Voted Best of the Best: Inside Vinomondo Winery
Episode 210 • 2nd May 2025 • Total Michigan • Cliff Duvernois
00:00:00 00:26:49

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What if wine could be simple again?

No jargon. No pressure. Just good wine, made for you—and maybe even by you.

We sit down with Brett Scharnhorst, owner of Vinomondo Winery in Fort Gratiot, Michigan. From his unexpected career shift from IT project management to winemaking, Brett shares how Vinomondo is creating something truly unique: a DIY wine experience where customers can taste, bottle, and label their own creations.

Recently voted Detroit’s Best of the Best for Wine, Vinomondo is more than a winery—it’s a place where community, creativity, and really good wine come together.

Whether you're a seasoned wine lover or someone who's never had a drop, this conversation will leave you curious, inspired, and maybe even ready to craft your own blend.

Address:

4505 Lakeshore Road, Fort Gratiot, Michigan

Website:

vinomondowinery.com

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Transcripts

Brett Scharnhorst:

We can enjoy wine at the same time, we're

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presenting it to everybody else.

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and the way, It just kind of evolved.

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It just kind of seemed

to fall into our laps.

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I, I just don't know

how else to explain it.

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It was, it's such a, uh, it's

such a contrast to go from I.

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T.

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to the world of winemaking.

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that's kind of a different avenue to take.

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It's it's just a means of just sitting

back and just looking at the world

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and just saying, you know what?

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I'm, just going to take it easy.

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The wine is good.

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Life's too short to drink cheap wine.

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Cliff Duvernois: Hello everyone and

welcome back to Total Michigan, where

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we interview ordinary Michigander

doing extraordinary things.

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I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.

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Let me ask you this, why

did wine get so complicated.

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With labels that feel like riddles and

rules about what pairs with what, it's

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no wonder people can get intimidated.

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But what if wine could be simple again.

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What if it could be fun,

shared with friends bottled

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by hand and made just for you?

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Well, that's exactly what's

happening at Vinomondo Winery.

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Recently voted as Detroit's best

of the best for wine, this place is

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changing the way people experience

Michigan wine One bottle at a time.

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To walk us through this is the owner

of VInomondo Winery, located in Fort

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Gratiot, just outside of Port Huron,

and that would be Brett Scharnhorst.

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Brett, how are you?

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Brett Scharnhorst: I'm doing great Cliff.

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Thanks for joining us today.

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It's an honor to have you here.

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Cliff DuVernois (2): Thank you.

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And I'm really excited about this.

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Uh, We get to talk about, wine, something

that I absolutely love and yeah.

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So, this is great.

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If you would just tell

us what is Vinomondo?

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Brett Scharnhorst: Vinomondo

is a basically a do it yourself

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winery sort of situation.

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So people can come in you

can do a tasting if you want.

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We offer flights, wine flights.

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You can have a glass of wine if you want.

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If there's a particular wine that

you really just can't get enough

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of, then we offer something unique.

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You can actually order a batch of wine.

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You can either get a batch of 15 bottles,

or you can get a batch of 28 bottles.

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We will actually go out

and order the materials.

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We will make that wine

fresh for you, just for you.

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And then, uh, it takes about eight

to 10 weeks for it to be ready.

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And then when it's ready, we call you up.

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So you come on in and bottle your wine.

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And if you have bottles

of your own, that's great.

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As long as they're clean.

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But if not we can sell

some bottles for you.

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And they're relatively cheap.

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And then, you come in, you can

either come in by yourself, but we

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recommend bringing in some friends.

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And then we've got a whole facility in

the back of our facility here, uh, the

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back of the store where they can come in

and they can just bottle their own wine.

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They can drink their own wine

while they're bottling it.

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And It's really a great social event

And it's just something that, to my

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knowledge, nobody else in the Port Huron

area or even southeastern Michigan does.

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Cliff DuVernois (2): And I've been to a

number of wineries throughout Michigan

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and, they pride themselves on, we grow

our own grapes and we bottle it here.

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But in this particular case, this is some

place where people can come and literally

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just pick out the kinds of wines that they

like, or if they like a red, or if they

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like a white, if they like more fruity, if

they, you know, and they can really, like

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you said, customize it to their palate.

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Brett Scharnhorst: right, right.

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So we don't have our

own vineyard, obviously.

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We're just on a little

corner here at Lakeshore and

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Kewadin here in Port Gratiot.

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But what we do is we order the materials

they're shipped in by our suppliers.

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And the juices and the grapeskins,

what have you, they come

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in from all over the world.

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They can come in from California.

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Oregon, Italy, Spain Germany, South

Africa, I mean just everywhere,

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Australia, everywhere around the world.

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And that's, the basis of our name,

Vinomondo, which stands for World Wine.

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We have all different types of wine

to satisfy all sorts of palates.

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We've got sweet wines, we've got dry

reds, we've got whites we've got blushes.

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Just, if there's any sort of wine that you

enjoy, or even if you don't enjoy wine,

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you know, we think we can convert you.

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But we even have our own a handful

of homemade brews here as well.

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So something for every palette.

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Cliff DuVernois (2): Brett, what I

would like to do is I'd kind I'd like

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to talk to you about your back story.

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Like where are you from?

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Where did you grow up?

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Brett Scharnhorst: So I personally

grew up in Warren, Michigan, right

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around the 12 Mile and Hoover area.

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I ended up going to Bishop Foley

High School in Madison Heights.

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And that's pretty much just my

whole youth story right there.

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I got my degree, my bachelor's of

science, I got it from Oakland University.

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And then some years following

that, I got my master's degree

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from West Texas A& M University.

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But that was fairly recently, 2018.

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So I was kind of a late

bloomer where that goes.

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But that's my background is in I.

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T.

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Actually, I'm an I.

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T.

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Project manager for a company

called Taubman, a wonderful place.

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And that's just what I've been

doing for all of these years.

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That's what my career has been.

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But through a series of events that

took place over the course of my life.

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I just found myself in a situation where

I was talking to my wife and I said,

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i'm not so certain about our retirement.

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What are we going to do after

we get to the point that?

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Because you know it is an industry

that is constantly evolving.

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We've got people coming out of colleges

that know so much more than I do.

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And frankly, they can get paid less.

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So it's, it's just something that

kind of weighs on you after a while.

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I mean, right now I'm a project

manager, so I've evolved out of the,

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development phase of things, but it's

something that always stuck in my mind.

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So, my wife and I, having been repeat

customers of Vinomondo here for eight

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to 10 years we thought, well, why

don't we try our hand at making our

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own wines and see how that works out.

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So we started out something

that was a grassroots operation.

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And we learned shortly thereafter

that the people who owned Vinomondo

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here were looking to retire and sell.

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So at that point we thought, well,

why don't we maybe just pool our

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resources and talk with the owners

and see about buying this facility?

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Because we didn't want

this place to go away.

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Our fear was that somebody was going

to come in, put their own spin on it,

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change how things worked around here.

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The, the batch concept was

absolutely a must have.

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And that is something that we

thought would probably be the

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first thing that would get cut.

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And we didn't want that

because that's something that's

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really unique to Vinomondo.

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we went through the, uh, natural

course and channels and everything.

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We went through the process of,

purchasing the winery and in

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September of 2022, it happened.

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So Jackie and I have been, in owners

of Vinomondo wineries since then.

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Cliff DuVernois (2): You said

that you're primarily in I.

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T.

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So why did you decide to get into I.

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T.?

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Brett Scharnhorst: Well, I like wine.

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Let's do that one again.

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I thought it was

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Cliff DuVernois (2):

thought it was coffee.

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I thought you had to be a guy to be an I.

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T.

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an guy.

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Brett Scharnhorst: So the reason

why I wanted to get into IT

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was, when I was a little kid,

boy, I'm gonna date myself here.

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When I was a little kid, there was

a little store on the corner of 12

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Mile and Shainer called Radio Shack.

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And it was just an up and

coming thing, and all the kids

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used to gather down there.

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And they had this little TV sitting

there with a keyboard in front of it.

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And it was called the TRS 80.

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It was a little flat Keyboard kind of

thing that you hooked up to your tv.

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That quickly evolved into a love for

just problem solving, you know, and and

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coming up with ideas creating things

out of the blue that You know, maybe

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somebody else had never thought of.

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So that's how my IT background developed.

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Cliff DuVernois (2): Now, at what

point in time did you decide, to

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start exploring the world of wine?

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Brett Scharnhorst: So interestingly

enough, I wasn't always a wine lover.

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I really didn't get into

wine until fairly recently.

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And I would say it was

probably in the early:

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Probably right around the same

time that Vinomondo got its start.

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And it's not because, you know,

we came to Vinomondo back then.

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It was just something that I'd never

really been that interested in.

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I was more of a beer guy.

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I drank a lot of soda pop.

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That kind of stuff.

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and when I did drink wine, I gravitated

toward the sweeter wines as most people

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do when, when, you know, they just

get started out and drinking wine.

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Right.

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I didn't really think much about

getting into other wines and

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broadening my palate for that.

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but.

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Again, what happened was some friends

of ours would go over to Canada

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and they had a place over there

where you could make your own wine.

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Actually, what they

made was wine spritzers.

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Remember back in the day, you

know, when you would mix some,

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uh, some sweet, soda pop in with

a wine and then you had spritzers.

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So there was a place over there in

Canada that actually excelled in that.

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Well, they ended up closing and

our friends were like, okay,

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well now what are we going to do?

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Cause you know, we liked

the wine spritzers.

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We would actually, give them

some money and They would go

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ahead and buy some for us.

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But then our friends found this

place, Vinomondo, and they said,

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you know what, you guys really

got to come check this out.

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This was, this is a

really fascinating place.

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So we came, the four of us, we

came here and we did a tasting and

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I was just, I was struck, I had

never been that much of a wine fan.

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But then I tried the wines here

and this is why I keep telling

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people, you know, you got to come

here You got to try this out.

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The wine is just so flavorful.

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And it's not a super dry wine.

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I mean even the dry wines

are not that super dry.

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It's just very flavorful on the palate.

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And I was so struck with the flavor

that I wanted to broaden my sense

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Of, flavors for the wine and on all

the different tastes that we had.

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So now that's how I started getting

from sweet wines into the semi dries,

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getting into the whites, getting into the

dries, and then even going beyond that.

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Now that we've started experimenting

with doing some bourbon, no

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confusions with the dry reds.

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And that's what we've got today with,

with the Chairman of the Board that's

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sitting here in front of us right now.

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That really expanded my palate.

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And it's just, like I say, it's the

experience and really having a taste

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of some really good wine that will

really change your mind about any

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preconceptions you had about how wine is

or how it tastes or anything like that.

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And that's what I would

just recommend to anybody.

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Cliff DuVernois (2): While I think

you bring up a good point there.

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Because this is something that

I have found often to be very

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challenging, is that it's just

the approachability of wine.

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Because I know a lot of people out

there, I personally, I, I love a

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good glass of wine with dinner.

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I appreciate it so much.

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But when I talk to other people about

it, they're almost afraid to try it

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because, you know, like if you go to

a grocery store or something, there's

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just so much that's on the shelf.

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You don't know what to pick.

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What's going to go good with what.

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Even, even if you did, if you even

go back to the old rule about,

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red wine goes with red meat.

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Right, Even if you remember that basic

concept right there, still, it's like

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you're sweating bullets because am I

going to spend 20 on something that I

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am not going to like, So it sounds like.

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Vinomondo has found a way around that.

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Brett Scharnhorst: Well, yeah.

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First of all, the rules

are there are no rules.

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I mean, when it comes to wine.

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There are no rules.

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You know, you have some people

that will say, well, you got

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to drink red wine with a meat.

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And you got to drink

white wine with a chicken.

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You got to drink white wine with a fish.

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You know what?

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You drink what tastes good to you.

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So, so two points to be made here.

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First of all, when you mentioned

the fact that you go to the store

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and you buy a bottle off the shelf.

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That to me has always been a problem.

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Because when you go to a big box store

and you pull a bottle off the shelf,

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you don't know what you're getting

and you're probably paying anywhere

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from 15 to 20 for a bottle of wine.

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And you can't just open it up and pour

yourself a glass right there and taste

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it and go, yeah, I don't like this.

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And then put it back on the shelf.

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You know, when you take

it home, you're right.

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You're stuck with it.

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We won't let that happen here.

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We want to make sure

you're happy with the wine.

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And what's more is that, because

of the way we make the wines,

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we are so competitively priced.

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I will stake our wines against any

big box store wine, any big box

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store wine for flavor and, for cost.

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And for the after effects.

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So a lot of these wines that you're going

to see in these big box stores are going

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to have these additional sulfites added to

them because they have to sit on a shelf.

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They got to be prepared to sit

on a shelf for who knows how long

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Our wine is not designed for that.

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Our wine is designed that when you drink

this, you're, when you taste it, you're

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going to be like, I got to drink this.

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I don't expect this to last long.

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So we don't add any artificial

sulfites to our wine.

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It's about drinking the wine.

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It's not about making something

that's going to be worth, a

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million dollars down the road.

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We want you to enjoy the wine.

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We want you to enjoy the flavor.

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Now, that's not to say there

aren't sulfites in wine.

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There's always natural sulfites in wine.

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I have heard of some locations that, you

know, make contentions that, you know,

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we don't have any sulfites in our wine.

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Well, I think what they mean is they

don't have any artificial sulfites

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in their wine, which is fair to say.

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But you can't put a label on a

bottle that says there's no sulfites.

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Cliff DuVernois (2): Right.

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Brett Scharnhorst: in any event, what

we can do and what we do say is we

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don't add any artificial sulfites.

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And it's intended to that, you know, our,

our bottles last about one to four years.

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We've got four years of, uh, wine

sitting at home and I can still open up

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one today and it tastes just as great

as it was when we first bottled it.

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It's aged a little.

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So it's smoothed out a little, but you

know, it doesn't taste like vinegar

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by any stretch of the imagination.

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It's still a very good wine.

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Cliff DuVernois (2): And you brought

that up and I'm glad that you did

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because there's been a lot of times

where I have gone out and bought a

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red, like a California red or something

from Oregon and had one or two glasses.

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That's it.

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I don't like being drunk.

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And I do not want to be

hung over the next day.

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But still, after one or two

glasses the next day, sometimes

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my head is pounding so hard.

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And I just completely don't get it.

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And I, I've always reasoned it

was because of the sulfites.

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Brett Scharnhorst: I did read, some sort

of a report recently that refuted the

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notion that it was sulfites, that it was

some sort of a different chemical compound

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Cliff DuVernois (2): Sponsored by

the national sulfite association

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Brett Scharnhorst:

Possibly, possibly, right.

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But, uh, yeah, I've, my

experience, my personal experience

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has been it's the sulfites.

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Uh, Like I say, it's the sulfites.

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I have never in all my years, and

it's been probably 10 years now that

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I've been drinking Vinomondo wine.

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And all my years of drinking Vinomondo

wine, I've never had a day after headache.

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I might feel a little sluggish.

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But that's my own fault for not

drinking water and staying hydrated.

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But it, I don't feel any sort of

ill effects after the day after

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Cliff DuVernois (2): Sweet.

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For our audience, we're going to take

a quick break and thank our sponsors.

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When we come back, we're going to

talk to Brett a lot more about the

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philosophy of Vinomondo and what

you can expect when you come here.

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We'll see you after the break.

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Hello everyone and welcome back to

Total Michigan where we interview

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ordinary Michiganders doing some

pretty extraordinary things.

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I'm your host, Cliff Duvernois.

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Today, we're talking with

Brett Scharnhorst of Vinomondo

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over here in Port Huron.

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And before the break, we were talking

about how you've got this career in IT.

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You're in project management.

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you're now discovering this

world of wine at Vinomondo.

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And all of a sudden, Vinomondo is like the

owners are like, yeah, we want to retire.

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We want to get out and get out.

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And the best way I can describe it

is you had this Homer Simpson moment

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where you're just like, hey, let's

do, Let's let's buy this place, right?

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So talk to us why would you

think about, cause you didn't

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grow up on a vineyard, right?

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You didn't grow up growing grapes.

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So my question is, is why would

you think let's buy this place?

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Brett Scharnhorst: right?

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Well, you know, I like you said

I I grew up in total suburbia.

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I'm in classic suburbia.

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so what would make me think

about something like that?

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Well Um First of all, it's the product.

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I just have total faith in the product.

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When I came upon this and I tasted

the wine, I said, I can do this.

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This is something we could do.

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I had a lot of talks with,

with Jackie, my wife.

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And I can't say enough wonderful things

about her because she has been so

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patient with me, through this journey.

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And she's right there,

right alongside me with it.

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And, she's just a

wonderful, wonderful person.

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But we've had many talks about

this and she's supported, she's

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been supportive through all of it.

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we just kind of felt that, this

would probably be a decent way to go.

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you know, We can enjoy wine

at the same time, we're

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presenting it to everybody else.

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and the way, It just kind of evolved.

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It just kind of seemed

to fall into our laps.

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I, I just don't know

how else to explain it.

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It was, it's such a, uh, it's

such a contrast to go from I.

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:

T.

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:

to the world of winemaking.

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:

people when I tell people that they

just kind of look at me and go, really?

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:

that's kind of a different avenue to take.

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:

But it's it's a lot more laid back

I guess in a manner of speaking.

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:

It's it's just a means of just sitting

back and just looking at the world

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:

and just saying, you know what?

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:

I'm, just going to take it easy.

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:

The wine is good.

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:

Life's too short to drink cheap wine.

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:

Cliff DuVernois (2): Amen to that.

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:

Yeah Yeah

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:

What is the Vinomondo experience

when they walk through that door?

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:

What can people expect?

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:

What can they have?

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:

Brett Scharnhorst: Maybe to take

a step back, I mean, how Vinomondo

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:

got its start was it was just a, a

straight up wit, wine kit sales winery.

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:

A gentleman by the name of

Sal Vitale opened it up.

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:

It was just, uh, one little section

of this building we're in right now.

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:

He didn't do any sort of

winemaking whatsoever.

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:

That lasted a year, maybe two.

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:

I don't know for sure.

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:

and then the, The new owners,

the people we purchased it

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:

from took over the Healy's.

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:

And that's when they got started

into this concept of doing batches.

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:

And through the course of the next,

15 years or so, uh, they expanded it.

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:

So that's when the tasting room got

added on, which is what we're sitting

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:

in right now, the tasting room.

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:

We also added on the kitchen.

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:

I say we, they added on the kitchen.

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:

provided some, you know,

light finger food fare.

394

:

And then they would, provide

events and things like that.

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:

You know, uh, birthday

parties, bachelorette parties,

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:

things of that nature.

397

:

In addition to providing the, the retail

area where you can buy bottles of wine.

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:

There was a gift shop out there.

399

:

And then of course the batches.

400

:

Uh, When we came in and bought

it in:

401

:

going to shift the focus a little

bit away from being a boutique.

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:

We wanted to get the wine up.

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:

And first and foremost, we

wanted to get it up front and

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:

get that exposed to everybody.

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:

So getting back to your question now,

what is somebody going to expect when they

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:

come walking into Vinomondo Wine Room?

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:

Well, first of all, you're going to come

walking into our retail area, you're going

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:

to see a lot of wine all over the place.

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:

And, as time evolves, we've got plans

for the future that we're going to

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:

have, you know, wine on the walls.

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:

You know, right now we've got

it on shelving units, but we're

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:

going to put it up on the walls.

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:

You're going to come and you're

going to be surrounded with wine.

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:

You're going to be greeted by somebody,

and the first thing we're going to ask

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:

you is, Do you want to try some wine?

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:

You're welcome.

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:

We got some wine for you to try.

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:

If you want standard question, right?

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:

I mean, you're here to

try some wine, right?

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:

So at that point, you

know, you have a choice.

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:

You can, come into the tasting room.

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:

If you want to do a flight, sit down,

enjoy yourself, have a good time.

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:

Or if you're just kind of meandering

around you, you're not sure what you want.

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:

So at that point in time, we would ask

you, well, what is it you like in a wine?

425

:

What is it?

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:

Do you like in general, if

you come to me and you ask me,

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:

what kind of wine should I get?

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:

I'm going to look at you and I'm going

to say, what do you like to taste?

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:

what flavors you like.

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:

if you prefer sweet, if you prefer dry,

then I can guide you in that direction.

431

:

And then we can help you find the

wine that it is that you enjoy.

432

:

And then, you can sample some wines.

433

:

Like I said, we do offer a number

of small tastings, you know, just

434

:

get a feel for whatever you like.

435

:

At that point then you can either

purchase a bottle if you want.

436

:

Or you can come into the tasting room.

437

:

We can sit down, you can get a

flight, you can try five different

438

:

wines in a flight if you want.

439

:

Or if you know what you like, you get a

full glass of wine if you want to do that.

440

:

If you want to drink an entire

bottle here, you can do that as well.

441

:

We'll get you a bottle to open up and

you can, and you can drink it here.

442

:

Then, if you really like the wine that

much, here comes the batch concept.

443

:

What you can do is I'll take, for example,

the Tremita Riesling we've got right here.

444

:

That's one of the ones

that's available in batch.

445

:

If you say, I want to, I love

that Tremita Riesling so much.

446

:

I can't get enough of it.

447

:

And I just, 12 bottles, that's pricey.

448

:

Well, I'll tell you what,

let's go with a batch then.

449

:

Because that cuts down the cost

per bottle of of your wine.

450

:

And so how that works then is

you tell us, I want to get an

451

:

order of the Tremita Riesling.

452

:

We go ahead and note your order.

453

:

We go ahead and order the materials

to make that wine for you.

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:

It's not something we keep on hand.

455

:

We don't have vats of wine

sitting here ready to be bottled.

456

:

We want you to have fresh wine, right?

457

:

So we will go out and order the materials

necessary to make that wine for you.

458

:

It takes about eight to ten weeks.

459

:

We take it through the

entire fermentation process.

460

:

In the back here, we've got

these white buckets, we've got

461

:

carboys, uh, we go ahead and make

the wine here on the premises.

462

:

And then it goes through

its fermentation process.

463

:

Takes about eight to 10 weeks.

464

:

And then when it gets through the

fermentation and the filtering

465

:

process, we call you up and

tell you your wine's ready.

466

:

Come on in and bottle it.

467

:

And when you come in and bottle

it, , that is an experience in

468

:

itself because it's really a joy.

469

:

You, you really don't know

how fun it is to do it until

470

:

you've tried doing it yourself.

471

:

We've got a bottler, an automated bottler,

bottling machine that sits right there.

472

:

You put the bottle in it fills

it up, it stops automatically.

473

:

You take the bottle out of there, you

turn it around, there's a pneumatic

474

:

cork, or you put it in the corking

machine, drop the cork in, shut the door.

475

:

It automatically pushes

the cork in for you.

476

:

Done.

477

:

You take the bottle out of there.

478

:

You move over to another table.

479

:

You put a foil on top of it.

480

:

We've got a hot air gun.

481

:

You shoot the hot air gun at this foil.

482

:

It automatically shrinks, shrink

wraps to it, shrinks it down.

483

:

Done.

484

:

And then comes the label.

485

:

Now, most of our wines, not all of them,

but most of them come with standard

486

:

labels that you can put on there, or

you can get your own label if you want.

487

:

The labels that we've got

available just run the gamut.

488

:

We have had people come up with some,

incredibly inventive label labels.

489

:

some it's not that much.

490

:

It's, you know, it can vary

anywhere from, a dollar to a few

491

:

dollars per label, It's such fun.

492

:

It's just so much fun.

493

:

And we can do the labels

here on the premises as well.

494

:

Everything can be done

right here on the premises.

495

:

Which is probably one of the most

important things to, you know, get across,

496

:

is that we don't bring anything in.

497

:

This is all Michigan made stuff.

498

:

We do it right here.

499

:

We bring the supplies in from

elsewhere, but we're making

500

:

the wine here on the premises.

501

:

Cliff DuVernois (2): I can imagine that

the appeal for some people doing this

502

:

is if you're going to have a bridal

shower, or some kind of like a wedding

503

:

rehearsal dinner, or something and

you wanted to create a gift that was

504

:

completely unique with like your label

on it or You know or like a retirement

505

:

dinner or I mean the when I was going

through the labels and reading all of them

506

:

that you had back there It was amazing.

507

:

Just how many different occasions

Uh, customized bottle of wine.

508

:

You can just, like, elevate

509

:

Brett Scharnhorst: Yeah,

yeah, that's right.

510

:

Now, the bottles you see in front of us

here, these are 750 milliliter bottles.

511

:

But we also offer 375 milliliter

bottles, which are the half bottles,

512

:

right, which are half the size.

513

:

We call them split bottles.

514

:

but they're half this size.

515

:

And they're perfect for weddings.

516

:

Like you said, in fact, is Jackie and I.

517

:

We just did that for one of our kids,

this past August for his, his wedding.

518

:

you can do, uh, you know, and so

instead of having 28 bottles in a full

519

:

batch, you can get 56 split bottles.

520

:

And you know, you fill those up.

521

:

And then, you can put a label

on them, congratulations on

522

:

your wedding and what have you.

523

:

And then you can put them on

the tables at weddings and we

524

:

have a lot of people doing that.

525

:

We've had, companies come in.

526

:

And they will purchase carboys of wine

and they will give the wine, bottles of

527

:

wine to, customers, to, their employees.

528

:

We've had people come in and,

they will just, buy, purchase

529

:

bottles of wine for their business.

530

:

So it's, it's very diverse.

531

:

There's a lot of different

applications that you can use for this.

532

:

And again, it's great wine.

533

:

Cliff DuVernois (2): And you were

talking before about cause it was

534

:

just a cute little story you were

talking before about the bottling

535

:

the actual bottling of the wine.

536

:

And you were sharing a story

about how you had eight people

537

:

Brett Scharnhorst: Oh, yes.

538

:

Yes.

539

:

So we've had some repeat

customers who come in.

540

:

I mean, they've been repeat

customers longer than Jackie

541

:

and I have even been involved.

542

:

So we're talking about over 10 years.

543

:

They've been the repeat

customers of Vinomondo.

544

:

And they still come around today.

545

:

We've gotten to know

these people very well.

546

:

But we do have instances, you know,

where it's become a huge social event.

547

:

When they come in to bottle wine, we can

set up a bluetooth speaker back there.

548

:

They can play some music.

549

:

In this instance that you were

describing, you know, there were

550

:

eight ladies that came in, they were

bottling the wine, they're sampling

551

:

the wine and they're singing along.

552

:

And they're playing the same

song over and over and over.

553

:

It was great fun.

554

:

they had a blast.

555

:

And it, and that's

exactly what it's about.

556

:

It's about having fun and they

were enjoying the wine and then,

557

:

they came in here and sat down and

had something to eat afterwards.

558

:

but that's what it's all about.

559

:

You know, the bottling experience

is all about having fun.

560

:

And I, I, putting it into words

just doesn't do justice to it.

561

:

It's just a great thing to do.

562

:

And it's a lot of fun.

563

:

Doing it by yourself, it's

probably not quite as fun.

564

:

But you bring people in with

you and it's a huge blast.

565

:

It's just a blast.

566

:

Cliff DuVernois (2): I don't think that's

ever been uttered on the show before.

567

:

The words wine and fun

in the same sentence.

568

:

Brett Scharnhorst: Well, I don't know.

569

:

Some people might argue

570

:

Cliff DuVernois (2): argue that.

571

:

And I'm not saying it's not.

572

:

I'm not.

573

:

it's just an observation on my part.

574

:

So take it for what It's worth.

575

:

Brett, if somebody's listening to this

and they want to come and check out

576

:

Vinomondo on your website, stop by,

try a sample of this headache free

577

:

wine that you have here, what would

be the best way for them to do that?

578

:

Brett Scharnhorst: our address

is:

579

:

located in Fort Gratiot, Michigan.

580

:

Cliff DuVernois (2): Your website?

581

:

Brett Scharnhorst: VinomondoWinery.

582

:

com

583

:

And we also have a Facebook page.

584

:

We've got an Instagram page.

585

:

And we've got a, uh, ex

formerly known as Twitter page.

586

:

best way to So, really the best way to

keep up on all the doings that we've

587

:

got going on is, uh, our Facebook page.

588

:

Cliff DuVernois (2): Sweet.

589

:

Brett, thank you so much for

taking time to chat with us today.

590

:

Really appreciate it.

591

:

Brett Scharnhorst: Thank you, Cliff.

592

:

Again, it's great to have you here.

593

:

Cliff DuVernois (2): Awesome.

594

:

For our audience, uh you can always

roll on over to Total Michigan.

595

:

com and click on Brett's interview and

get the links that he mentioned above.

596

:

We'll see you next time when we

talk to another Michigander doing

597

:

some pretty extraordinary things.

598

:

We'll see you then.

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