Dear MichiganByTheBottle.com fans,
tl;dr version: Our brick and mortar tasting rooms —MBTB Tasting Rooms in Shelby Township, Royal Oak and Auburn Hills. — continue to operate as usual. In the next few weeks, MichiganByTheBottle.com will start redirecting to our tasting room site at MBTBTasting.com. We will continue to promote the entire Michigan wine industry on our MichiganByTheBottle.com Facebook page at Facebook.com/michbythebottle, but new content will no longer be posted at MichiganByTheBottle.com.
The last two years have been challenging, to say the least, for everyone in the midst of the global pandemic. We have all faced struggles we never anticipated — including, for many, major changes in our family and work lives.
Many of us also have taken a step back and re-evaluated where we invest our time and effort. Covid has been a bucket of cold water thrown in our faces, reminding us of our mortality and just how limited our time is. If we, or our loved ones, were gone tomorrow, how would we look back and wish we’d spent the time we had?
As our readers may have noticed, our main website that started it all, MichiganByTheBottle.com, has been quiet for many months now in terms of new content, though we continue to maintain our Facebook presence (at http://www.Facebook.com/michbythebottle), where we still share the goings on at wineries throughout the state. And we’ll get to the why in a moment.
For those who aren’t familiar with our story, we — Shannon and Cortney Casey, a couple of married wine lovers from Metro Detroit — became enmeshed with the Michigan wine industry originally through MichiganByTheBottle.com. We launched the blog as a “fun side project” in June 2009 and continued to pick up speed and momentum as we added videos, podcasts, interviews, contests and, especially, a social media presence. The Michigan wineries embraced us whole heartedly, and we are so grateful and fortunate for that. We met a ton of wonderful people and learned so much about the world of wine.
The more time we spent working on the blog and traveling to wineries throughout the state, the deeper we fell in love with the Michigan wine industry. We realized that IN the Michigan wine industry was where we were meant to be — not looking on from the sidelines. That epiphany drove us to launch our first brick and mortar store, Michigan By The Bottle Tasting Room, partnered with a handful of smaller Michigan wineries, in Shelby Township in 2012.
Our success proved that, as we hoped, the metro Detroit community was eager to experience everything our state had to offer in terms of wine. We were ecstatic. We watched people who had dismissed Michigan reds walk out with cases of it once they actually tried it. We watched people who were completely unaware of particular local wine regions discover a new favorite region to visit after stopping at MBTB. We watched guests who previously felt intimidated by wine become comfortable with it in our casual, welcoming atmosphere.
And we continued to grow, opening our Royal Oak location in 2014 and our Auburn Hills location in 2016. We both earned our certified sommelier certifications. We grew from a two-person operation to a team of about 40. Through it all, we continued to maintain MichiganByTheBottle.com, promoting the entire Michigan wine industry — not just our partner wineries.
And then Covid came.
The overwhelming challenges facing small businesses in the wake of the pandemic and the ensuing restrictions/shutdowns forced us to focus all of our time and energy on keeping our physical stores afloat. Subsequently, we were unable to devote the attention to MichiganByTheBottle.com that it deserved. Having the time and mental stamina to be able to write regular articles and produce weekly podcasts was a distant dream. Like everyone else, we were in survival mode. And unlike when we were bloggers operating independently and doing it for fun, we now had 40 employees and about 25 partner wineries counting on us — not to mention our own livelihoods, which were now entirely intertwined with the Michigan wine industry.
When the dust had settled, we had to take a step back and look at what we were doing with the time we had. We realized that spending nearly every waking moment immersed in work, as we had for years, was no longer feasible. We had to start making some difficult choices. We had to begin re-evaluating our priorities and abilities realistically, through the lens of this new pandemic-changed world and the revelations it had brought.
After a lot of thought, discussions, analysis, and soul searching, we have decided to officially cease adding content to MichiganByTheBottle.com. Within a few weeks, this website will begin redirecting to the separate page for our brick and mortar tasting rooms at MBTBTasting.com.
It feels surreal to be officially declaring the sunset of this website, but it seems pointless to keep the site up any longer without fresh content and updated information.
However, we will continue to promote the entire Michigan wine industry on our MichiganByTheBottle.com Facebook page at Facebook.com/michbythebottle by sharing the events and posts of wineries around the state and relevant Michigan wine news stories (and asking what you’re drinking, of course).
Don't worry: Our tasting rooms in Metro Detroit will continue to operate as usual — nothing is changing there! In fact, as we speak, we’re working tirelessly to add more events, classes, etc. as Michiganders start cautiously venturing out again post-Omicron. (For more info about the tasting rooms, including our menus and events, please visit MBTBTasting.com.) We are looking forward to a post-pandemic world where we can celebrate Michigan wine in enthusiasm-filled, jam-packed rooms like we used to. Hopefully that world is around the corner.
And our support of the Michigan wine industry continues just as passionately, even if it’s not stamped across this website. I (Cort) continue to write about Michigan wine for Michigan Wine Country magazine and MichiganUncorked.com, a digital wine publication. We both continue to serve as judges at wine competitions when invited to do so. We continue to love visiting Michigan wineries and spreading the gospel of Michigan wine. Every day, we continue to proclaim our adoration from the rooftops via the brick and mortar stores.
The support and interest we’ve received from the Michigan wine industry and Michigan wine lovers has far surpassed anything we ever expected, and we’re so beyond grateful for that. It’s no exaggeration to say it changed the entire course of our lives.
Thank you to all of us for joining us on our journey in Michigan wine, which continues even without this site. We hope you’ll all continue to follow along on Facebook, and also come visit us at our physical tasting rooms.
Keep supporting the state with every sip — we most certainly will! See you on social and behind the bar.
Cort & Shannon
Feb. 14, 2022
Hi everyone! Cort here, checking in to see how you all are doing. If you're like us, you've been muddling through this dumpster fire of a year with plenty of Michigan wine in hand. ;)
You may have noticed that we've been a bit quiet on MichiganByTheBottle.com lately. Like everyone else, we're still struggling with how differently 2020 has gone than how we planned/hoped/expected. Treading water through the pandemic, then reopening our brick-and-mortar tasting room locations post-quarantine with a decimated staff, the political hullabaloo surrounding masks, reduced capacity, new regulations, etc., has consumed more of our energy and time than we ever could have imagined.
We wanted to let our readers know that we are still committed to promoting the entire Michigan wine industry through MichiganByTheBottle.com, which is still going strong after 11 (!!!) years. We might be a little bit quieter on the website itself for the next few months, but we continue to share content from Michigan wineries over on our Facebook page at Facebook.com/michbythebottle, trying to keep all of our fellow Michigan wine fans up to date on the goings-on in the industry.
For the last 20 (OMG, corona has been going on this long?!) weeks, we've also been hosting a Sunday night Facebook Live show called MBTB Coronacast. From 7:45 p.m. to 8 p.m. is our "Pre-Show Pre-Party," where we chat with commenters and just talk nonsense, basically. At 8 p.m., we get down to the tasting of three wines available at our brick-and-mortar tasting rooms. It's light hearted (with the occasional obscenities, so get out the earmuffs for the kids — you've been warned!) wine fun that we hope brightens your Sunday evenings with goofiness. Even if you can't get your hands on the featured wines, we'd love to see you there in the audience and chat with you! (Please note: While the show is cross-posted across multiple MBTB pages — @michbythebottle, @mbtbonwoodward, @mbtbauburn, @mbtbtasting — we ONLY see your comments live if you watch and comment via the MBTB Shelby Township page at Facebook.com/mbtbtasting.)
We hope once things stabilize/normalize (whatever that means these days), we'll be able to get back to providing more original content, including resuming our event listings, restarting podcasts, etc.
In the meantime, please, please, please keep supporting your Michigan wineries — they will need it more than ever before in these challenging months to come. The struggles are just beginning. Even without spending a penny, you can assist these small businesses by liking and sharing their posts, telling a friend about them, or sending them a kind email to let them know you're thinking about them.
We love all of you guys and the Michigan wine industry. We appreciate you and hope you are doing well. We will all make it through this. Until then ... it's five o' clock somewhere. Drink up — and support the state with every sip.
Peace, love and Michigan wine,
Cort
A new #MichiganWineMonthChallenge will allow people to bid on “exclusive experiences” at Michigan wineries to benefit hospitality industry employees. The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA) and Michigan Wine Collaborative announced on Friday the launch of #MichiganWineMonthChallenge.
via GRMag.com
A great idea for a great cause!
Submitted by Michigan Wine Collaborative
Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association and Michigan Wine Collaborative Launch Wine Month Challenge to Raise Funds for Hospitality Employees
LANSING, MICH. – The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA) and Michigan Wine Collaborative announced today the launch of #MichiganWineMonthChallenge. Beginning on May 1 and continuing for the entire month, during Michigan Wine Month, the challenge will offer opportunities for individuals to bid on exclusive experiences at select Michigan wineries.
All proceeds from the #MichiganWineMonthChallenge will go to The Michigan Hospitality Employee Relief Fund. The relief fund was created by the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association to provide grants to the state’s hospitality industry employees who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It has been a unique opportunity to work collaboratively with partners across the state to provide new resources for our hospitality industry and this partnership with the Michigan Wine Collaborative does just that,” said Justin Winslow, President and CEO of the MRLA. “We are honored to work together on this challenge while continuing to raise funds for an industry that has been arguably the hardest hit in our state in the wake of COVID-19.”
Virtual tickets are available for purchase May 1- 31, 2020. Participants then submit the virtual ticket to the prize package they select online. Each $10 virtual ticket purchased is equivalent to one entry. The more virtual tickets that participants submit for a package, the better the odds for winning the drawing. The drawing will take place on the MRLA Facebook page live at 10:00 am on Wed., June 3, 2020 atwww.facebook/com/theofficialmrla.
“Our goal with the Wine Month Challenge is to raise awareness for the wine industry in our state that has been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic while also doing some good by raising money to support the hospitality industry’s hardworking employees,” said Brian Lillie, Director of Hospitality & Distribution at Chateau Chantal and Michigan Wine Collaborative board member. “This partnership with the MRLA made perfect sense and we are looking forward to the good that this challenge can bring to our industry.”
Michigan wineries offering packages for the #WineMonthChallenge include 2 Lads Winery, Amoritas Vineyards, Bonobo Winery, Chateau Chantal Winery, Fenn Valley Vineyards, Hawthorne Vineyards, Left Foot Charley, Love Wines Winery of Ludington, Modals Wines, MAWBY Sparkling Wines, Shady Lane Cellars, St. Julian Winery & Distillery, and Winery at Black Star Farms.
Participants can purchase virtual tickets online at https://mrlaef.org/michigan-wine-month-challenge-submission-form.html and view the packages at www.mrlaef.org/Michigan-wine-month-challenge.
About the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association
Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA) is the recognized leader of Michigan's hospitality industry, providing essential services to the foodservice and lodging community. Founded in 1921 as the Michigan Restaurant Association and now known as the MRLA, the Association represents over 5,000 Michigan foodservice and lodging establishments. The industry plays an integral role in Michigan's economy, employing nearly 600,000 people and creating $40 billion in annual revenue. For more information, visitwww.mrla.org and www.detroitrla.org.
About the Michigan Wine Collaborative
The Michigan Wine Collaborative (MWC) is non-profit organization formed with the mission to enhance the sustainability and profitability of the Michigan wine industry by supporting wineries, growers and other businesses and individuals connected to the industry – today and for future generations. For more information, visit michiganwinecollaborative.com.
Please note: The content of Bottle Blurbs is provided by wineries and wine organizations via press releases and reprinted verbatim. The submitters are solely responsible for the content and accuracy of the information. Wineries: Have news you'd like us to share? Email us.
Michigan By The Bottle is teaming up with the Michigan Wine Collaborative and Michigan Wine Country magazine for a Virtual Wine Wednesday featuring different wineries from throughout the state! It's 8-9 p.m. every Wednesday night throughout May in celebration of Michigan Wine Month. Participation is FREE, though purchasing wine from the featured wineries is strongly encouraged. Get up close and personal with the winemakers, winery owners and more as you sip and socialize from the safety and comfort of your own home. Click here to stay up to date on complete details!
In recent weeks, as the Detroit metro area became a hotspot for the novel coronavirus, everyone, with the exception of essential workers, has been told to stay home — but that doesn’t mean people can’t still get a taste of their favorite Michigan wines. As tasting rooms closed their doors, many winemakers have been forced to come up with new ways to do business including offering shipping for just one cent, case discounts, and virtual tastings.
Tasting have gone virtual in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wine tasting usually is a social affair, an elbow-to-elbow group of people sipping together and sharing thoughts in a tasting room bustling with human traffic. Such gatherings are strongly discouraged in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wineries are responding with curbside pickup options, online deals and even virtual tastings.
via Record-Eagle.com
Have you been participating?
While many Michigan wineries are closed or open with limited hours, they’re offering rare online deals and discounts for walk-ins and curbside pickup. Wineries are not open for tastings, wine by the glass, or snacks, per the governor’s executive order mandating the closure of certain types of businesses because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus
via DetroitNews.com
Wineries are getting creative when it comes to selling in the era of coronavirus.
Michigan wineries were already ramping up sanitation and modifying group tasting policies as warnings and fears surrounding Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) intensified last week. Now, as a result of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order closing bars and restaurants effective 3 p.m. March 16, they’re dealing with what they hope is a temporary new normal. With tasting rooms closed, their focus is primarily on retail and online sales as they try to keep income flowing to as many employees as possible.
Wineries weigh in on how they're coping with coronavirus :(