A national search, more than three decades of winemaking legacy, and the next chapter for one of Michigan’s pioneering wine estates.
There are moments in the life of a winery when a personnel change means something larger. For Chateau Grand Traverse, welcoming Virginia Usher as Director of Winemaking and Head of Production is one of those moments. Virginia arrives on Old Mission Peninsula following a national search that began in early 2025, but the story behind that search reaches much further back. It is tied to more than 50 years of farming and winemaking on this peninsula, to the remarkable tenure of longtime winemaker Bernd Croissant, and to a broader evolution underway as Chateau Grand Traverse prepares for its next generation.
More Than a Search for a Winemaker
When President Eddie O’Keefe and the winery’s executive team began defining the role, the objective was not simply to find someone capable of making great wine. Chateau Grand Traverse is one of Michigan’s largest producers of European vinifera, with estate vineyards, cellar, laboratory, winemaking and production all operating on site. That scale brings a different kind of responsibility. The person leading winemaking must understand the character of an individual vineyard block and the nuance of a small-lot wine, while also knowing how to lead people, plan harvest, manage a complex production calendar and maintain consistency across a nationally distributed portfolio.
That is why the winery looked nationally. The goal was to bring in someone who had already worked within a significant production environment and could introduce experience gained beyond our own walls. At the same time, scale alone was never enough. Cool-climate vinifera experience was essential. Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot varieties, Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay Noir and other European grapes are central to both the identity of Chateau Grand Traverse and the future of Northern Michigan wine.
We weren’t looking for a caretaker. We were looking for someone who could respect what’s been built here over 50 years, but also help us think about what this winery needs for the next 20.
A Legacy More Than 30 Vintages in the Making
Any conversation about what comes next begins with an appreciation for what came before. Bernd Croissant’s influence on Chateau Grand Traverse is difficult to separate from the modern history of the winery itself.
Bernd grew up in Edenkoben in Germany’s Rheinland-Pfalz, working alongside his family in their vineyards and winery before entering Germany’s rigorous formal training system for viticulture and enology. His career took him through wineries in the Palatinate, Baden, Rheinhessen and other German wine regions before he arrived in Northern Michigan in 1991 for what was intended to be a one-year work-study sabbatical at Chateau Grand Traverse.
Michigan changed those plans. Bernd joined the winery permanently, became winemaker in 1993 and went on to guide more than three decades of vintages on Old Mission Peninsula. His precision, technical training and deep understanding of cool-climate grapes helped sharpen Chateau Grand Traverse’s identity, particularly its long-standing commitment to Riesling. The wines changed over the years, vineyards matured and the winery grew, but the discipline behind them remained a constant.
His story also offers an interesting bookend to this moment. In 1991, a young German winemaker traveled to Northern Michigan when the region was still working to establish its reputation for European vinifera. Today, Chateau Grand Traverse can conduct a national search and attract an established winemaking leader from California to build the next phase of her career here. That says something not only about this winery, but about how far the Traverse Wine Coast has come.
Finding the person who would follow more than 30 years of Bernd’s leadership was never going to be about simply replacing a winemaker.
Meet Virginia
Virginia Usher began making wine in 2009 at a small family winery in Southern California, learning the work from the ground up before earning a degree in Food Science and Technology with an emphasis in Enology and Viticulture and a minor in Chemistry from Oregon State University.
She then spent more than a decade with Mendocino Wine Company in Northern California, progressing from Enologist to Assistant Winemaker, Associate Winemaker and ultimately Director of Winemaking. That progression mattered to us. Virginia has worked in the lab, written cellar work orders, managed teams, planned harvests and bottlings, defined wine styles and helped lead a large and complex winery operation. She understands the details because she has done the work, and she understands leadership because her career steadily grew to encompass more of the people, systems and decisions behind every bottle.
Just as important was how she talked about wine. Throughout the search, Virginia consistently returned to the idea that a winery should reflect its region rather than simply reproduce a style that could come from anywhere. That perspective felt particularly relevant at Chateau Grand Traverse, where more than five decades of experience have been devoted to understanding what Old Mission Peninsula can grow exceptionally well.
My primary goals are always to respect the fruit and the uniqueness of the region, make a quality wine, and support a sustainable business.
A Wine Region Coming Into Its Own
Virginia’s move to Northern Michigan is also part of a larger story happening around us. The wineries of the Traverse Wine Coast have matured from an emerging regional industry into a genuine place of wine origin, one increasingly capable of attracting winemakers, growers, chefs and hospitality talent from established markets around the country and the world.
For Chateau Grand Traverse, that evolution is especially meaningful. The winery was founded in 1974 around a belief that European vinifera could not only survive here, but produce wines worthy of serious attention. Today, those grapes form the foundation of our portfolio, grown in estate vineyards overlooking Grand Traverse Bay and brought just steps away to a cellar where the wines are made, finished and bottled on site.
That continuity from vineyard to bottle gives the winemaking team an unusually close relationship with the land. It also gives Virginia an opportunity to work within a mature estate while asking new questions: what can these vineyards express now, after decades of learning? Where can quality move next? Which traditions should remain untouched, and where is there room to experiment?
Building the Next Chapter From a Position of Strength
The search for a new winemaker was part of a larger conversation already underway inside Chateau Grand Traverse about what leadership should look like as the family-owned winery moved beyond its 50th anniversary. President Eddie O’Keefe worked closely with Executive Director Gabe Marzonie, who led the national search and recruitment process, to define not simply the experience required of the next winemaker, but the kind of leadership the winery would need for its next stage of growth.
For Gabe, who moved from Director of Marketing into the Executive Director role as the winery began restructuring its consumer, retail, sales and marketing operations, the search reflected a broader philosophy: surround a strong legacy business with people capable of challenging it, strengthening it and preparing it for what comes next.
That philosophy extends beyond a single hire. Virginia joins an executive leadership structure that is increasingly connecting decisions made in the vineyard and cellar with the way Chateau Grand Traverse brings its wines to market. In an industry undergoing significant change, that alignment has become increasingly important.
The transition is also taking place from a position of unusual momentum. While national wine sales and the regional category have contracted, Chateau Grand Traverse has moved sharply in the opposite direction, posting significant growth, rapidly gaining market share and expanding its distribution footprint. Recruiting new leadership is therefore less about responding to industry headwinds than preparing the organization to capitalize on what it believes is still ahead.
The first 50 years gave us an extraordinary foundation. Preparing for the next 50 means being deliberate about putting strong talent in key roles, giving those people the ability to lead, and building an organization that can continue to evolve without losing what made it successful in the first place.
What Comes Next
Virginia’s first vintage at Chateau Grand Traverse will be 2026, giving her the opportunity to begin this next chapter where every winemaker ultimately has to begin: in the vineyard and at harvest. She will lead the cellar, laboratory and production teams while working closely with the vineyard operation, bringing together the technical, agricultural and human sides of winemaking under a coordinated approach.
There will be new ideas, of course. That is part of the reason for bringing a new voice into a winery after more than three decades of winemaking continuity. But evolution does not require abandoning identity. The wines that have defined Chateau Grand Traverse, the vineyards that surround us and the belief in Northern Michigan as a serious cool-climate wine region remain the foundation.
Away from the cellar, Virginia and her family are beginning their own introduction to Northern Michigan. For the first time, they are living close to freshwater and looking forward to spending more time outdoors, experiencing four true seasons after years in Northern California, and exploring the restaurants and food culture throughout Grand Traverse.
For a family-owned winery that has always been shaped as much by people as by place, that sense of arrival feels fitting. Chateau Grand Traverse has spent more than 50 years growing into its corner of Old Mission Peninsula. Now, with a new winemaker at the helm of production and another generation of leadership taking shape across the organization, the work of defining the next 50 begins.
Meet Virginia at The First Pour
Virginia’s first vintage at Chateau Grand Traverse begins with the 2026 harvest, and this November, guests will have a chance to experience one of its first wines alongside her. The First Pour: Nouveau au Chateau will transform the Speakeasy beneath the Inn into an intimate harvest celebration centered around the debut of our 2026 Gamay Noir Nouveau, with chef-driven food, estate and library wines, and conversation with Virginia and the winery team. It’s a chance to meet our new winemaker, raise a glass to her first vintage, and get an early taste of what’s ahead.
