Flying High: Dune Bird Winery Owners Talk Reopening After Whirlwind First Season

What’s a first year in business without a little chaos?

That’s the philosophy of Nicole and Bo White, who have experienced one of the wildest years of their lives since opening the doors at Dune Bird Winery in December 2021. Traffic and demand proved to be so hot for the winery that it actually exhausted its reserves of wine in January and had to insert an impromptu 10-week winter break into its operations schedule. In the meantime, Bo White has spent much of the past year making an unexpected return to his previous career – he was formerly a pararescueman for the United States Air Force – to assist in humanitarian and rescue missions in Ukraine.

Now, as Dune Bird prepares to open for its second season, the Whites aren’t slowing down, with plans on the books for a drastically expanded wine shipping program and a brand-new event space – among other changes. It all begs the question: Will the second year be as chaotic as the first?

“Our first season, we just dove in headfirst,” Nicole says. “We didn't have a lot of experience under our belt. But we were just met with this overwhelming response from the community, and that really helped to drive and motivate us. It was very affirming. We went into the business just trying to create what we wanted to see in Leelanau County and what we would enjoy as consumers. The overwhelming response from the community showed us that they wanted similar things.”

While Dune Bird is far from the first winery in Leelanau County, the Whites did break convention in a few ways. Speaking to the Leelanau Ticker last year, Nicole noted that the primary goal with Dune Bird wasn’t to replicate the traditional winery experience, but “to create a unique gathering space in this area of Leelanau County, where there just isn’t much.” (Dune Bird is located off M-22, between Northport and Leland.) That vision incorporates an espresso bar and other non-alcoholic offerings, more food options and later hours of operation than most wineries in the county, and a kid-friendly environment.

While Nicole stresses that wine and coffee are just the “tools” to draw guests to their gathering space, Dune Bird’s wine sales are still likely the best metric of its unexpected first-season success.

“We blew expectations out of the water and have gone through inventory way faster than anticipated,” Dune Bird announced in January, prompting the Whites to plot “an extended winter break before our new vintage comes online end of March/beginning of April.” That new vintage is now ready to go, and Dune Bird will officially open to the public next Thursday, April 13 – this time with a heck of a lot more wine.

“Last year was definitely a guessing game,” Nicole says of how much wine the Dune Bird team made. “We were really just throwing darts at the wall. This year, we at least have at least a frame of reference. So that’s been helpful, and we’re increasing production substantially.”

Not only is Dune Bird making more wine for the tasting room, but the winery is also expanding its nationwide reach. Last year, Dune Bird could only ship wine within the state of Michigan. This year, the winery is expanding that footprint to 42 states.

Also on tap for this season is a plan to increase Dune Bird’s event capabilities. Nicole notes that the winery gets “constant requests” to rent out the tasting room for weddings and other types of events. To accommodate the demand, the Whites are planning to add “a heated, insulated, four-season event venue” on the property, in “an existing structure that we’ve had our eye on since the beginning for this capacity.” The project is “in the final planning stages” right now and will likely break ground this summer.

All of Dune Bird’s evolution and growth comes while Bo continues an unusual extracurricular activity: flying off to Ukraine on a semi-regular basis to assist with humanitarian efforts.

A pilot and former Air Force man, Bo has deployed to numerous war zones over the years. In fact, 2021 marked the first time in years that he didn’t deploy for missions, as the Whites sought to start a new life chapter with Dune Bird. But when Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Bo got a call from an old friend and colleague: Could he come help with life-saving efforts in the embattled country? Less than 24 hours later, Bo was on an airplane, heading for Europe.

“I couldn't justify not going,” Bo tells the Leelanau Ticker. “Dune Bird will always be here, and we're going to continue to grow this and focus on the business and our community and relationships here. But I think more important, then, was the global impact I could have with the people Ukraine. It's very rare that you get the opportunity to affect something so much that far away, and I had the skills and the time and flexibility to go make a difference.”

Since that fateful call, Bo has been back and forth between Ukraine and northern Michigan several times, flying missions on behalf of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Save Our Allies. Early on, those missions mostly involved “taking supplies in and pulling people out,” especially given that government involvement from the United States and other nations hadn’t ramped up yet. “It was really up to the nonprofits and the churches to lead the effort in the humanitarian crisis,” Bo says of those early months.

On one notable mission, Bo and his team helped rescue Benjamin Hall, a Fox News war correspondent who was left wounded and stranded near Kyiv after his press vehicle was bombed and both his videographer and a freelance Ukrainian consultant were killed. That particular story has since garnered national coverage, and is explored in Hall’s brand-new memoir, Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home.

These days, Bo is still doing work in Ukraine – though now, with more governments and military forces involvement, he says the NGOs have turned their focus more toward “keeping the spotlight in the right places in Ukraine, through both corporate and government interaction.”

“I think it's easy to forget when the news cycle moves so fast that there is an entire country still under siege,” Bo says. “We become desensitized to it. And that’s ok, right? You can’t live in a state of constant stress and anxiety over something that you have very little effect on directly. But I think the important thing is to be aware of what is happening, and to know that there are ways to affect it, either through nonprofits who are directly helping the poor; or through your local and state and federal politicians, who can help carry on efforts in Washington to keep supporting and helping the people of Ukraine.”