For nearly a quarter of a century, the Moersch family has experimented, innovated, collaborated and invigorated the adventures of the Southwest Michigan Wine Trail. They have been trailblazers, often setting the gold standard for colleagues and competitors alike, and now they are forging a new path along the wine trail that will substantially raise the bar on the collective wine tasting experience in Michigan's Great Southwest. It's a path they travel alone now, but they expect to see ardent followers in the years ahead.
The brothers Moersch — Chris & Matt — are introducing today Wine Tasting by Reservation at their Round Barn Winery on Hills Road in Baroda. Beginning April 30th, all wine-tasting will be by advance appointment unless openings are still available upon walk-up. Chris & Matt were busy Friday recording brief videos to explain the concept in the middle of re-construction on the second floor of their iconic Amish round barn on the grounds.
As Chris says, "It was time to make a change in order to create a better atmosphere so that everyone has the chance to truly enjoy the wines as they were intended to be enjoyed." The idea is to give visitors and fans an uninterrupted 45-minute, face-to-face opportunity with Tasting Consultants who will provide the tastings in multiple mini-suites at the Round Barn where they can get a full experience rather than a bunch of elbows being thrown around at a stand-up bar.
Contractors are busy crafting the mini-suites which will provide a memorable tasting experience for anywhere from 8 to 15 guests at a time. That doesn't mean you have to have a bunch of other people traveling with you. Anything less than a full suite will be filled with other tasters who have signed up for the same time period. There will be two 8-person suites and two 12-person suites on the lower level and six 15-seat suites on the upper level.
Each tasting reservation will guide you through the tasting of 7 different wines and spirits pre-selected with a sweet and dry option. Each tasting session runs 45 minutes allowing for plenty of time to enjoy the experience and ask questions of the consultant. In addition to five wine tastings you will be given a spirit tasting either straight up or mixed in a specialty cocktail and the experience is rounded off with a dessert from the consultant. The pre-selected list offerings will change monthly. Reservations are just $15-per person and includes a $5 coupon off the purchase of any three bottles of wine. Reservations can be made online at any time for any future date and you can do that today by clicking the link below.
Chris and Matt say the whole idea is to get back to their roots from the days when their parents Rick & Sherrie Moersch would have time to pour tasting samples, explain how and why the wine was made the way it was and answer questions of all sorts. "Having a personal wine consultant in a small grouping of guests gets us back to where it all started," says Chris. Matt adds, "We believe tasting wine should happen over real conversation with good friends in an environment such as ours with your own dedicated guide."
Regular friends and fans of Round Barn will still be invited to enjoy their on-site music and festivals as always, and anyone can still buy wine by the bottle or the glass for consumption in the open air venue where live music is played every weekend all summer long.
Nicole Moersch is the Marketing Director of Round Barn. She says, "We've always been an innovator in the way we approach our business and we wanted to create an elevated tasting experience that offered more education and personalization than what we had done in the past." She adds, "Some of our customers know exactly which types of wines they like, and others are new to wine tasting. This new format delivers benefits both ways: we're better positioned to answer our guests' questions and add to their knowledge of wine, and we get to know our customers better in the process."
At any one time, thanks to the number of mini-suites, 130 guests can be involved in wine-tasting sessions, or a total of at least 900 people on any given day.
The Moersch brothers admit that essentially they have become the victims of their own success, and frequently people were forced to squeeze and wheedle their way up to the bar to sample a wine or two and often guests would fee rushed or the tastings would be haphazard simple because of the crush of people, especially on a busy weekend. They know that despite those conditions, people still loved being in the barn and tasting the vast array of products Round Barn offers, they just want to make it a more rewarding and fulfilling experience.
A welcoming station and staging area for those arriving for reserved tastings will be set up in the form of an 80 x 40 tent outside of the barn in this first season and will likely be converted to a brick and mortar building in the future.
The Beer Barn across the open-air amphitheater from the tasting center is also evolving with three new draft beer windows being established on the ground level replacing the walk-in bar there. That will increase the current 16 tap total to 36 taps on that level (12 at each window) with another 12 taps on the upper level for a total of 48 taps. There will always be at least 12 varieties of Round Barn Beer offerings on tap at any one time, which is four more than currently offered.
To help accommodate increased traffic at the Beer Barn a new 2,500 square foot building will be built between that facility and the Moersch estate home behind it. It will house the new draft system and provide much needed barrel storage on site.
Chris tells me that this is all part of their ever-evolving strategic plan as Round Barn's star continues to rise driven by their never-ending innovation and pursuit of excellence. What started out two and a half decades ago as a small country winery has become an amazing enterprise with a second tasting room at Union Pier and the Round Barn Public House in downtown Baroda which has already expanded several times to accommodate burgeoning crowds all year round.
Along the way the company has added an award winning line up of craft beers and distilled spirits that all began with the creation of a wine-based Vodka — DiVine Vodka in 2006. Microbrewing began a year later. Additionally, the brothers created Free Run Cellars in Berrien Springs, a highly successful boutique winery in 2006.
Here's the link to make your reservation for wine tasting at Round Barn whenever you'd like:
