With bars in Traverse City and Bellaire writing lengthy pleas to the public to respect their employees, to refrain from cursing, spitting and worse, it was time to check in with Leelanau County’s wineries and see how they’ve managed the COVID-19 requirements of mask-wearing, distancing, sanitizing surfaces, and more.
Susan Braymer is passionate about what she does. And what she does during the vast majority of her waking hours is run her and her husband Bill’s Laurentide winery in Leelanau County. Opened in 2012, Laurentide is the culmination of shared dreams for doing something in the wine business that started bubbling many years ago. Wine is part of Susan and Bill’s love story, on the table at celebrations, guiding their vacation destinations, and a source of endless learning and conversations.
Fall is here, and Susan Braymer, who along with her husband Bill, owns and operates Laurentide, a Lake Leelanau winery that opened its tasting room in the summer of 2012, finds that this is a season at the end of which she breathes a sigh of relief. “It’s a rushed and stressful time,” she said, “but after the harvest, you get relief. The grapes are off, and they’re on their way to the next point of their journey.”