Into the spirits

Part 3

by Mary Hurley

Photos by Paul Moreau Jr.

Three years ago, Nashoba Valley Winery -- the largest wine operation in Worcester County and the best-known -- was put up for sale by its original owner, Jack Partridge, a former city planner who had founded the winery in 1983. Partridge had cited a health problem in the family as the reason, but others familiar with the situation also contend that he had lost interest. "Production was way down," says present general manager Pelletier, slipping from 8000 cases a year to about 2500 at the time of the sale.

It was a source of concern to both Partridge and local residents that the new owner of the 55-acre property, a panoramic spread of orchards and rolling hills in the heart of apple country, was more likely to be a real-estate developer than a wine aficionado. To preserve the space for agricultural use -- i.e. a winery -- Partridge applied to the state's Agricultural and Preservation Restriction program. Under the program, the state would pay for the development rights to the site, the difference between a fair market value and its agricultural value. In addition to preserving the land, the program allowed the seller to receive full-market value and lowered the acquisition costs to the buyer.

The program also required the town to agree to become a partner with the state. Bolton Town Meeting eventually authorized $80,000 to support the joint venture. And Pelletier, a real-estate developer from Fitchburg, was one of five partners of Nashoba Valley Spirits Ltd., which purchased the site in October 1995 to operate as a winery.

As a winery, the land was worth about $500,000, Pelletier says. To preserve the orchards and the winery, the state paid Partridge $1 million. He now lives in Texas.

Those in the wine business say the winery, after the initial reorganization, is a comeback story. "It's taken about a year and a half to convince people we are viable," Pelletier says. Winemaker Larry Ames, who left in 1990, returned to the winery two years ago. Now there are ambitious plans to further promote Nashoba as a destination spot as well as to stretch out its season beyond the summer and fall.

An upscale restaurant is scheduled to open in April 1998, and a small microbrewery opened this fall. Owners are also increasing efforts to promote the winery as a wedding site. About five weddings are held there each year (Nashoba wines are required to be served at the reception). Pelletier would like to see more; indoor space for receptions was made available for the first time this fall.

"It was a big investment, but it's in the right location. This is ideal, 40 minutes outside of Boston, a beautiful rural setting that's only a mile off 495," says Pelletier. "I was fortunate that the winery was already here. To start from scratch would have been very, very difficult.

"We're doing well. We're breaking even. That's probably a phenomenon for an East Coast winery," he jokes. To break even, Pelletier says, he works about 80 hours a week and doesn't draw a salary. But there's compensation, he says. "I get to work outside."

In its orchards, Nashoba grows its own fruit -- apples, peaches, and berries -- and also sponsors pick-your-own-fruit events open to the public. But here, too, begging is part of the territory. Last year Pelletier found himself pleading with Ocean Spray officials for cranberries during a shortage that saw the price of a pound escalate from 50 cents to $1.35. "I'm a small businessman in Massachusetts; 30 percent of my business is cranberry-apple wine; this is going to be a huge financial hardship," Pelletier told them. Pelletier got his cranberries.

The recent plum crop was "lousy," he says, so don't expect to find Nashoba plum wine on the shelves anytime soon. Popular with customers are the dessert wines: especially After Dinner Peach, but also Raspberry. Dry Pear, a white wine, also sells well, he says, and Pear Cider, which resembles apple cider with some kick.

The Dry Blueberry, a red dinner wine won the Gold Medal and was named state champion at the International Eastern Wine Competition held in New York state earlier this year. The winery also has recently introduced two white grape wines, Vidal Blanc and Chardonnay, made in limited quantities and available for sale only at the winery. Producing grapes also is an attempt to shut up those wine snobs, who dismiss fruit wines.

"It's unfortunate that some people are so narrow-minded that they can't approach wine with an open mind. It limits the possibilities," he says.

Luckily for Nashoba, sweet wines are popular in the region. "There is a whole clientele who like sweet wines," says Bill Giannopoulos, owner of Friendly Discount Liquors in Whitinsville, which carries both Mellea and Nashoba wines in its New England wine section. Nashoba, he says, "makes a dry blueberry that's excellent. The blueberry does very well," he says, along with the peach and the cranberry, the latter a perennial bestseller during the holidays.

One reason for the wine snobbery directed at fruit wines: they tend to be the first -- and only -- kind of wine that people try. Industry surveys have shown that fans of sweet wine are not the types to experiment and move on (and up, as far as the snobs are concerned) to white and red wines.

Nashoba Valley wines are better-known than Mellea and they have a wider distribution. Sales are particularly strong in Central Massachusetts, but Nashoba wines are also found on wine-shop shelves throughout the state. Because fruit wine is a niche market, Nashoba does not have to compete with the wide range of white and reds on the market, nor confront the stereotype that the best wines are from France and California.

"The biggest problem we have is convincing a particular store to carry our product," Pelletier says. Restaurants are a tough sell too, he says. Inclusion on a restaurant wine list is a helpful marketing boost. Currently, Nashoba wines are offered at 12 restaurants in the state.

Hence the emphasis on promotional events at the winery: that's where approximately 60 percent of wine sales are made. The winery offers a range of seasonal programming, plus guided winery tours on the weekends. About six wine dinners, at a cost of $20 per person, are held each year for customers who buy a case of wine. And there were a number of customers hauling cases of wines to their cars at the winery's "Taste of Massachusetts" event held this year on a sweltering, 90-degree Saturday in mid-August. The event featured gourmet- and specialty-food tastings, but on a day that was made for beer guzzling, wine tasting and buying seemed a favored activity. Nashoba racked up wine sales of $8000 that day. Compare that to total January sales of $6000, Pelletier says.

On to part 4