When Greenvale Vineyards in Portsmouth started producing wine under its own label in the 1990s, owner Nancy Parker Wilson made an unsettling discovery.
It wasn’t going to be an easy way to earn a living.
“It’s very labor-intensive, and we said, ‘Gee, this is hard,’ ” Parker Wilson recalled. “That’s when we started to look for ways to add to the commercial side of the business.”
First, Greenvale started offering tours and converted a restored stable on the 65-acre farm into a tasting room. Then a jazz series was established to draw more visitors.
About three years ago, Parker Wilson opened the farm to weddings and rehearsal dinners and to other events, for a fee. Now the rentals and the accompanying sales of wine at those parties account for about 10 percent of Parker Wilson’s business.
“We were so focused on making good wine,” she said. “This just happened naturally.”
Taking a page from Napa Valley, the famous wine region in California, vineyards in this area have become more than just places where wine is made. They are destinations.
Five regional wineries have even banded together to form the Coastal Wine Trail of Southeastern New England, touting it as a tour that can be completed in a day or two. “Napa has its wine trails, and we have our own,” gushed Susan Samson, who owns Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton with her husband, Earl.
Most wineries have been organizing tours and tasting for years, but they report a growing demand for renting the real estate, and a demand for a place to relax with a bottle of wine, a bite to eat and a scenic view of row after row of grape vines.
“They get a local flair,” John Nunes, co-owner of Newport Vineyards, said in explaining the popularity of wineries as special event locations. “That’s as opposed to being in the back room of some restaurant somewhere.”
Diamond Hill Vineyards would never be mistaken for a back room at a restaurant.
The winery in Cumberland, owned by Claire and Peter Berntson for more than 30 years, is also the smallest in terms of land size in Rhode Island – 34 acres on which the Berntsons grow 4.5 acres of noble grape pinot noir.
The property, along with a 200-year-old home where the Berntsons live, is tucked away off Diamond Hill Road. It’s reached by taking a long single-lane road.
Berntson said she doesn’t know what percentage of the winery’s revenue is derived from renting their sweeping lawn for parties. (She declined to disclose sales figures, as did all the vineyards mentioned here.)
But those events are valuable to the Diamond Hill Vineyards for another reason: new customers.
“It always brings new people down here,” Berntson said. “Even people who live in town, it exposes a lot of them to the place for the first time. It’s a necessary part of the business.”
The vineyards are available from June to September for bridal showers, anniversary parties, wedding ceremonies and a wine-and-cheese social hour afterward, but no receptions.
The parties may be necessary, but Berntson isn’t going to overdo it.
Diamond Hill – which has five employees, all family members – once hosted parties of up to 150 people. Now they rarely go above 60. And most events are scheduled for the daytime, because Berntson doesn’t want to work at night.
“We could have so many more events to the point where we turn them away,” she said. “But I want to keep the fun in it.”
Diamond Hill works with an outside caterer and charges a fee between $1,550 and $2,600, depending on the menu and size of the event. The charge includes food as well as tent, chair and table rentals.
At Newport Vineyards, corporate outings are an important niche. Nunes said bookings for corporate events fell off a few years ago, but now they’re back. Most Fridays and Saturdays are reserved months in advance for parties of up to 80.
“I think companies were watching their budgets a little more,” Nunes said. “Now it’s picking up again. We just did one the other night for 45 people.”
Party planners have a choice of renting a three-season tent, the oak barrel tasting room or gardens that overlook the winery’s 50 acres of vines.
The revenue from corporate parties and other events, such as rehearsal dinners and group meetings, amounts to under 10 percent of the vineyard’s total earnings, Nunes said. Still, it’s a welcome supplement.
“Sometimes it’s tough to make a living in the off years,” he said.
In addition, Nunes said the vineyard features Fatulli’s Bakery and the Glass Onion Restaurant onsite. They’re separate businesses but offer food to go with the wine.
Susan Samson of Sakonnet Vineyards said many thought wineries in Rhode Island were a joke when most started years ago.
It’s no joke now. Sakonnet, like many other regional vineyards, offer daily tours and tastings. It also organizes annual food festivals on the property. An antiques show drew thousands to Sakonnet recently.
Samson remembers the first wedding held on the farm years ago. She didn’t even charge a fee.
Now spots at Sakonnet are rented out nearly every weekend in the warmer months. This year, the Samsons added a new feature: food. They opened the Coop Cafe in the “hospitality center” at the vineyard.
“Hospitality is the name of the game,” Susan Samson said.
And the hospitality at Sakonnet goes even further. Samson trains employees to avoid correcting visitors who mispronounce the name of the vineyard, instead telling them to teach by example.
“[Customers] try to make it French-sounding all the time,” Samson said.
Co-owner Earl Samson said the rentals and other activities help sell the estate wines, which are made from the 45 acres of grapes grown on the property. About 55 percent of the estate wines are sold at the vineyard at retail prices, meaning a higher margin than selling the product wholesale.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that,” Earl Samson said.
Nancy Parker Wilson is relatively new to the hospitality end of the business.
Her family has owned most of Greenvale Vineyards’ 65-acre farm since 1863, but it was only after years of growing grapes for Sakonnet Vineyards that the family decided to make wine under its own label. By 1996, the wine was ready to be sold.
It was about three years ago that Greenvale was made available for site rentals. To Parker Wilson, it made sense because of the farm’s location overlooking the Sakonnet River. “It’s an incredibly beautiful place,” she said.
So now the vineyard charges $1,250 to rent the restored stable on Friday and Saturday nights. (It’s less on weekdays.) A tent rental among the pinot gris vines is $3,000.
Greenvale also offers a particularly scenic site for wedding ceremonies with a water view among the Chardonnay vines. The rental price is $650.
“The bridal business is big,” Parker Wilson said. “People spend so much money.”
