Feature Business: Saratoga Winery

Describe your business and how you got started?  The Saratoga Winery and Tasting bar. We make our own selections of wine and offer daily tasting at our tasting bar. My husband, Rich, and I have been making wine with his uncle for several years. We’ve traveled to Pennsylvania to help with different aspects of wine making year after year. We started making wine in our cellar using Uncle Leigh’s blends and techniques, and realized that our friends really enjoyed our wine. Every time we would have guests over we would find ourselves dipping into the different barrels, testing the wines.  My husband would always say, “Saratoga needs a Winery, and I think that our wines are worthy.” We started looking at properties and realizing our growing passion for the industry. We also realized the uphill battle ahead of us to bring our idea to a reality. In February 2008 my husband was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 30 and life itself came to a halt. Like any challenge that we have been faced with, we put our best foot forward and stayed positive. I won’t lie, we were scared as hell. When my husband woke up from his second surgery the first words out of his mouth were, “I just want to make wine.” That’s all I needed to hear to realize that life is short and this is a dream worth fighting for. When surgeries, hospitalizations and chemo came to an end, we switched into high gear and never looked back. Exactly one year to the month that Rich was told that he was cancer free, we opened our doors.

Are you known for anything special?  When it comes to wine, our specialty is our Melomels.  The definition of a Melomel wine is “wine made from fruit and honey.”  We use grapes as our fruit and keep the entire fermentation process as natural as possible. We go straight to the farmers in the Finger Lakes to hand select our grapes and use honey from an apiary in Round Lake. The honey and pressed grape juice is married together in natural oak bourbon barrels that we have shipped straight from distilleries in Kentucky such as Jim Beam and Four Roses. Our Melomels ferment and age in these barrels for 18 months to 3 years depending on the wine that we are making. The only filtration that we use is a process called racking, were the wine is transferred from barrel to barrel, leaving the mash in the bottom. Not to be wasted; we make a wine out of the mash called Hillbilly Mountain Mash. We never add any sulfites or preservatives to our Melomels. Honey preserves the wine while adding health benefits and a nice touch of sweetness. Our Melomels are one of a kind and absolutely delicious.  

 What do you like most about your business?   I like the fact that I can work with my husband in a low stress environment. Everyone comes to see us because they want to. They walk in happy, enjoy their experience and leave happy. In turn this makes us very happy. We are both passionate about the business, we love to make people smile, and we know that this is what we want to do for life.  We laugh a lot, meet new people every day, and share our product that we have put so much time into with people who truly enjoy it.

What do you feel is your biggest challenge with your business?  The most challenging task so far is that in the wine business the paper work, laws and deadlines are multiplied. We are not only manufacturing our own product for consumption but we are serving and selling alcohol. Reports need to be submitted with payment every two weeks, also quarterly and annual reports are due for state and federal, on top of the “standard” tax obligations. We decided to delegate the responsibility to one person who is educated in the area to ensure consistency.  I guess that I am the lucky one who drew the shortest straw. However if this is the most challenging aspect to my business, I think I will survive.

What do you want the community to know about you? We are huge supporters of small local farms and businesses. We have a growing selection of local products that we get straight from area farms, bake shops, and home businesses. We want people to walk in our doors and find non commercialized specialty products, made from scratch, by hand and by real people in our community.  Some of these products include Whalen’s horseradish products and cheese spreads, Willow Marsh flavored cheddars, Saratoga salsa, Saratoga Peanut butter, Saratoga Sweets, home roasted coffee and fresh baked pies from The Little Bakery in the Grove, Maple Syrup from my families farm, maple cream and candy, and Honey from Double A’s Bees.

Anything else: To sum up our business I would say that we are driven by passion that is easy to recognize when you walk in the door. We stand behind quality products made the old fashion way, and the hard working people in our community who supply these products. We plan to be here for a long time raising a family in a family run business, and setting a good example for our community and neighbors.  And by the way, Rich is still cancer free and we are expecting our first child in February.  Cheers!

Owner Name   Rich and Tara Nimmo

Business Name:  The Saratoga Winery

Address:              462 Route 29 West

                                 Saratoga Springs, New York 12866

Phone:                 518-584-WINE (9463)

Website:             www.thesaratogawinery.com