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Rose Vineyard and Winery: Family Farm’s Next-Generation Idea Bears Fruit

On North Branford land that has been part of the Rose family farm since 1644, the next generation is growing a new venture that will soon bear fruit as Rose Vineyards and Winery, with 12th generation member Jon Rose as its vintner.

Deciding on a new layer of life for this heritage farm property, which already is home to the popular Rose Orchards Farm and Farm Market (recently growing to include Bucks Grill alongside the market’s ice cream stand), was a family decision, says Jon.

In this venture which will define the next generation of Rose family farming, Jon is collaborating with his wife, Ellen, and 12th generation family members Tyler Rose, Nate Rose, Abbie Rose Waltson, and Stephanie Rose as well as with Tyler’s girlfriend and longtime family friend Rachael Cassella.

Rose family members of multiple generations assisted in planting hundreds of vines on a very visible hillside at the North Branford/Branford town line in May.

Just two weeks ago, the Rose family finalized all town approvals required to go forward with plans for the vineyard. This will be the town’s second vineyard and follows the highly successful 2015 opening and continued growth of Rosabianca Vineyards, which has a rustic barn tasting room on its Northford grounds.

Rose Vineyard and Winery hopes to become part of the Connecticut Wine Trail, and to build a reputation as another popular stopping point for wine lovers who make the rounds of the shoreline’s different tasting rooms and vineyards. The vineyard and winery also hopes to help other North Branford farms and businesses, says Jon.

“I think, with us being on this end of town and Rosabianca at the other end of town, people will come and start at one end or the other, and along the way they might go to the farm market or drive through town and go to other markets in town,” says Jon. “So for local businesses, it should be good.”

Adds Ellen, “We want to be really big into supporting local farms and local businesses and we even want to team up with a lot of restaurants and breweries. We want to network.”

Within the next two years, a beautiful new building will rise on a corner of the Rose family property overlooking the current rows of new vines. The modern, farmhouse-style building will boast a tasting room and outdoor patio.

With added potential for small dinner parties and as a great setting for events like farm-to-table dinners, “it’s going to be more of boutique winery,” says Ellen.

At this point, Jon’s goal is to get to work in the coming weeks on fermenting his first batches of wine. To do that, he’ll use grapes purchased from local growers. The first bottles to bear the Rose Vineyards and Winery label should be ready for sale in a little more than a year’s time, he says.

“We have an existing building, which we’ll be using to start fermenting our first vintage this fall,” says Jon. “We’re going to start in a couple of weeks. We’ll purchase grapes, for now, until we are producing our own.”

It takes about three years to get production from vines once they’re planted, Jon explains. Currently, the brand-new vineyard is growing marquette (red) and vidal (white) varieties of grapes.

“They’re both varieties that are good wine varieties, but they’re also made to grow in New England, so they’re a lot more winter hardy than a lot of European varieties,” says Jon.

Grown on newly cleared and planted land that’s very visible to passersby on Route 139 at the North Branford/Branford town line, the first vines are thriving. That’s thanks in part to family know-how and in part to the area sharing a unique microclimate with successful vineyard regions on Long Island, according the research the family gleaned from U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Next spring, the vineyard will spread to the other side of the hill (facing Valley Road), repurposing an unplanted hillside to become a terraced vineyard section.

Construction is also gearing up to begin on a corner of the property overlooking the current vineyard, to bring in the winery’s farmhouse/tasting room building.

Ellen, who recently set up the vineyard’s new Facebook page (www.facebook.com/RoseVineyards), readily shares the family’s vision for the tasting room.

“It’s modern California farm house-style,” Ellen says. “Lots of open air, lots of breezeway, big windows, French doors.”

“We wanted to keep some of the farm feel, the farm architecture,” adds Jon. “A lot of vineyards in California have a modern farmhouse house type, so that’s what we’re going for.”

Jon and family members went out to California wine country about a month ago for a fact-finding tour.

“Everyone out there was really nice. There were a lot of helpful people and a lot of grape growers that were more than happy to tell you not only what they did right, but what they’ve done wrong—and what not to do,” says Jon.

Jon anticipates the new tasting room’s construction to be completed by late 2019. As a very active member of another family business, Al Rose Construction, this North Branford High School (NBHS) Class of 2002 graduate knows a thing or two about construction timelines.

As his cousin, Tyler (NBHS Class of 2010) is already managing the evolving growth of the farm market and food stands (assisted by Stephanie); the family decided Jon would be a great candidate for the wine-making role.

“Before the vineyard, Tyler was 100 percent farm and I was almost 100 percent construction,” says Jon. “So this was something we got together on as a family, and seemed like a good idea! It’s very interesting to learn more about the science of wine making.”

In an interesting twist, Tyler will likely oversee the sale of the first bottles of wine, which the family anticipates being able to offer through the farm market sometime next year.

When it comes to filling those first bottles, Jon is working with consultants and looking forward to getting to work on the fermenting process.

“We’re only making reds this fall because they need more time to age,” Jon explains. “And then we’ll make whites next fall. We’re probably going to open with eight varieties, total. And even though we don’t have grapes from our plants yet, we’re making the [planted] varieties, a marquette and a vidal, so that when we open, we’ll have them.”

Jon also anticipates making a cabernet, merlot, and Petite Sirah among those first varieties. And, not to leave out the fact that Rose Vineyards and Winery is part of Rose Orchards Farm, which grows apples among its produce, “we’ll be making hard cider, too,” Jon notes.

Sweet cider will also be made, to be sold at the farm market. Hard cider will become part of the offerings from Rose Vineyard and Winery.

As for the growth of the vineyard and winery in the coming years, it will be a matter of “making a balance of everything,” now being grown on the Rose Orchards Farm property, which incorporates some 50 acres.

“These [new vineyard] areas now are areas where we weren’t already growing anything,” says Jon. “So it depends on once we figure out how much we need to grow, and how much we’re going to sell of everything. We’ve also talked to some other growers in Connecticut that are interested in selling us grapes. So that will be helpful, because if we don’t have space to grow everything here, we can still get them locally.”