Peconic Bay Winery tasting room, vineyards now for sale
In January, Peconic Bay Winery closed its Cutchogue tasting room to the public and transferred operations to the Empire State Cellars store at Tanger Outlets in Riverhead.
At the time, general manager Jim Silver was adamant that the winery, founded in 1979, had no plans to close its Cutchogue location altogether.
“We are absolutely not closing our tasting room,” Mr. Silver told The Suffolk Times last winter. “We are just changing it and re-purposing the Cutchogue property. The biggest crowds came out for the special events and we’re going to keep doing them.”
But now, six months later, the winery, including the tasting room and 25 acres of planted vineyards on Main Road, is for sale, Mr. Silver told the New York Times.
“After assessing the profitability of the tasting room, we determined that the return on our investment was not at all reasonable,” Mr. Silver said. He added that hard cider production will not be affected by the winery’s sale.
Paul and Ursula Lowerre, who bought the winery in 1999, might retain the brand, Mr. Silver is quoted as saying. The Lowerres’ 30 acres of vines on Oregon Road in Cutchogue are not on the market.
Russell Hearn, chief operating officer at Premium Wine Group in Mattituck, will oversee vineyard maintenance and acquire the 2013 grapes, Mr. Silver said.
