No grapes, no gripes at Winterport Winery
National cuisine writers drop in
WINTERPORT - Making a go of it with a small business in Maine isn't easy, Michael Anderson readily admits.Anderson and his wife, Joan, operate Winterport Winery in a beautifully appointed, boutique-like storefront on Route 1A, selling specialty wines they produce in the basement. The winery on Saturday hosted a contingent of travel writers, representing national publications such as Bon Appetit and Cooking Light.
The last business to occupy the space, a hardware store, may have had more in common with the town's past: a no-nonsense Penobscot River port known for its year-round shipping and apple orchards.
These days, Winterport - the second largest town in Waldo County - is known more as a bedroom community to Bangor, something that should work for a business like the one owned by the Andersons. But its gritty downtown and what seems like perennial road construction aren't doing them any favors.
A sign hanging above a rack of wines encourages customers to "Wine ... you'll feel better." But the Andersons, whose wines use fruits such as apples and pears, but no grapes, remain upbeat about their future and refuse to gripe.
After a whirlwind tour of the winery's basement, where the next batch ferments in stainless-steel tanks, and a quick round of tasting the range of Winterport wines, the travel writers were back in the van, headed back to Belfast.
A mention of the winery in a national magazine can make a difference.
For the last 10 years, the Waldo County Marketing Association has been paying Orlando, Fla.,-based Geiger Associates to organize junkets for travel writers from around the country and bring them to Waldo County. Bed-and-breakfast inns and restaurants mentioned in articles in Country Living and Yankee and other magazines and newspapers have seen direct results, as visitors say the articles prompted their patronage.
Saturday's stop in Winterport marked the first time one of the junkets has ventured north of Fort Knox in Prospect.
The Andersons donated wine for a tasting for the writers who came to Belfast in the fall, and this time, Geiger agreed to put Winterport Winery on the itinerary.
Gina Provenzano, who writes for the New York City-based Bon Appetit, was impressed with both the winery and the area.
"I love the fact that all these little towns are on the water like this," she said. "It's everything I pictured."
Provenzano thought Winterport Winery's use of fruit other than grapes made it unique - and therefore more worthy of a mention in the magazine - and liked the use of local blueberries in the wine, giving the product "a sense of place," she said.
Ann Taylor Pittman of Cooking Light, a food magazine based in Birmingham, Ala., was working on a story about blueberries, and said she might incorporate Winterport Winery's blueberry product.
"The winery is very cool," she said.
Kay Fernandez, a free-lance travel writer based in Ormond Beach, Fla., was in Maine for the first time, and said she was favorably impressed.
"It has a slice of Americana that a lot of people don't see," she said of small towns such as Winterport.
Though traffic was backed up outside the winery on Main Street, and huge payloaders and dump trucks rumbled by intermittently on the muddy gravel surface, all three writers said the construction did not dampen their enthusiasm.
All said it was easy to imagine Winterport when the road work is complete, and that the view of the river from the winery's front window attracted their gaze more than the heavy equipment.
Anderson said the willingness on the part of "company" to overlook the mess cheered them.
"This is an aggravation, a backache that's going to go away," he said.
Anderson credited Town Manager Leo LaChance with having the vision to work to improve the downtown. When the road work is done, sidewalks edged with granite curbs will replace what had been crumbling asphalt, shade trees will be planted, and a stop light will be installed at the intersection at which the winery is located.
The Andersons are encouraging other Winterport business owners to join the Waldo County Marketing Association, and, without being immodest, say they hope their business will "raise the bar" in town.
Even with national magazine coverage, changing local perceptions is still a challenge.
The winery has been in the building for two years, and the hardware store closed about five years ago, Anderson said.
Nonetheless, a man visiting the winery a few weeks ago swore that he'd bought a rake in the hardware store there last fall.
By Tom Groening, Of the NEWS Staff e-mail Tom
Last updated: Monday, June 2, 2003
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