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Vineyard will move winery to city

By PAUL SWIDER
Published August 30, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG — In a facility once used to manufacture a heart stent, retired heart surgeon J. Crayton Pruitt’s Florida Estates Winery will open a retail store Friday.

Pruitt says the goal is to broaden market appeal beyond the winery’s existing Land O’Lakes vineyard.“Our plan is ultimately to make that our main manufacturing facility,” said Marc Wagner, the winery’s vice president of marketing and sales, about the store that will open at 3101 37th Ave. N.

“We’ll make it a touring winery once the bottling is set up.”Pruitt used the building, a former passenger rail station, to produce a heart stent he invented, but had 15,000 square feet available after he sold that business, Wagner said. In an effort to directly reach a metro market, Florida Estates will move its winemaking operation from Land O’Lakes to the St. Petersburg location and later will move here the automated system it shares with its sister winery, Eden Vineyards in Fort Myers.

At the 11 a.m. grand opening and throughout the weekend, there will be tastings of the winery’s hybrid-grape wines and fruit wines. Eventually, the site may also host an occasional “fresh market,” Wagner said, offering fruit, produce, food and music on a grassy strip that parallels the nearby CSX railroad tracks.

The winery has been in existence in Pasco County since 2001 on Pruitt’s 3,600-acre working ranch. Because Florida has a tough climate for traditional grape varieties, Wagner said, the winery makes use of special breeds that grow better here and blends those sometimes with fruit flavors. The resulting products aren’t the stuff of wine snobs, but that’s not important, he said.

“Everyone gets all nervous about wine,” Wagner said. “Wine should be fun, not scary.”

The winery makes a white wine that Wagner likens to a pinot grigio, a “spaghetti red,” and a blush similar to a rose or white zinfandel. They also make a sweet spice wine and wines flavored with orange and lime, as well as a port flavored with strawberry.

“We blend our wines to the Florida lifestyle,” Wagner said. “There’s only two kinds of wine: The kind you like and the kind you don’t.”

The winery also sells wines by other manufacturers, including La Florida Estates Wines from a Chilean winery partner, Viña San Esteban in the Aconcagua Valley.

“We have something for every taste,” Wagner said. “Even if you’re a wine connoisseur, you’ll appreciate some of our wines.”

The store offers tastings of products but also conducts formal tasting classes where students try wines but also spend a few hours learning the ins and outs of wines and winemaking, Wagner said. A full-course tasting is also available any time for $3.50.

The winery has planted 10 acres of vines in Land O’Lakes but until they mature, it uses grapes from Eden Vineyards. The Pasco ranch will still have wines available and also will be the site of larger events, Wagner said.
For more information about Florida Estates Winery, visit floridaestateswines.com or call (727) 526-2112.

-- Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com

[Last modified August 31, 2006, 09:15:27]