Detroit to Leelanau: Taking over the Ciccone Family Winery

By Madeleine Hill Vedel

Sun contributor

Sometimes you end up where you never thought you would be. This is the case for Paula Ciccone, the introverted and warmly welcoming head wine-maker at Ciccone Winery, taking over from her father Tony, founder and creator of Ciccone Winery just south of Suttons Bay. As she tells the story, it was not something she actively sought, nor ever really imagined till it just started to happen.

“In 2011 I was laid off from my job down in Detroit, and came up [to the family winery in Leelanau] that summer. I had helped out in the cellar a couple of years before, but this was different. When I first got here I just did the website. Then I inventoried all the rows of vineyards for each wine, and tagged all of the posts. Once I was done with that it was ‘what should I do next?’

I didn’t come up here to be the winemaker, but I thought, what the heck. I’ll try it. My father started giving me responsibilities in the cellar, involving me more. It was one of those situations: did my father pull me in? Or did I take an interest in it myself? I started keeping a notebook of all the different procedures, and I started asking all these questions. I started reading and reading and reading.”

Paula shared with me how in the beginning her father made all the decisions, and how with their shared corporate backgrounds it was natural to fall into the rhythm of daily morning status reviews, board reviews in the lab, discussions, and to include her in the planning and tasks of the winery. Following his own schedule, Tony passed the baton to his chosen successor. “He gradually stopped, maybe four years ago? He started being more in the owner role and less in the winemaking role. He began trusting me, letting me make more decisions. I still call him and ask him questions, but he throws them back at me.”

Ciccone Winery is a family business. Hearkening back to the traditions of his Italian roots, Tony brought his daughter and son Mario, who manages the vineyards, into the fold and trained them to carry on his dream. In Europe, it is expected that family will inherit a winery, continue the family legacy, and carry forth the dreams of prior generations. This is less common in the States, and in Leelanau County where transitions can be from one winemaker to the next —such as the partition of Mawby, now owned equally by founder Larry Mawby and the winemaking brothers Mike and Pete Laing who’ve worked alongside Mawby for two decades; or from one owner to the next, as when Richard Fortune purchased Shady Lane in 2013 from founder Dr. Joseph O’Donnell. 

“I guess because it’s a family business it made me work harder to be taken seriously. It has made me work that much more to legitimize the place and be a contender on the [Leelanau wine] trail, representative of the region.” To that end, Paula has studied, researched, asked questions, and attended wine making classes at Michigan State University. At first hesitant to reach out to her Leelanau colleagues, she now views them as invaluable resources for advice. “I couldn’t find everything in my research, so I called around, I put my pride aside. I reached out.” Dave Hill at Leelanau Cellars, Charlie Edson and Blake Lougheed over at Bel Lago Vineyards, and Matt Frolo at Peninsula Cellars have all been generous in their counsel and support. And in the past few years, Paula has entered her wines in competitions and come home with a couple of gold medals. “To be getting bottles in the same class as many of the other wineries up here is very flattering.”

Paula’s first intent was to be able to continue making wine in the style of her father, holding to his original vision of fruit forward wines and keeping the winery’s faithful clientele content. However, she has innovated on occasion, and may do so more in the future. “I’ve done a few experimental batches, particularly during difficult years when you don’t always get the best grapes. I was able to veer off program then and make a non-traditional blend, such as Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and Dolcetto.” Paula said. “When I told my father what was in the glass he looked me in the eye, horrified, and asked, ‘what are you going to call it?'” In the end, Paula named the unusual blend after her dog Cassie, put a watercolor portrait of him on the label, and it has become one of the winery’s top selling wines of the past few years.

In 2018, when there had been a particularly small harvest, she blended her hybrids, the Marechal Fauch and the De Chaunac, with the “punchy tannins” of her Dolcetto and named it Figlia—daughter—or her father. 

Gaining confidence in her skills, she has also “filled a hole in our program” and added a sweet wine, blending a majority of Chardonnay with a little Muscato. “It is the after dinner with a cigar thing, and the brides love it.” Paula said. “You’re only as good as your last movie.” She continued, “This year we introduced our wines in cans. Next year? I don’t know yet. There’s so much competition, but that also helps keep everyone on their toes. You have to be good to keep your share of the business.”

Making wine in Leelanau County is a big jump for this metro Detroit kid who used to summer up here at Timber Shores in Northport, where her father’s wife Joan and her brother had cottages. In a few short years she’s gone from working in corporate offices to contemplating how to make the best wine possible from the family’s twenty-one year old vineyards. However, learning from her beloved father and making sure his dream continues, sharing in its joys and successes is in her blood. 

“You’ve got to get really good at what you do. It was put upon me, but I wasn’t disinterested. I guess I like a challenge. That’s putting it minimally. Every year I write down my lessons learned. There is always a list. I keep thinking, this year I will know everything… But of course I don’t. It [winemaking] is good in a way as it keeps you on your toes.”

Laughing self-deprecatingly, Paula confides, “It’s like having kids and you try to do the same thing by each one, and they all come out different. When people say to me ‘your wine is fantastic, here’s your gold medal’, I say ‘well, it behaved this year.'”

As Paula showed me around the vineyards, she pointed out the little plaques on the end posts of the rows, still in place from her early inventory project. We toured the beautiful old barn where light streams in between the cracks in the vertical boards, and the windows look out over Grand Traverse Bay. Paula Ciccone may not have thought she would end up here, but clearly, she’s where she is meant to be. 

To visit, taste wine, join the wine club, or book an event: Ciccone Vineyard & Winery is located at 10343 Hilltop Rd, Suttons Bay, MI 49682. Call (231) 271-5553.