshore Road, and we're
located in Fort Gratiot, Michigan.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (25:24):
Your website?
Brett Scharnhorst (25:25):
VinomondoWinery.
com
And we also have a Facebook page.
We've got an Instagram page.
And we've got a, uh, exformerly known as Twitter page.
best way to So, really the best way tokeep up on all the doings that we've
got going on is, uh, our Facebook page.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (25:42):
Sweet.
Brett, thank you so much fortaking time to chat with us today.
Really appreciate it.
Brett Scharnhorst (25:46):
Thank you, Cliff.
Again, it's great to have you here.
Cliff DuVernois (2) (25:48):
Awesome.
For our audience, uh you can alwaysroll on over to Total Michigan.
com and click on Brett's interview andget the links that he mentioned above.
We'll see you next time when wetalk to another Michigander doing
some pretty extraordinary things.
We'll see you then.
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