On this week's episode, host Phil Tower chats with Patrick Brys, owner of Bry’s Estate Vineyard & Winery.
This episode was recorded on location in Traverse City, Michigan—home to one of the region’s most celebrated wineries, Brys Estate Vineyard & Winery.
Patrick Brys is the creative force behind the estate’s operations and guest experiences.
Since joining the family business, Patrick has helped transform Brys Estate into not only a producer of award-winning wines but also a destination known for innovation and hospitality. From the stunning vineyard views and the Secret Garden, to estate-grown wines that have earned national recognition, Patrick has played a key role in shaping how visitors experience Michigan wine.
Patrick spoke with us about the evolution of the vineyard and winery as well as the unique challenges and joys of winemaking in Northern Michigan.
He also shared with us about what the future holds for Brys Estate and the region’s growing wine scene.
Online: Brys Estate
This episode was recorded on location in Traverse City, Michigan—home to one of the region’s most celebrated wineries, Brys Estate Vineyard & Winery.
Patrick Brys is the creative force behind the estate’s operations and guest experiences.
Since joining the family business, Patrick has helped transform Brys Estate into not only a producer of award-winning wines but also a destination known for innovation and hospitality. From the stunning vineyard views and the Secret Garden, to estate-grown wines that have earned national recognition, Patrick has played a key role in shaping how visitors experience Michigan wine.
Patrick spoke with us about the evolution of the vineyard and winery as well as the unique challenges and joys of winemaking in Northern Michigan.
He also shared with us about what the future holds for Brys Estate and the region’s growing wine scene.
Online: Brys Estate
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to win form and enlightened on
a wide range of public policy issues, as well as
news and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio and I'm Phil Tower.
Once again, thank you for tuning in. Don't forget this conversation.
We'll be available as a podcast after you hear it
on the radio. You can check out all five hundred
and twenty or so of our episodes at woodradio dot com.
We are on location. We've had a busy summer. We've
been all over Western Michigan, all over really the western
(00:43):
half of the state. And we are in Trevor's City
for as you're hearing us on the radio, the first
ever Trevor City Wine and Food event. And now that
we are in September, we're churning toward one of the
greatest times of the year, which is autumn in the
Grand Trevers region in Old Mission Peninsula, wine wine tasting,
(01:03):
the wine harvest, and what a real treat to bring
back to this program. We talked with him several years
ago on iHeartRadio and wood radio. Patrick Bryce, owner Brise
of State Vineyard and Winery. He is across the table
from me as we are going to update the story
of Brise of State, which has been growing by leaps
(01:25):
and bounds over the years. And Patrick, first of all,
it's an honor to have you here.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Thanks for being here. Thanks great to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Patrick does not have a face for radio, and just
if you google brise a State, you'll see he looks
like a guy who's been living a good life at
a vineyard and a winery. And you love what you do,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It really is. It's a joy every day to welcome
the guests and the people who come see us, the
people who taste our wines, the people who really just
appreciate Michigan wine and handcrafted beverage. And it's a joy.
We sort of, I think there's a hospitality spirit that
(02:07):
exists in our family, and we love what we do.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
The whole story, the whole Bryce of State story. Your
mom and dad had this vision, but it goes back,
as I recall, fifty years ago they were in Napa
Valley and that's when a conversation happened about, hey, we
should do this. They weren't winemakers. They knew nothing about wine.
No share with our listeners a little bit about that
(02:33):
story and how that dream or that idea became reality.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So we're all Michiganders. I was born in the Detroit area.
My mom and my dad met in the Detroit area,
actually on a blind date. I love it absolutely, in
nineteen sixty eight on a blind date. Funny story was
that it was actually my dad's friend who was supposed
to go on the blind date and couldn't go at
(02:57):
the last minute, asked my dad to go, and my
mom and dad met and it was a real Detroit
story where they went to the auto show as part
of their day, they went to Buddy's Pizza, and they
went to a bowling alley. So that was their first date.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
That is an awesome first date.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
But they got married a year later and my dad
at the time worked for Blue Cross down in Detroit
and he had a business trip where his boss had
asked him to go out to San Francisco for a conference,
and so my mom and he had just been married,
and my mom said, well, I mean my dad said, well,
(03:36):
maybe I could bring my wife along. This could be
kind of like a mini moon, you know, for us.
And so his boss said, sure, you know, you buy
the ticket and you guys can go. And so after
the conference, my mom and my dad drove up across
the Golden Gate Bridge into the Napa Valley. And this
was in the early seventies then, and so Napa Valley
(03:56):
certainly wasn't what we all know it is today, much
more family owned and operated smaller wineries. And they just
fell in love with this concept. But they had no
way of ever starting a vineyard or winery. They had
kids on the way, they had all kinds of debts
had piled up in their early life, and they were
(04:17):
just it was just not a possibility. But they tucked
it away and they thought, maybe one day we can
start a winery. And it took thirty years before that
dream actually became a reality. My dad worked in real
estate development. His career took them to Ohio after Detroit,
and then to Texas and throughout that time he built
(04:42):
his own company, and then in the late nineties he
was able to retire, and so they said, what are
we going to do? They were a little bit quite
young actually, at the point they were still in their
fifties and they said, well, this is the time. And
so it really is an interesting story about dreams and
hanging on to them because you just never know. Thirty
(05:03):
years later something could really happen, and it did.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And they kept that dream all those years and they
find this farm an old Mission Peninsula. Talk about that.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, So they when they decided to start a winery,
they actually looked around the country. They didn't just focus
in on Michigan. I know, we're all from Michigan, but
they did look at other areas. They hired a consultant
to help them look at vineyard sites and do soil
testing and all kinds of things that you need to know.
And this farm came up on the Old Mission Peninsula
(05:35):
and eighty acre farm. Those types of tracks don't become
available very often. When they saw it, they thought, this
is absolutely amazing, but we don't know if it can
grow grapes. It was a cherry orchard at one point,
and so they did some soil analysis, had some other
experts come in and look at it, and lo and behold,
(05:56):
it was the best site of any around the country
that they had looked at. And so they bought the
property and this was in two thousand and so started
planting grapes in two thousand and one. We had our
first harvest in two thousand and four, and we opened
up our tasting room twenty years ago in two thousand
and five, So we just celebrated twenty years.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Congratulations. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. You took over operations what
was at two thousand and nine exactly?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So two thousand. I think in some ways my parents
thought that this might be a retirement project.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
For that and so wait a minute, I want to
interrupt you there, pardon me. What were you doing before
you decided? Okay, now I'm going to run this place?
What were you do? What was Patrick's life in the
early to mid two thousands.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
So I had studied marketing in school, and I had
actually went out to the West Coast and lived in
Los Angeles for a while and was working in marketing.
I worked at an imaging company in Los Angeles in marketing,
and it was my parents were like, again, started this
as a retirement project. But I think they thought that
(07:07):
maybe it would be a couple dozen people a day
and then they'd pour some wine for them, maybe more
for themselves, and go home and take a nap and
that would be their day. And it turned out people
really liked the wine, they liked the experience that they
had created. And so by two thousand and nine they
called me up and they said, we need some help.
(07:27):
This is not what we kind of were bargaining for
in our retirement, and so could you please come and
just give us a summer and try it out. And
so that's what I did. And that's sixteen years ago
now and I haven't looked back.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, were you a wine guy back then?
Speaker 4 (07:44):
No?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I mean I love the brutal honesty. Yeah, I mean
I love that.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You know. I think in life, you you know, you
learn through osmosis in a way, and so you and
of course joining a wine business. I knew about marketing,
I knew how to how to create and market products,
but I didn't really know much about wine yet. But
you learn through education. Trainings. We would go to different seminars,
travel the country in different wine regions, and of course
(08:12):
growing and tasting and drinking a lot. To be quite honest,
you do get a sense of what is wine and
how does it all come together? And I don't claim
to be the winemaker. We do have an excellent winemaker
Kunrad Stauston who's in his eighteenth vintage with us. So
(08:33):
that's pretty amazing and remarkable.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
He came from South Africa. Dad, Yeah, so do you
find a wine maker? You're in Traverse City? How do
you find a guy in? Is that answer a Facebook ad?
I mean, seriously, that's a real search, Patrick.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
So our first wine maker when the business was opened
was all was from South Africa, Cornell Olivier, and he
stayed with us for two years and then decided to
move on and start his own wine making business. But
during that time, another gentleman from the Stellenbosch region, kun
(09:11):
Rod Stassen, had learned about Michigan and making wine in
this cool climate region and sort of peaked his interest.
He's always up for a challenge, and so he decided
I'm going to come over here on an international exchange program,
and he did, starting first at Chateau Chantelle, which is
up the road from US. And then when Cornell decided
(09:34):
to part with us and start his own business, Cornell said,
you should really consider Counrod. He really has some most
similar style, similar sort of background and training. And that
was eighteen plus years ago now, and it.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Did a little research. Since Kunrada has joined you, over
five hundred medals YEP in national and international wine competitions,
a Jefferson Cup for your dry reasling, which I know
you had a big role in. And I'm not a
reasoning guy, but I've had the dry reasoning. It's delightful.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And just for full disclosure, I have been a fan.
My wife and I have been fan of brise Estate
vineyard and wines for some time. It's just it's a
really it is our favorite place. We often when come
up here don't go anywhere else. And for full disclosure
for the iHeartRadio listening audience, there's been no wine shared
across the table. There's no graft, there's no payola or plugola.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I just I.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Really wanted to talk to Patrick because I've seen Bride
of State grow over the years and it's really a
wonderful made in Michigan's success story. It really is. It
comes down to that. But you took it to another
level with the garden and the deck and the vision there,
which really complimented the place. But how can I say
(10:53):
this delicately? Some wineries go too far and I think
you guys have dialed them perfectly talk about that and
just your vision to make Rise not only a destination,
but the wine's still going to be awesome. That spirit
is going to be there, and I just love how
you made that work.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I think you know, when you're in the wine business,
first and foremost, you have to make excellent wine. I
mean that is that's definitely a must. And so it
starts with that, and we have, as I mentioned Kunrad
at the Helm, really crafting some incredible wines. When I
joined the business was different in the fact that at
(11:35):
the time, Michigan liquor laws didn't allow a lot of things.
We couldn't have outside service, we couldn't serve wine by
the glass. These laws slowly changed, and so then what
we found is that in Traverse City being such a
beautiful area and a lot of people coming to this
region that they wanted sort of an experience. They wanted
(11:55):
to have that vineyard experience, and so I looked to
sort of of moved the company in more of the
grow sort of the experience side of things, because people,
that's really you can get a bottle of wine in
the grocery store, right, so why are you coming to
a winery. It's you want that experience. So we slowly
started to add things over the years, and one of
(12:17):
the first things we did was we initially just put
in a little patio that we had off the side
of the taste room. We had to have a huge
hedge of bushes around it because Michigan Liquor Law said
that was what we had to do, and it was.
It's on the side of the building, and if you
haven't been to Brysea State, we're sort of up on
the top of a little bit of a hill and
(12:39):
vines grow right next to the building. Well, when vines
grow to their full maturity each season, they're at eight
nine feet, so it becomes like a hedge. So we
had a patio, but you couldn't really see the view
because there unless you stood on your tables, which some
people did. They stood on their tables and they'd hold
their cameras in the air, and we were like, what
(12:59):
are they doing, And what they were doing is trying
to capture a view. So one day I took a
ladder and I just took it along the side of
the building, the biggest ladder we had in the back
production area, and I climbed up to the top and
what I saw was thirty plus acres of grapes rolling
down to the east Grand Traverse Bay in incredible views.
So when we wanted to expand our patios, we decided,
(13:22):
let's do it up and let's elevate them. We call
it our upper Deck and that actually has slowly expanded
over the years, but it's a great area for people
to come and we have table service, they can order
wine flights. We have a new expanded food menu, so
lots of just sort of like chilax in the vineyard
(13:42):
and really be in touch with that. You're you're sort
of you know, you're drinking wine and you're seeing the
plants right there. You're even in some cases seated above
the vines where they're growing. So it really those type
of experiences. But I also focused on creating more in
depth immersive tours. We have something called the wine wagon tour,
(14:04):
which are stretched golf carts and they love it. They
seat they seat eight guests, so one driver and seven passengers,
and they go out on two hour excursions. You go
into the vineyards, you taste the wine where it's grown.
You sit on the front porch of our family farmhouse
that was built in the late eighteen hundreds and sip wine.
(14:26):
You go down into our secret garden, which I'll talk
about here in a second, which is a lavender garden,
and you usually.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Have a pickers of lavadery.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, you're right, and so you really get that sort
of true sense of the entire property and it's really
unique to any winery that we know. But again, going back,
I think really what my focus was is we're in Michigan.
Wine grows everywhere around the world. Wine is probably the
(14:55):
most diverse beverage known to man because everywhere it comes
from it's going to bring a different spin. So I
wasn't We were not trying to create an Italian winery
in Michigan. We were trying to create a Michigan winery
in Michigan, and we really wanted to create that quintessential
Michigan experience. And so that's what we've tried to focus on,
growing and really getting in touch with the land and
(15:15):
the beauty that is Old Mission Peninsula. So yeah, that's
that's some of what we've done.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Rsistate dot com you can see pictures of what we're
talking about. If you're driving of course, wait until you
pull over, but it's worth looking at brisstate dot com.
If someone's listening they want to book that trip through
the vineyards. Is that something you booked through your website?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Absolutely? So if you go online, you can not only
book the wine wagon tour.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
We do tickets wagon.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
It's we kind of have a joke, you know, when
you get off the wagon, then you can drink wine,
and then you get back on the wagon, you're not
drinking wine, and you drink wine throughout the entire property,
which is really fun. But yeah, there and also you
can book table reservation since for our deck all that
through our website.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Let me reintroduce the person we are speaking with, Patrick
Bryce Briseesstate Vineyard and Winery brisestate dot com. It's b
r y s. Patrick Brye with us as we talk
about just this tradition of wine and now Old Mission
Peninsula a real destination for wine visits and the wine season,
(16:27):
the wine harvest twenty five years ago. I don't know
if your parents could have envisioned that, but even twenty
years ago, it's just exploded and in a really good way.
Did you realize it was going to get this big?
And where do you see it going ten years from now?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Patrick, You know, it's incredible the growth of the Michigan
wine industry. Michigan now has over two hundred wineries and
there's a Wine America which studies the US wine market
just did a study released twenty twenty five saying that
the Michigan wine industry has an economic impact close to
(17:07):
nine billion using and that's not just selling bottles, that's
all of the stuff, the tourism that's generated, everything that
goes into that experience. Traverse City now has over fifty
wineries five zero and Traverse City producing sixty six zero
percent of Michigan wines. So when people come to Traverse City,
(17:30):
there is so much to explore and see and do,
and every winery, you know, having its unique personality, bringing
something different to the table, maybe experimenting with the grapes
a little bit differently. So so much to experience. And yeah,
I think Michigan wine has become more known. Obviously, more
(17:51):
seasoned winemakers have now, like our kunrod Stassen, our winemaker
with us almost twenty years now, really having that muscle
memory of like what's possible with this vineyard in a
good year in a bad year, how can we make
this quality product? And I think Michigan wines are increasing
in quality. But then you also have this trend of
(18:12):
in the wine world where people sort of are familiar
with California wines, they've had them for a long time.
They're looking for new and unique wine experiences. And so
Michigan being sort of a cool climate wine growing region
similar to Germany, say, or northern France all sauce, for example.
(18:35):
And so these cool climate wines a little lower in alcohol,
a little higher in acidity, which com pairs nicely with
a lot of different foods, a little crisper, a little
bit more fruit forward than say, sort of those warm
climate varietals. So people really are embracing sort of a
new style. We say cool is hot because it really
(18:56):
is cool climate wines. If you haven't had some, and
you haven't tried a lot, and we definitely encourage you
obviously to do so, but it's it's something unique, and wine,
like I said, is one of the most amazing and
most diverse beverages known to man, And so we say,
we say, drink it all, try it all, see what
(19:18):
works for you, but don't get stuck in a rut.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And you can find tune your tasting at rise or
wherever you are, you can find tune that, and that's
that's really important. By the way, I want to go
back to something you told me the guy who owns
a vineyard. You said, you warn a wine guy, do
you remember what the first wine you fell in, what
viriietal you fell in love with?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
So I would say that that's sort of difficult to answer.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
It's like asking your favorite kid.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I'm sorry, but I would say that when it comes
to overall wine, I think when I first really had
a rose, a true dry rose, that was really sort
of an eye opening experience. Rose's obviously made from red
verrietyl grapes, but then we just give them a light
(20:07):
skin contact when they're first pressed so that you could
just get that pale color. So these are all true
red virietals, but made into sort of like a white
wine and really enjoyable in the summer, very refreshing. And
also I would say Pina noir Pana noir is one
of these really amazing grapes that is somewhat fickle, a
(20:33):
little bit difficult sometimes to grow, but is very just expressive.
The ones from Traverse city, I really get like most
of them, you'll get like these really nice dark cherry
kind of flavors. Is it because we were a cherry
orchard prior to being a vineyard, I don't know, but
you do get these sort of these nice cherry notes
(20:54):
in the Pina noir and also our region in general,
just does Pina noar Pana noar being the second most planted,
well sorry, the first. The biggest planting of any red
varietal in the state is Pena noar, So yeah, w
reestling being number one. But yeah, so those two wines
(21:15):
really are. But then I would say, in addition, restlings,
reestlings are an incredible grape in the fact that it
can be made dry, bone dry all the way to sweet.
People think mostly reestling is sweet, and so when you
hear Michigan is a special you know, has a specialty
in making restlings, well then Michigan wines must all be sweet. No.
(21:39):
Reesslings can be made bone dry, and they're really incredible.
In fact, as you mentioned earlier, we had the privilege
of being voted one of the top hot ten hot
wine brands in the US back in twenty fourteen, and
that was with our dry Reessling, and we went out
to California and had this amazing party to celebrate these wines.
(22:03):
But people were they were just captivated by what reeseling
can really be, even Master Samolier's I mean, these the
top people in the world with the taste profiles and things.
Sometimes you ask them what is their favorite grape and
they say reesling because of just how versatile it is.
But also it's a white wine that can age. You
(22:23):
can you could have an aged reestling, say for ten, fifteen,
twenty years in the bottle, and people sometimes pair that
with steak.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's a it's a really unique grape. And yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
The first reestling I liked. I had it several years
ago at Rise of State and the dry Reasling. I
was like, this is fantastic. And I'm not normally a
recing guy, but you have. There's so many wines. I
do want to tip my hat to the pino, which
is absolutely wonderful. Pinos is it's it's hard to every
(22:58):
pino could be different. It's, like you said, kind of
a challenging grape, but every pino noir can be different.
And that's the wonderful thing about about Pinos. I want
to ask you a two part question. You've got to
balance tradition with innovation in the wine business. Is there
a tradition you guys at Bride the State won't give up.
(23:20):
But also at the same time, Conrade's thinking, okay, we
want to kind of go off the edge here a
little bit. Talk about a tradition you won't give up,
but maybe where you guys want to experiment.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Well, at Bryse's State, we are still hand harvested, hand crafted.
Everything is done by hand. We just it's sort of
in in our DNA that we want to do things
sort of in the traditional method as much as we can.
Why because when you when you hand harvest, for example, grapes,
(23:55):
that's the first line of quality control. If you if
you see something that's a cluster that's maybe of grapes
that's been attacked by some bird or something like that,
maybe it has a little rot on it, You're just
not going to take that. You're going to leave it
and let it go back into the soil, whereas a
machine is going to take everything. And so we really
try to focus on quality, not quantity. That's really our
(24:18):
message and again, we're really trying to focus on creating
the best Michigan wine that can be made. We're not
trying to create an Italian wine, We're not trying to
create a California wine. We want to create the best
Michigan wine and make those grapes expressive. So we find
it that those using those traditional methods are things that
(24:38):
really lend themselves as far as innovation. I mean, we
have pushed a little bit of the boundaries on a
few things when it comes to in the winter months.
For example, we sort of pioneered this device that goes
on the front of a tractor. It's a snowplow, okay,
(25:00):
And so in grape growing, if you get below negative
ten degrees, then that could actually kill off the buds
that are going to come out next year and create
your fruit. So you really don't want to get that low.
So what we've done to combat that when some of
the polar vortexes that have happened is each fall, we've
(25:24):
taken the effort to tie the canes that grew that
growing season down low to the ground. And those canes
contain the buds that will come out in the next year, right,
So we tie them low to the ground, and then
when we get a snowfall, we push this special tractor
(25:44):
has a little V shaped plow through the vineyard and
it pushes the snow up on top of the plants,
and snow creates an insulating blank interesting and then it
even if we get down below zero, it's not going
to negatively affect the plank. It's sort of like a
like a not so warm blanket, but it is a blanket.
(26:05):
I love it, and so that's helped us in a
lot of ways. There have been some you know, climate
change is real and we're seeing it where we have
since our start, since the start at Briz of State,
we now have over two weeks more average growing season
than we did just twenty years ago. But it doesn't
all come in the form of warmth, and sometimes Mother
(26:27):
Nature will throw a curveball with polar vortexes and that
can create damage. We've had years where when we before
we had this plow and these these things, we've lost
over fifty percent of our fruit in one night with
a polar vortex coming through. But that's one of the
things that helps us with a lot of that and
(26:47):
regulating a lot of this climate stuff is the lakes
that surround the peninsula and the state of Michigan. Michigan
is second in agricultural diversity in the United States States.
We can grow more things here than any other state
except California, and the reason is the water. The microclimate
(27:08):
created by the water allows us to grow the grapes
we grow, and it helps us throughout the growing season.
So if the lake doesn't freeze, it typically insulates us
from polar vortex conditions. It could be twenty degrees below
zero inland, but you come out to the peninsula and
it's only zero. The lakes also help us in the
(27:29):
spring where it's cold, the water's cold, it hasn't warmed
up yet, so it kind of keeps things cool out
on the peninsula and it prevents our plants from coming
alive too early, so we avoid frost issues in the spring.
And then in the fall, the water's warmed up like
it is, you know in September, and it just takes
(27:50):
a while to cool down, so it extends our growing season.
So amazing microclimate created by the lakes. It's the only
reason we do what we do.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, So special Patrick Bryce, owner Brise Estate Vineyard and
Winery with us on iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. Patrick, thank
you so.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Thank you so much. Yeah, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
It's been a lot of fun. He's been our guests
in this full segment of West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio.
That's our program this week. Thank you so much for
joining us.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio.
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This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to win form and enlightened on
a wide range of public policy issues, as well as
news and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio and I'm Phil Tower.
Once again, thank you for tuning in. Don't forget this conversation.
We'll be available as a podcast after you hear it
on the radio. You can check out all five hundred
and twenty or so of our episodes at woodradio dot com.
We are on location. We've had a busy summer. We've
been all over Western Michigan, all over really the western
(00:43):
half of the state. And we are in Trevor's City
for as you're hearing us on the radio, the first
ever Trevor City Wine and Food event. And now that
we are in September, we're churning toward one of the
greatest times of the year, which is autumn in the
Grand Trevers region in Old Mission Peninsula, wine wine tasting,
(01:03):
the wine harvest, and what a real treat to bring
back to this program. We talked with him several years
ago on iHeartRadio and wood radio. Patrick Bryce, owner Brise
of State Vineyard and Winery. He is across the table
from me as we are going to update the story
of Brise of State, which has been growing by leaps
(01:25):
and bounds over the years. And Patrick, first of all,
it's an honor to have you here.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Thanks for being here. Thanks great to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Patrick does not have a face for radio, and just
if you google brise a State, you'll see he looks
like a guy who's been living a good life at
a vineyard and a winery. And you love what you do,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It really is. It's a joy every day to welcome
the guests and the people who come see us, the
people who taste our wines, the people who really just
appreciate Michigan wine and handcrafted beverage. And it's a joy.
We sort of, I think there's a hospitality spirit that
(02:07):
exists in our family, and we love what we do.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
The whole story, the whole Bryce of State story. Your
mom and dad had this vision, but it goes back,
as I recall, fifty years ago they were in Napa
Valley and that's when a conversation happened about, hey, we
should do this. They weren't winemakers. They knew nothing about wine.
No share with our listeners a little bit about that
(02:33):
story and how that dream or that idea became reality.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So we're all Michiganders. I was born in the Detroit area.
My mom and my dad met in the Detroit area,
actually on a blind date. I love it absolutely, in
nineteen sixty eight on a blind date. Funny story was
that it was actually my dad's friend who was supposed
to go on the blind date and couldn't go at
(02:57):
the last minute, asked my dad to go, and my
mom and dad met and it was a real Detroit
story where they went to the auto show as part
of their day, they went to Buddy's Pizza, and they
went to a bowling alley. So that was their first date.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
That is an awesome first date.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
But they got married a year later and my dad
at the time worked for Blue Cross down in Detroit
and he had a business trip where his boss had
asked him to go out to San Francisco for a conference,
and so my mom and he had just been married,
and my mom said, well, I mean my dad said, well,
(03:36):
maybe I could bring my wife along. This could be
kind of like a mini moon, you know, for us.
And so his boss said, sure, you know, you buy
the ticket and you guys can go. And so after
the conference, my mom and my dad drove up across
the Golden Gate Bridge into the Napa Valley. And this
was in the early seventies then, and so Napa Valley
(03:56):
certainly wasn't what we all know it is today, much
more family owned and operated smaller wineries. And they just
fell in love with this concept. But they had no
way of ever starting a vineyard or winery. They had
kids on the way, they had all kinds of debts
had piled up in their early life, and they were
(04:17):
just it was just not a possibility. But they tucked
it away and they thought, maybe one day we can
start a winery. And it took thirty years before that
dream actually became a reality. My dad worked in real
estate development. His career took them to Ohio after Detroit,
and then to Texas and throughout that time he built
(04:42):
his own company, and then in the late nineties he
was able to retire, and so they said, what are
we going to do? They were a little bit quite
young actually, at the point they were still in their
fifties and they said, well, this is the time. And
so it really is an interesting story about dreams and
hanging on to them because you just never know. Thirty
(05:03):
years later something could really happen, and it did.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And they kept that dream all those years and they
find this farm an old Mission Peninsula. Talk about that.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, So they when they decided to start a winery,
they actually looked around the country. They didn't just focus
in on Michigan. I know, we're all from Michigan, but
they did look at other areas. They hired a consultant
to help them look at vineyard sites and do soil
testing and all kinds of things that you need to know.
And this farm came up on the Old Mission Peninsula
(05:35):
and eighty acre farm. Those types of tracks don't become
available very often. When they saw it, they thought, this
is absolutely amazing, but we don't know if it can
grow grapes. It was a cherry orchard at one point,
and so they did some soil analysis, had some other
experts come in and look at it, and lo and behold,
(05:56):
it was the best site of any around the country
that they had looked at. And so they bought the
property and this was in two thousand and so started
planting grapes in two thousand and one. We had our
first harvest in two thousand and four, and we opened
up our tasting room twenty years ago in two thousand
and five, So we just celebrated twenty years.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Congratulations. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. You took over operations what
was at two thousand and nine exactly?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So two thousand. I think in some ways my parents
thought that this might be a retirement project.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
For that and so wait a minute, I want to
interrupt you there, pardon me. What were you doing before
you decided? Okay, now I'm going to run this place?
What were you do? What was Patrick's life in the
early to mid two thousands.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
So I had studied marketing in school, and I had
actually went out to the West Coast and lived in
Los Angeles for a while and was working in marketing.
I worked at an imaging company in Los Angeles in marketing,
and it was my parents were like, again, started this
as a retirement project. But I think they thought that
(07:07):
maybe it would be a couple dozen people a day
and then they'd pour some wine for them, maybe more
for themselves, and go home and take a nap and
that would be their day. And it turned out people
really liked the wine, they liked the experience that they
had created. And so by two thousand and nine they
called me up and they said, we need some help.
(07:27):
This is not what we kind of were bargaining for
in our retirement, and so could you please come and
just give us a summer and try it out. And
so that's what I did. And that's sixteen years ago
now and I haven't looked back.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, were you a wine guy back then?
Speaker 4 (07:44):
No?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I mean I love the brutal honesty. Yeah, I mean
I love that.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You know. I think in life, you you know, you
learn through osmosis in a way, and so you and
of course joining a wine business. I knew about marketing,
I knew how to how to create and market products,
but I didn't really know much about wine yet. But
you learn through education. Trainings. We would go to different seminars,
travel the country in different wine regions, and of course
(08:12):
growing and tasting and drinking a lot. To be quite honest,
you do get a sense of what is wine and
how does it all come together? And I don't claim
to be the winemaker. We do have an excellent winemaker
Kunrad Stauston who's in his eighteenth vintage with us. So
(08:33):
that's pretty amazing and remarkable.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
He came from South Africa. Dad, Yeah, so do you
find a wine maker? You're in Traverse City? How do
you find a guy in? Is that answer a Facebook ad?
I mean, seriously, that's a real search, Patrick.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
So our first wine maker when the business was opened
was all was from South Africa, Cornell Olivier, and he
stayed with us for two years and then decided to
move on and start his own wine making business. But
during that time, another gentleman from the Stellenbosch region, kun
(09:11):
Rod Stassen, had learned about Michigan and making wine in
this cool climate region and sort of peaked his interest.
He's always up for a challenge, and so he decided
I'm going to come over here on an international exchange program,
and he did, starting first at Chateau Chantelle, which is
up the road from US. And then when Cornell decided
(09:34):
to part with us and start his own business, Cornell said,
you should really consider Counrod. He really has some most
similar style, similar sort of background and training. And that
was eighteen plus years ago now, and it.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Did a little research. Since Kunrada has joined you, over
five hundred medals YEP in national and international wine competitions,
a Jefferson Cup for your dry reasling, which I know
you had a big role in. And I'm not a
reasoning guy, but I've had the dry reasoning. It's delightful.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And just for full disclosure, I have been a fan.
My wife and I have been fan of brise Estate
vineyard and wines for some time. It's just it's a
really it is our favorite place. We often when come
up here don't go anywhere else. And for full disclosure
for the iHeartRadio listening audience, there's been no wine shared
across the table. There's no graft, there's no payola or plugola.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I just I.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Really wanted to talk to Patrick because I've seen Bride
of State grow over the years and it's really a
wonderful made in Michigan's success story. It really is. It
comes down to that. But you took it to another
level with the garden and the deck and the vision there,
which really complimented the place. But how can I say
(10:53):
this delicately? Some wineries go too far and I think
you guys have dialed them perfectly talk about that and
just your vision to make Rise not only a destination,
but the wine's still going to be awesome. That spirit
is going to be there, and I just love how
you made that work.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I think you know, when you're in the wine business,
first and foremost, you have to make excellent wine. I
mean that is that's definitely a must. And so it
starts with that, and we have, as I mentioned Kunrad
at the Helm, really crafting some incredible wines. When I
joined the business was different in the fact that at
(11:35):
the time, Michigan liquor laws didn't allow a lot of things.
We couldn't have outside service, we couldn't serve wine by
the glass. These laws slowly changed, and so then what
we found is that in Traverse City being such a
beautiful area and a lot of people coming to this
region that they wanted sort of an experience. They wanted
(11:55):
to have that vineyard experience, and so I looked to
sort of of moved the company in more of the
grow sort of the experience side of things, because people,
that's really you can get a bottle of wine in
the grocery store, right, so why are you coming to
a winery. It's you want that experience. So we slowly
started to add things over the years, and one of
(12:17):
the first things we did was we initially just put
in a little patio that we had off the side
of the taste room. We had to have a huge
hedge of bushes around it because Michigan Liquor Law said
that was what we had to do, and it was.
It's on the side of the building, and if you
haven't been to Brysea State, we're sort of up on
the top of a little bit of a hill and
(12:39):
vines grow right next to the building. Well, when vines
grow to their full maturity each season, they're at eight
nine feet, so it becomes like a hedge. So we
had a patio, but you couldn't really see the view
because there unless you stood on your tables, which some
people did. They stood on their tables and they'd hold
their cameras in the air, and we were like, what
(12:59):
are they doing, And what they were doing is trying
to capture a view. So one day I took a
ladder and I just took it along the side of
the building, the biggest ladder we had in the back
production area, and I climbed up to the top and
what I saw was thirty plus acres of grapes rolling
down to the east Grand Traverse Bay in incredible views.
So when we wanted to expand our patios, we decided,
(13:22):
let's do it up and let's elevate them. We call
it our upper Deck and that actually has slowly expanded
over the years, but it's a great area for people
to come and we have table service, they can order
wine flights. We have a new expanded food menu, so
lots of just sort of like chilax in the vineyard
(13:42):
and really be in touch with that. You're you're sort
of you know, you're drinking wine and you're seeing the
plants right there. You're even in some cases seated above
the vines where they're growing. So it really those type
of experiences. But I also focused on creating more in
depth immersive tours. We have something called the wine wagon tour,
(14:04):
which are stretched golf carts and they love it. They
seat they seat eight guests, so one driver and seven passengers,
and they go out on two hour excursions. You go
into the vineyards, you taste the wine where it's grown.
You sit on the front porch of our family farmhouse
that was built in the late eighteen hundreds and sip wine.
(14:26):
You go down into our secret garden, which I'll talk
about here in a second, which is a lavender garden,
and you usually.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Have a pickers of lavadery.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, you're right, and so you really get that sort
of true sense of the entire property and it's really
unique to any winery that we know. But again, going back,
I think really what my focus was is we're in Michigan.
Wine grows everywhere around the world. Wine is probably the
(14:55):
most diverse beverage known to man because everywhere it comes
from it's going to bring a different spin. So I
wasn't We were not trying to create an Italian winery
in Michigan. We were trying to create a Michigan winery
in Michigan, and we really wanted to create that quintessential
Michigan experience. And so that's what we've tried to focus on,
growing and really getting in touch with the land and
(15:15):
the beauty that is Old Mission Peninsula. So yeah, that's
that's some of what we've done.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Rsistate dot com you can see pictures of what we're
talking about. If you're driving of course, wait until you
pull over, but it's worth looking at brisstate dot com.
If someone's listening they want to book that trip through
the vineyards. Is that something you booked through your website?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Absolutely? So if you go online, you can not only
book the wine wagon tour.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
We do tickets wagon.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
It's we kind of have a joke, you know, when
you get off the wagon, then you can drink wine,
and then you get back on the wagon, you're not
drinking wine, and you drink wine throughout the entire property,
which is really fun. But yeah, there and also you
can book table reservation since for our deck all that
through our website.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Let me reintroduce the person we are speaking with, Patrick
Bryce Briseesstate Vineyard and Winery brisestate dot com. It's b
r y s. Patrick Brye with us as we talk
about just this tradition of wine and now Old Mission
Peninsula a real destination for wine visits and the wine season,
(16:27):
the wine harvest twenty five years ago. I don't know
if your parents could have envisioned that, but even twenty
years ago, it's just exploded and in a really good way.
Did you realize it was going to get this big?
And where do you see it going ten years from now?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Patrick, You know, it's incredible the growth of the Michigan
wine industry. Michigan now has over two hundred wineries and
there's a Wine America which studies the US wine market
just did a study released twenty twenty five saying that
the Michigan wine industry has an economic impact close to
(17:07):
nine billion using and that's not just selling bottles, that's
all of the stuff, the tourism that's generated, everything that
goes into that experience. Traverse City now has over fifty
wineries five zero and Traverse City producing sixty six zero
percent of Michigan wines. So when people come to Traverse City,
(17:30):
there is so much to explore and see and do,
and every winery, you know, having its unique personality, bringing
something different to the table, maybe experimenting with the grapes
a little bit differently. So so much to experience. And yeah,
I think Michigan wine has become more known. Obviously, more
(17:51):
seasoned winemakers have now, like our kunrod Stassen, our winemaker
with us almost twenty years now, really having that muscle
memory of like what's possible with this vineyard in a
good year in a bad year, how can we make
this quality product? And I think Michigan wines are increasing
in quality. But then you also have this trend of
(18:12):
in the wine world where people sort of are familiar
with California wines, they've had them for a long time.
They're looking for new and unique wine experiences. And so
Michigan being sort of a cool climate wine growing region
similar to Germany, say, or northern France all sauce, for example.
(18:35):
And so these cool climate wines a little lower in alcohol,
a little higher in acidity, which com pairs nicely with
a lot of different foods, a little crisper, a little
bit more fruit forward than say, sort of those warm
climate varietals. So people really are embracing sort of a
new style. We say cool is hot because it really
(18:56):
is cool climate wines. If you haven't had some, and
you haven't tried a lot, and we definitely encourage you
obviously to do so, but it's it's something unique, and wine,
like I said, is one of the most amazing and
most diverse beverages known to man, And so we say,
we say, drink it all, try it all, see what
(19:18):
works for you, but don't get stuck in a rut.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And you can find tune your tasting at rise or
wherever you are, you can find tune that, and that's
that's really important. By the way, I want to go
back to something you told me the guy who owns
a vineyard. You said, you warn a wine guy, do
you remember what the first wine you fell in, what
viriietal you fell in love with?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
So I would say that that's sort of difficult to answer.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
It's like asking your favorite kid.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I'm sorry, but I would say that when it comes
to overall wine, I think when I first really had
a rose, a true dry rose, that was really sort
of an eye opening experience. Rose's obviously made from red
verrietyl grapes, but then we just give them a light
(20:07):
skin contact when they're first pressed so that you could
just get that pale color. So these are all true
red virietals, but made into sort of like a white
wine and really enjoyable in the summer, very refreshing. And
also I would say Pina noir Pana noir is one
of these really amazing grapes that is somewhat fickle, a
(20:33):
little bit difficult sometimes to grow, but is very just expressive.
The ones from Traverse city, I really get like most
of them, you'll get like these really nice dark cherry
kind of flavors. Is it because we were a cherry
orchard prior to being a vineyard, I don't know, but
you do get these sort of these nice cherry notes
(20:54):
in the Pina noir and also our region in general,
just does Pina noar Pana noar being the second most planted,
well sorry, the first. The biggest planting of any red
varietal in the state is Pena noar, So yeah, w
reestling being number one. But yeah, so those two wines
(21:15):
really are. But then I would say, in addition, restlings,
reestlings are an incredible grape in the fact that it
can be made dry, bone dry all the way to sweet.
People think mostly reestling is sweet, and so when you
hear Michigan is a special you know, has a specialty
in making restlings, well then Michigan wines must all be sweet. No.
(21:39):
Reesslings can be made bone dry, and they're really incredible.
In fact, as you mentioned earlier, we had the privilege
of being voted one of the top hot ten hot
wine brands in the US back in twenty fourteen, and
that was with our dry Reessling, and we went out
to California and had this amazing party to celebrate these wines.
(22:03):
But people were they were just captivated by what reeseling
can really be, even Master Samolier's I mean, these the
top people in the world with the taste profiles and things.
Sometimes you ask them what is their favorite grape and
they say reesling because of just how versatile it is.
But also it's a white wine that can age. You
(22:23):
can you could have an aged reestling, say for ten, fifteen,
twenty years in the bottle, and people sometimes pair that
with steak.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's a it's a really unique grape. And yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
The first reestling I liked. I had it several years
ago at Rise of State and the dry Reasling. I
was like, this is fantastic. And I'm not normally a
recing guy, but you have. There's so many wines. I
do want to tip my hat to the pino, which
is absolutely wonderful. Pinos is it's it's hard to every
(22:58):
pino could be different. It's, like you said, kind of
a challenging grape, but every pino noir can be different.
And that's the wonderful thing about about Pinos. I want
to ask you a two part question. You've got to
balance tradition with innovation in the wine business. Is there
a tradition you guys at Bride the State won't give up.
(23:20):
But also at the same time, Conrade's thinking, okay, we
want to kind of go off the edge here a
little bit. Talk about a tradition you won't give up,
but maybe where you guys want to experiment.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Well, at Bryse's State, we are still hand harvested, hand crafted.
Everything is done by hand. We just it's sort of
in in our DNA that we want to do things
sort of in the traditional method as much as we can.
Why because when you when you hand harvest, for example, grapes,
(23:55):
that's the first line of quality control. If you if
you see something that's a cluster that's maybe of grapes
that's been attacked by some bird or something like that,
maybe it has a little rot on it, You're just
not going to take that. You're going to leave it
and let it go back into the soil, whereas a
machine is going to take everything. And so we really
try to focus on quality, not quantity. That's really our
(24:18):
message and again, we're really trying to focus on creating
the best Michigan wine that can be made. We're not
trying to create an Italian wine, We're not trying to
create a California wine. We want to create the best
Michigan wine and make those grapes expressive. So we find
it that those using those traditional methods are things that
(24:38):
really lend themselves as far as innovation. I mean, we
have pushed a little bit of the boundaries on a
few things when it comes to in the winter months.
For example, we sort of pioneered this device that goes
on the front of a tractor. It's a snowplow, okay,
(25:00):
And so in grape growing, if you get below negative
ten degrees, then that could actually kill off the buds
that are going to come out next year and create
your fruit. So you really don't want to get that low.
So what we've done to combat that when some of
the polar vortexes that have happened is each fall, we've
(25:24):
taken the effort to tie the canes that grew that
growing season down low to the ground. And those canes
contain the buds that will come out in the next year, right,
So we tie them low to the ground, and then
when we get a snowfall, we push this special tractor
(25:44):
has a little V shaped plow through the vineyard and
it pushes the snow up on top of the plants,
and snow creates an insulating blank interesting and then it
even if we get down below zero, it's not going
to negatively affect the plank. It's sort of like a
like a not so warm blanket, but it is a blanket.
(26:05):
I love it, and so that's helped us in a
lot of ways. There have been some you know, climate
change is real and we're seeing it where we have
since our start, since the start at Briz of State,
we now have over two weeks more average growing season
than we did just twenty years ago. But it doesn't
all come in the form of warmth, and sometimes Mother
(26:27):
Nature will throw a curveball with polar vortexes and that
can create damage. We've had years where when we before
we had this plow and these these things, we've lost
over fifty percent of our fruit in one night with
a polar vortex coming through. But that's one of the
things that helps us with a lot of that and
(26:47):
regulating a lot of this climate stuff is the lakes
that surround the peninsula and the state of Michigan. Michigan
is second in agricultural diversity in the United States States.
We can grow more things here than any other state
except California, and the reason is the water. The microclimate
(27:08):
created by the water allows us to grow the grapes
we grow, and it helps us throughout the growing season.
So if the lake doesn't freeze, it typically insulates us
from polar vortex conditions. It could be twenty degrees below
zero inland, but you come out to the peninsula and
it's only zero. The lakes also help us in the
(27:29):
spring where it's cold, the water's cold, it hasn't warmed
up yet, so it kind of keeps things cool out
on the peninsula and it prevents our plants from coming
alive too early, so we avoid frost issues in the spring.
And then in the fall, the water's warmed up like
it is, you know in September, and it just takes
(27:50):
a while to cool down, so it extends our growing season.
So amazing microclimate created by the lakes. It's the only
reason we do what we do.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, So special Patrick Bryce, owner Brise Estate Vineyard and
Winery with us on iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. Patrick, thank
you so.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Thank you so much. Yeah, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
It's been a lot of fun. He's been our guests
in this full segment of West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio.
That's our program this week. Thank you so much for
joining us.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
When I met both of them, it was like my
missing pieces were found, Like it was just like an instant.
These are my kids. If you're considering adopting a team,
just do it. Kids need families. I don't care the age.
Everybody deserves a family.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
Learn about adopting a teen from foster Care. Visit adopt
us Kids dot org to learn more. A message brought
to you by Adopt U S Kids, the U S
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.