Today we’d like to introduce you to Trevor Wassink.
Hi Trevor, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
For as long as I can remember, I have been a blueberry farmer. My grandpa originally started the farm in the ’60s, and my dad took it over in the late ’90s. I had every intention of going into farming as well, but the industry took a bad turn right around the time I was graduating MSU for small fruit horticulture.
Around this time, fruit became almost worthless. We were dumping literal tons of blueberries since the price to pack them was higher than what the industry would pay. As an avid home winemaker, I saw an opportunity.
I went back to school and joined the VESTA program to learn wine chemistry. I attended for three years, and started Tanglewood Winery at the same time. We started as a small, one-man operation, and have been growing rapidly over the last 5 years. We are now producing almost 11,000 gallons of wine per year! most of which is full fruit blueberry wine.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are many struggles to starting a winery in general, doubly so when starting a specialized winery like Tanglewood. The legal hurdles are immense. I knew there would be a lot involved with starting any alcohol-related business, but I’ll admit I was unprepared for the mountains of monthly paperwork, and the in-depth accounting, licensing, bonding, and insurance setup.
Besides just the paperwork hurdles, it has been interesting growing it as a side job for years without a paycheck. Sourcing investment, coming up with a lineup of unique high-quality products, hiring employees, and keeping up on inventory throughout the shipping delays has been very challenging. We are not through the fire yet, but we are very excited to be this far. It has definitely been a long road, but it has also been very rewarding.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Tanglewood Winery specializes in very unique wines, including Blueberry, Elderberry, and Aronia. We grow these specialized fruits on-site and create wines completely unique to this area.
Our flagship wine is a full-fruit blueberry wine called Blue Silk. Like all of our wines, Blue Silk is made with 100% fruit with no water or artificial flavoring added. It is extremely high in antioxidants and is much richer than most blueberry wines on the market.
We also have a selection of unique grape wines, a sparkling blueberry wine, and a selection of specialized Port wines.
Our tasting room is open to the public in Holland, MI. We will be opening for the 2022 season in April of this year!
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Personally, I was a bit of an odd duck. I grew up on a farm, listened to metal music, and was extremely into any hobby that piqued my interest. I loved doing karate, MMA, Disc golf, motocross, video games, etc…
Describing myself growing up is difficult. I had a lot of energy (I am ADHD) and would hyperfocus on hobbies to an extreme degree. The Trevor people knew varied a lot year by year, depending on my current hobby obsession. The only real constants in my life were a love of working on the blueberry farm, and an affinity for chemistry.
Pricing:
- Standard wines – $16-$20
- Special release port wines – $25-$50
- Wine Club – $65
Contact Info:
- Email: trevor@tanglewoodwinery.com
- Website: tanglewoodwinery.com
