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Tree Spirits Winery & Distillery

Tree Spirits Winery & Distillery

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Our Mission

To produce excellent wines and spirits from local Maine agricultural products – and to have fun doing it!

In the beginning, we just wanted wine we could afford …

After graduating from Colby College in 1976, Bruce Olson spent his time building houses, installing radiant flooring, becoming a licensed boiler installer and energy educator, taking ballroom dance lessons, and raising sheep. Karen Heck, who’d graduated from Colby in ’74, had worked in and started nonprofits.

After 20 years of both living in and around Waterville, they finally met in 1996. Shortly after that, they moved in together and started drinking a lot of wine to wash down the sheep dogs and lamb chops Bruce had stored in the freezer from his sheep-herding days.

When their tastes began to require wines they couldn’t really afford to drink, Karen suggested Bruce start making wine. In 2010, after 12 years of dazzling their friends with his fermenting skills, Bruce renovated the barn he’d bought to house the trimaran he’d built, and opened Tree Spirits.

In 2012, Karen and Bruce got married and today, Tree Spirits offers apple, pear, and maple picnic and sparkling wines and brandies, a maple port called Maple Storm, two brandy-based drinks we call subLimes Pear and Pom, a sparkling sangria we call Pomegranate Spritzer, Absinthe, and Limoncello.

Tree Spirits is located just minutes from Colby College and the creative arts community of downtown Waterville and is easily accessed off I-95 exits 127 and 130. Come visit our tasting room and see why judges from both coasts agree that our locally sourced and produced wines and spirits are winners!

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The Florida Winery

The Florida Winery

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

It won’t take long for you to realize that we do things a little bit differently around here. We refuse to accept that wine must taste of grass, tobacco, or dirt. Around here we like our wine like we like our women and ice tea…sweet! We don’t mess around when it comes to wine either, just check out the over 50 awards and medals we’ve won in our first four years!

All talk and no walk you say? Well pony up to our tasting bar and we will let our stunning selection of highly enjoyable libations walk all over your taste buds. Relish in pure unadulterated pleasure without worrying about how your swirling the glass. Sit back, Sip, Enjoy, Relax, Repeat…responsibly of course.

The winery is where the magic happens. All of our wines are made right here in house, just steps from the beach, where you’ll find the most unique winery on earth. Beach real estate isn’t cheap, s0 we squeeze a lot of wine out of a small space: about 900 square feet! We use three 2,000-liter jacket fermentation tanks and nine 2,000-liter racking and aging tanks. Filtering is handled by our 40-plate plate & frame filter, and all the bottling is done by hand right in the front window.

It’s not a lot of room, but it’s enough for us to create the most amazing libations known to man.

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Volcano Winery

Volcano Winery

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Aloha! Wine tasting in Paradise is just a sip away at Volcano Winery. We’ve been creating unique wine and fruit blends on the southern slope of Mauna Loa Volcano on the Big Island since 1986, making us the United States’ southernmost winery.

We gather local tropical fruits like the yellow guava and the jaboticaba berry and blend them with traditional wine grapes to create local wines inspired by volcanic fire and the bounty of the island. Our location near the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park lets us make vibrant wine that captures the playful spirit of Hawaiian paradise — and our relaxed, laid-back atmosphere.

In fact, our fruit -blended wines were so unique that the federal government (BATF) had to come up with new category designations to classify them!

We’ve seen many changes in our 25+ years, but the commitment to produce special, award-winning wines made with Aloha has always remained in our hearts.

If you plan on visiting the winery, you can enjoy a tasting with one of our fun and knowledgeable staff members and even drink wine by the glass out in the picnic area. Come relax and sip into “Hawaiian time.”

We’re open every day except for Christmas, from 10 to 5:30. Aloha!

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Linganore Winecellars

Linganore Winecellars

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Linganore Winecellars is a family-owned and operated winery and vineyard nestled on 230 acres of picturesque rolling countryside. The farm was established by Jack and Lucille Aellen in 1971, and the winery opened in 1976. Jack and Lucille used a hand crank crusher and press from Lucille’s father to process six tons of grapes in the first year. By the early ‘80s, Jack and Lucille’s son, Anthony, had taken over the winemaking responsibilities and in 1990, Anthony’s younger brother, Eric, took over the vineyard management. Now, the third generation of Aellens is already hard at work around the winery and getting ready to lead us into the future.

Melding Jack’s German-Swiss winemaking heritage with Lucille’s Italian winemaking roots and ever conscious of our customers’ tastes, Anthony has created a splendid variety of wines, which have won over 200 medals in national and international competitions.

Producing over 30 wines ranging from stylish white and red dinner wines to elegant semi-sweet grape, fruit, and honey wines, our winery enjoys a reputation as a fun place to visit and a relaxed place to sample wines in a casual setting. We welcome visitors 361 days a year to experience a fun-filled afternoon in the country, where winemaking really is a family affair.

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Tieton Cider Works

Tieton Cider Works

Monday, April 2, 2012

The fruit that is used in Tieton Cider Works Cider comes from Craig and Sharon Campbell’s Harmony Orchards. This land has been in our family since the 1920s, when our grandfather homesteaded it here in Tieton, Washington. It has been farmed organically for the last 25 years by an appreciative grandson.

The orchard is perched above the confluence of the Tieton and Naches rivers at an elevation of 2000 feet, considered high for a growing region in Washington State, giving us the advantage of growing our fruit at slightly cooler temperatures. The long sunny days, cool nights and fertile soils craft exceptionally great tasting apples, pears, cherries and apricots.

As a third-generation Yakima Valley farmer with a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and 33 years’ experience in marketing produce, Craig has always been curious about the back-story: the history, production, science, and industry of food. From his unique vantage point, he has studied what consumers are looking for in an apple. Growing new varieties of trees is truly what makes Craig happy.

Ten years ago he started looking for niche apple varieties that weren’t being overproduced in the commercial market. As a result, land that was once predominantly planted with Red and Golden Delicious now has blocks of Ambrosia, Honey Crisp, Jonagold and Pinova Apples. Four years ago Craig started planting cider apples, those gnarly, inedible wild apple varieties needed to make great cider. We now have one of the larger acreages of cider apples and Perry pears in the state.

A love of land, food and drink has inspired us to make cider with the fruit we are growing at our ranch, Harmony Orchards.  We know the ciders we make are an expression of the harvest and reflective of the fruit and the place that it is grown.

We are excited to present these ciders to you. They are a blend of our own organically grown dessert apples and full-bodied traditional cider apples. Most of all we are thrilled to be involved in reinterpreting the tradition of cider making.

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Finnriver Farm

Finnriver Farm

Friday, March 16, 2012

“At Finnriver we gather and ferment the flavors of the land to offer you hand-crafted sparkling hard ciders and spirited fruit wines. We are inspired by the allure of the fruit, the ancient history of the craft of fermentation, and the lively traditions we now seek to revive.

“Note: We use the term “cider” as it is used in Europe and in the blossoming cider revival in the United States, to mean a fermented apple beverage. Some folks call it “hard cider.” Our ciders are alcohol.

“Our Certified Organic family farm and Cidery is located alongside a restored salmon stream on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The process of creating our products begins in the spring blossoms of organic fields and orchards. Bees work their magic, fruit ripens in the sun and come autumn, when the rain-washed air of the mountains turns crisp, we gather our families and farm crew to harvest and press the fruit. We then ferment it slowly through the chill of winter months and use traditional methods to refine and bottle our select batches.

“Finnriver grows a variety of berries and heirloom apple trees, in order to provide organic fruits for our wines and ciders. We also glean wild apples from old-time local homesteads and source fruit from organic family farms in eastern Washington and around the region. We’re committed to sustainable land stewardship through organic production, conservation easements, renewable energy, salmon safe certification, habitat restoration, and community partnerships, celebration and outreach.

“We are very pleased to share the flavors of Finnriver with you and invite you to come visit the farm, taste our ciders and wines, walk the orchard, and connect with us.”

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Peninsula Cellars

Peninsula Cellars

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Peninsula Cellars is a family-run winery founded by the Kroupas, a pioneer family of northern Michigan cherry farmers. The winery is located on the Old Mission Peninsula in the heart of tart cherry country, just north of Traverse City, Michigan. The region lies along the 45th parallel, halfway between the north pole and the equator. This gives the region its distinct microclimate that makes it perfect for growing high-quality wine grapes.

Our philosophy toward winemaking has always been very minimalistic, allowing the regional expression of the fruit to come through. The sun, the rain, the wind, and the soil, all under the watchful eye of the grower, are what make our wines so good.

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Latah Creek Wine Cellars

Latah Creek Wine Cellars

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Mike Conway — with over 34 years of winery experience — and his wife Ellena, pair to run one of the most successful small wineries in this relatively new viticultural region in the northeast corner of Washington state. Latah Creek Wine Cellars, established in 1982 in Spokane, is one of only a few family-owned and operated wineries in Washington.

While Mike assumes the management, winemaking and vineyard tasks, Ellena takes on the accounting, fiscal, tasting room, and gift shop. In 2005, their daughter Natalie joined the family business as an assistant winemaker.

Over the past 25 years, the winery has taken hundreds of awards in local, national, and international competitions and has had numerous wines featured in Wine Spectator‘s “Annual Top 100 Selections” as well as Wine Enthusiast‘s “Annual Top 100 Selections,” often with an added note of “Best Buy.”  Latah Creek, heralded by Wine Spectator as one of the top producers of Merlot in the state of Washington.

Mike started his career as a microbiology technician for the largest winery in the United States, E&J Gallo and the nearby Franzia Brothers Winery. After spending three years as an assistant winemaker with the Parducci winery in Northern California, Mike moved to Washington to start Latah Creek and The Hogue — joint ventures with grape grower Hogue and winemaker Conway. After two years, the two operations were separated so full attention could be given to Mike and Ellena’s own winery: Latah Creek.

The winery produces about 17,000 cases annually. Roughly 10 percent of that total consists of red wines while another 10 percent is devoted exclusively to Chardonnay. Sixty percent is comprised of their two most popular varieties: Riesling and Huckleberry d’Latah. The remaining 20 percent includes smaller lots of Muscat Canelli, Moscato d’Latah, and proprietary blends of Maywine, Spokane Blush and their newest wine, Natalie’s Nectar.

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Montezuma Winery

Montezuma Winery

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

For more than thirty years, George Martin had been a bee keeper. George, along with wife, Virginia and son Ed, maintained and built a honey production and pollination business containing 2,000 hives in Maine, New York, Florida and South Carolina.

With dropping honey prices and increasing costs, the family, now with son Bill, began niche marketing their honey in 1998. Bill had always dabbled in mead making and home brewing and the next year The Martin Family applied for a farm winery license, and commercial production of honey wine began. Soon after, Martin’s Honey Farm and Meadery in Sterling, New York was born.

In 2001, the Martins’ realized the importance of their location in the fruit belt of New York and decided to try their hand at making fruit wines.

The concept of Montezuma Winery was then formed. Montezuma Winery quickly took off, so much so that we moved the production facilities and gift shop to our 14,000 square foot building in Seneca Falls. Although we do produce high quality grape wines, the focus is fruit and honey wines.

Both Montezuma Winery and Martin’s Honey Farm and Meadery have claimed numerous awards including Gold, Double Gold, Best of Class, Best Fruit Wine, and Commercial Mead Champion. Our wine list offers a range from dry to sweet and includes Riesling, Merlot, Blueberry, Rhubarb and our most popular, Cranberry Bog.

The Martin family efforts continue to create and enhance a unique product line, quality products, and an experience that is memorable and enjoyable for their loyal customers. Stop by and enjoy the award-winning wines, family atmosphere, and extensive gift shop at Montezuma Winery!!

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Maydelle Country Wines

Maydelle Country Wines

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

In the wonderful world that we live in, there are thousands of wineries making tens of thousands of wines. It is in the midst of that wonderful world that you will find Maydelle Country Wines located solidly in Left Field.

The spirits of our rebellious forefathers, ambitious pioneers, and audacious grandparents reside at Maydelle Country Wines. Taking what they had and using it to grow this country is the spirit found in every bottle of our wines.

Maydelle Country Wines is located on a dirt road in a nearly 100-year-old depot. Using only products available from the soil of Texas, each batch is kept small — less than 200 gallons.  Instead of dragging up the same old French grapes, we go out on a limb creating wines that are not only pleasant to drink, but down right FUN: wines made from blackberries, grapefruit, elderberries, and peaches, just to name a few.

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