Where Everyone Knows Your Name

Michigan by the Bottle – Auburn Hills

Date Visited:  July 31, 2019

Stop:  #28

It was a Wednesday night, and lately, that has meant one thing – go to Michigan by the Bottle, drink wine, and eat pizza.  This has easily become Kathy and my favorite place to hang out and drink wine. We were introduced to MBTB several months ago by our very good friends, Randy and Christie.  Since then, we have probably visited here, on average, once or twice per month. Our day of choice is Wednesday night because that is pizza night. MBTB does not serve any food, other than a wide assortment of appetizers, so they joined forces with Larco Bros. Pizza (just across the street and a few storefronts west of MBTB) and while drinking wine, you can order anything off of Larco’s menu and have it delivered to your table at MBTB on Wednesday nights.  Our meal of choice has always been pizza, and this day was no different. We (Randy, Christie, Kathy, and I) had 4 additional people join us today – our daughter Sarah, good friends Eric and Susan, and their daughter, Margaret – so we needed to push two tables together to get all eight of us sitting together.

Michigan by the Bottle is an awesome place.  It is the perfect place to relax and unwind after a hard day at the office.  The staff is absolutely the best, and greet you by name every time you walk in the door.  I feel like I’m walking into the Cheers bar in Boston where everyone knows your name – JOHN!!!!  Well, not quite like that, but you do feel like family when you walk in and they bring you your wine selection list with your name already on it.  Ashley was one of the first servers to wait on us and she is now the Store Manager. Pete was the previous Store Manager and is now the Director of Wine Education.  Kelly or Nathan typically wait on us now. All of them are wonderful hosts; talking, joking, and making sure we are all taken care of.

MBTB was founded in 2012 by Shannon and Cortney Casey, certified sommeliers, who love Michigan wines.  They started as an on-line entity in 2009, but soon opened their first Tasting Room in Shelby Township (December 2012).  A couple years later, they opened their second Tasting Room in Royal Oak. The newest addition to the MBTB family opened its doors on July 9, 2016.  Originally planned to be located in the area of Great Lakes Crossing, Auburn Hills opened its arms when the original deal fell through. The Tasting Room is right smack in the middle of downtown Auburn Hills, on the south side of Auburn Road.

The premise behind Michigan by the Bottle is simple – they only serve and sell Michigan wines.  They have partnered with 20 Michigan wineries, who, according to the MBTB website, “…are family-run operations – some of which have existed for generations – that use their own estate-grown fruit and/or locally sourced fruit to produce high-quality wines.”  The partner wineries for the Auburn Hills site are:

• Blue Water Winery (Carsonville)
• Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery (Traverse City)
• Burgdorf’s Winery (Haslett)
• Chateau Aeronautique Winery (Jackson)
• Chateau Chantal (Traverse City)
• Cody Kresta Vineyard & Winery (Mattawan)
• Hawthorne Vineyards (Traverse City)
• Laurentide Winery (Lake Leelanau)
• Left Foot Charley (Traverse City)
• Mackinaw Trail Winery (Petoskey)
• Shady Lane Cellars (Suttons Bay)
• Wyncroft/Marland (Pullman)

Needless to say, many of the wines featured at MBTB-Auburn Hills come from these wineries.  And you will never be short of choices – on any given day, you will typically have upwards of 40 wines to choose from across all spectrums of wine types.  You can choose from 3 different Flights – the Full Flight, the Mini Flight, and The Tour – or you can order Big Pours by the glass. They have a wide array of appetizers to choose from as well, although the two biggest Flights come with some appetizers.  Kathy and I typically go big – we usually get The Tour, which includes five 2-oz wine pours, one dessert wine pour, Flite Bites (cheeses and chocolates), and crackers, cashews, or snack mix. This day was no different. In fact, I believe everyone at our table got their own Tour, so we had 48 glasses of wine on our table!  Plus, four pizzas. Needless to say, there was no room on the table, but boy, did we have a great time. Lots of fellowship and laughs to go around.

This is such an amazing place, and I really feel like my words do not do it justice, so I would recommend visiting their website at http://mbtbtasting.com/index.html# to learn more about them.  Better yet, I would recommend visiting any of their three sites.  Shannon and Cortney are wonderful hosts, and they throw great parties.  They hold amazing events at each of their 3 sites, and we have made sure to attend some of them.  We have done a vertical tasting event, two wine and food pairings events (with Chateau Aeronautique Winery and Laurentide Winery wines featured and the respective owners present to tell us all about their wines and amazing food prepared by Wooden Whisk Creations), and Kathy did a painting and wine event.  We have never been disappointed by any of our visits to MBTB, and our evening there on this day was no exception. Many thanks to Cortney, Shannon, and Staff members for always providing a memorable experience whenever we visit!!

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