Construction begins at Boathouse Vineyards in Lake Leelanau

The wine industry is booming on the Leelanau Peninsula and the Leelanau Enterprise has a report on work at one of these, the new Boathouse Vineyards located just north of the bridge on the Narrows in Lake Leelanau.

The owners of Boathouse Vineyards and “Treeridge, L.L.C.,” which owns the one-acre waterfront property, plan to build a new boathouse on the old piers for their personal use, then construct a 2,000 square-foot wine tasting room with a parking lot off St. Mary’s Street north of M-204.

Owners Dave and Jane Albert of Leland left downstate Ionia and their automotive supply business six years ago to adopt the “up north” lifestyle and go into the wine business…

“The vineyard is now producing grapes, and French Road Cellars has been making most of our wine,” Albert said, “We hope to start offering our wine to customers at our new tasting room in the spring.”

The boathouse will be used for the Alberts’ own pontoon boat – which they may use to deliver wine to customers residing on the Lake Leelanau waterfront. In fact, the boathouse will be completed before the tasting room, and will include a commercial dock parallel to the shore where customers may tie up their boats long enough to visit the tasting room.

Photo credit: The Narrows by Bean in Sylvan Lake