Endless Summer Winery

[Midwest Vintner]

it's ok. the maple, ginko and black gum are 4-5 yr old trees already. about 8-11 ft tall right now. hope they grow quick! lol. the big elm though was in a good spot for shade in the seating area. might have to put umbrella's at the table. lol

 

[Midwest Vintner]

grape trellis. still have to tension the lines. excuse the blurring pic and my dog.

climbing rose trellis

blooming weeping cherry

clearing up old road for diagonal parking. the tasting room will be between the small ginko (foreground) and the sycamore (background).

i hate to cut trees, but it was necessary. going to replant some smaller blooming ones when the building and parking is done.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

if you look at my last set of pics before these ^, you can see all the trees in the background of the large tree we cut down.

more pics to come later. building should start, hopefully soon!

 

[Runningwolf]

Nice pictures and very exciting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

this is showing the new foundation and the parking lot will be angled in this ditch. having drains ran and lots of rock in the ditch soon.

they made a make shift road to dump rock in the foundation. going to run the plumbing tomorrow and pour this week!

showing how muddy the ground is. concrete truck got stuck, a 4wd ford work truck got stuck AND the gravel truck almost got stuck. thank god for vehicles with tracks!!!

Tasting room is 24 x 20. Storage will be the same (minus bathrooms) as we are splitting a 24x40 building into 2. Not big, but we are trying to do more quality wines for a good price (thinking $10-14 and FREE tasting) and don't care if we sell out. Plain and simple. We want to keep it small and have a nice place for people to come and relax.

 

[Runningwolf]

Very cool. How exciting having the foundation in and knowing the building it going up.

 

[Wade E]

Looking good there!! What will be the square footage?

 

[grapeman]

It bet it feels great to see this finally happening after all the hard work. Still lots of work to go, but you are on the way. Thanks for sharing.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Very nice!!! Keep it up. I will have to make a stop by when you are open. I am about an 1 hour and 15 min away!!

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Looking good there!! What will be the square footage?

the building is 24 x 40 = 960 sq ft, but the tasting room is only 24 x 20 = 480 sq ft. not huge, but we should be able to have well over 20 people inside (maybe 30?). The bar is U shaped and will be 8 ft x 7 ft x 8 ft making it easy for 2 people to serve. I think with allowing 24" for each person at the bar, that means approximately 11 people can be tasting at a time. Now I know it might be tight, but I've been to Stone Hill Winery and have seen people slip in from behind (in a group) and taste too. So, maybe ~15 people can do tasting at a time. We probably will only have 1 person through the week and 2 on weekends doing tastings. The outside, covered patio should have 2 tables with four seats (if we can fit them) and the outside seating area (concrete) should be able to sit ~40 or more.

Tasting room piping has been laid and the floor poured!!!!!! Construction of the building should be soon.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Just an update....

working on my primera printer now and should have my first labels tonight!!!! they are for a mead we have made and not for commercial purposes. Gotta get the bugs out now. lol. That said, we are now aiming for Aug. 1st opening. We are very close now and building should be done withing a week or two, weather permitting. We are going to finish it on the inside ourselves, but it shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully. lol. I will post up more pics in the next month or so.

 

[grapeman]

Good luck with all of it. I hope your opening is well attended. It is taking a while to get people out over here. They all have been holding off for good weather to come. Daily traffic is up, but I would like to see it a lot higher.

 

[Wade E]

As Rich said I hope the turnout is good for you and we cant wait to see some updated pics!

 

[AlFulchino]

good luck...looking forward to the pics!....and how the primera printer works...we got the primera 1362 front/back labeller and love it

 

[Dougxox]

Any thing closer on an opening date? would love to be there for the grand opening! I'm about 2.5 hrs away...

 

[Stefani]

Question: My local Winery the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls Minnesota allows people to come in for tastings and buy as well as see the equipment. -- Would you be offering any tours?

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Question: My local Winery the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls Minnesota allows people to come in for tastings and buy as well as see the equipment. -- Would you be offering any tours?

I'm not sure. I think, under our license, we can have visitors as long as we are present. I will have to check. I'm not sure there is much to show. lol. We did get a new bottle filler in, but beyond that, I think I've pictured it all. I would be willing, but I'm not sure if my father can/will do it. I will not be the primary oversight on the property. I would imagine it can be arranged, if it is totally legal though, through this site, as I cannot see why it would be a problem.

I appreciate all the kind wishes. This forum has a good community. I hope we do well myself!

We don't even have a building as of now for a tasting room, so I can't pinpoint a date. I will try to let people here know, ASAP. I do not have a website yet, as I've been waiting for better media to display (construction doesn't make for good pics) nor when we might be open. We have had so many set backs and delays it's ridiculous. The gov't is super slow and getting ANYTHING done requires many different agencies and steps/regulations. We are making sure to cross our "t"s and dot our "i"s.

My last round of labels has been in "recieved" for over 2 full weeks. The first round took about 8 days total.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

UPDATE:

We are aiming now for early September, but we might have a setback. Which is becoming the norm. I know of 1 at least possibly atm, and the gov't says they want jobs and are pro-business? lol. So realistically, maybe October? I hope we can get this done sooner!!!

Some progress...

 

[JohnT]

Lots of luck to you.

It seems to me that the best quality a person can have (for this) is patience.

Just think of this as paying the price for living the dream.

I had looked into starting a comercial winery in New Jersey. The cost and the amount of red tape (at the state level) are far too prohibitive!

johnT.

 

[Runningwolf]

Good luck to you, Looking good!