Second Chances

Spicer Orchards Winery

Date Visited:  June 23, 2019

Stop:  #16

We left Old Prospect Hill Cemetery excited about the prospect of drinking some more wine, so we got back onto W. Shiawassee Ave. and headed west, bearing right onto Owen Road.  After a quick stop to gas up, we jumped onto US-23 and headed south to Exit 70.  We headed east on Clyde Road for about 0.4 miles and on the north side, we easily spotted Spicer Orchards.  This place was enormous and, on this day, was teeming with activity.  With the weather being so nice, there were hundreds of people swarming throughout the place.  Finding a parking spot proved to be a challenge, but after a few minutes, we were lucky to find someone leaving so we pulled into their vacated space.

It is overwhelming how much there is to do at Spicer’s.  On this particular day, a lot of people were there with the intentions of picking their own strawberries, so wagons loaded with people either going to or coming back from the fields were plentiful.  Kids were running all about, interacting with the array of farm animals populating the barnyard, or enjoying the train ride, bounce houses, zip line, sand art, face painting, pony rides, climbing structures, and more.  You could easily spend a day here, and from what I could see, many people were doing just that.

The Spicer family has been growing fruit in southeastern Michigan for five generations, and have had many markets in the area throughout the years.  Their present location was opened in 1980, and the winery was opened in 2009.  You can learn a little bit more about the history of the Spicer family at  http://www.spicerorchards.com/history.html.   History aside, we were there for one thing only – to sample some wine.  We were excited to visit their tasting room, and based on how many people we saw running about the grounds, were not surprised to walk in and find the room packed.  The tasting room is fairly large room, but there was no room at the bar to stand, and most of the tables were occupied.  There were only two people working, and both were behind the bar, so sitting at a table did not look like an option.  So, we patiently stood around waiting for a spot to open up at the bar.  In the meantime, we got our hands on their wine list and started the process of picking out our selections.  They had a very large selection of wines and hard ciders to choose from – in total, 23 different wines, and 8 different hard ciders.  They had 4 dry wines, 2 semi-dry wines, 2 semi-sweet wines, 6 sweet wines, 8 fruit wines, 1 ice wine, 4 hard ciders, and 4 limited edition hard ciders.  Choosing what we wanted would not be easy!!!

After about 10 minutes, we were able to squeeze into a rather small section of the bar and tried to get someone to come over and get us started with our wine selections.  The crowd at the bar seemed to overwhelm the workers who were trying to serve everyone in the place as well as act as cashier when patrons made purchases.  As a result, it took forever for someone to free up and come over to take our order.  Then, much to our aggravation, they would not take our order until we paid first!!  Now, we have been to many wineries and tasting rooms over the past several years and regardless of where we’ve been (Traverse City, Grand Haven, or the Niagara wine regions in Ontario, Canada), we have NEVER been to a winery or tasting room that required their patrons to pay first before being served.  This policy just did not seem very customer friendly – like they didn’t trust their clientele - and really set a bad tone for our visit.  I only want to pull out my wallet once and pay for everything when I am done and ready to leave – not have to pay multiple times every time I want to buy something.   

Spicer’s was offering seven 1-once pours for $7, so I paid our $14 and asked for our first selections.  It took quite some time for us to finish our 7 pours, mostly because it took an inordinate amount of time in between pours to get service.  Because the two gentlemen working the bar were so busy, there was virtually no interaction with them beyond them pouring our next ounce.  We learned nothing of the wines or ciders we were drinking, which was disappointing.  Kathy tried the following wines and ciders:  Traminette, the Reserve Cider, the House Blush, the Soft Red, the Cherry wine, the Dessert Apple, and the Honey & White.  I tried the Sweet Riesling, the Raspberry hard cider, the Catawba Blush, the Soft White, the Blueberry wine, the Cranberry Wine, and the Sparkling Peach.  The wines and ciders were mostly OK to good, but nothing really stuck out.  Kathy usually has all kind of notes scratched out on the wine list with stars next to bottles we have to buy.  But, none of that this time around.  We have never left a winery without buying at least one bottle of something, but there is always a first time, and this was going to be it for us (although at the last minute we decided to get the Catawba, which was something we hadn't had elsewhere in Michigan).  Maybe it was the crowds.  Maybe it was the poor service or the lack of a personal connection to the winery.  I know that their pay-as-you-go policy put a sour taste in my mouth, so maybe I wasn’t giving them a fair shake.  Whatever the reason, I want to chalk our disappointing visit up to it being an anomaly, and not the norm.  I could see by the fun that everyone was having at the orchard that this is a magical place, so I believe that the winery was just having a bad day.  In any event, our quest on this day included 3 wineries – one that was great, one that was closed, and one that was disappointing.  Not the formula for a successful trip, but I am sure Kathy and I will head back to Spicer’s again in the future and give it a second chance.

#michiganwinesandsigns #michigan #history #michiganhistory #wine #michiganwine #winetasting #historyisbetterwithwine