Private tours offered by Fruitful Vine will pick up a group of tourists from any location within Berrien County, which includes St. Joseph. Fruitful Vine is a winery tour guide company located in southwest Michigan. It offers private all-day wine tours, lunch wine tours and afternoon wine tours. Private tours can accommodate up to 12 people. Vehicle options include a Chevy Suburban for up to five people or a limousine coach for up to 12 people. The all-day tour visits four wineries, and the lunch and afternoon tours visit three wineries. Alcohol is not allowed in the vehicle during the tour. The all-day and lunch tours include a meal stop, but the afternoon tour does not.
For those who want to join a non-private wine tour, they can select a "Hop-on Tour" by Fruitful Vine winery tours. The company picks up its guests from a St. Joseph location from May through November on Thursdays at noon, and Saturdays at 11 a.m. The Saturday pick-up and drop-off is at the city's Holiday Inn Express. Thursday's pick-up and drop-off site is the St. Joseph Today building in downtown. Hop-on tour seats must be reserved in advance. Guests are not allowed to bring their own alcohol on the tour. Thursday excursions are 4 hours long, and Saturday excursions are 6 hours and include lunch.
Any group that can secure a designated driver can make its own tour of any of the 12 wineries on Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail. Some of the wineries also have tasting rooms in other cities. People living or staying in St. Joseph can choose from any of the 12, although the city is not centrally located to all of them. People planning their own tours should either head south for a tour of up to eight wineries, north for a tour of up to four wineries or east for a tour of up to five wineries.
Southern Tour: Lemon Creek Winery & Fruit Farm; Round Barn Winery; Round Barn Tasting Room; Tabor Hill Winery; Domaine Berrien Winery; St. Julian Tasting Room; Free Run Winery; and Hickory Creek Winery.
Northern Tour: Fenn Valley Winery; Fenn Valley Tasting Room; Free Run Tasting Room ;and Warner Vineyards Tasting Room.
Eastern Tour: Contessa Winery; Karma Vista Winery; Warner Vineyards Winery; St. Julian Winery (Michigan's oldest); and Lawton Ridge Winery.
