We are proud to present Autumn Lake Winery. Today, the new tasting room and surrounding hospitality areas are full to capacity in spring and fall. Entertainers play outdoors on a rustic stage in the picnic area and can be viewed from the court and the covered patio. A food truck will set up shop off to one side and sell their meals to our customers. All this going on perched some 30 feet above the back drop of our beautiful 16-acre lake and countless more forests and vineyards. It is quite a sight and makes for an easy-going outdoor experience of sipping wine with friends. There are also two terraces over looking the lake with picnic tables for customers to enjoy. In winter and summer, it is the indoor space getting all the focus of patrons and it normally full to capacity with reservations for tables. I wish I had made it larger but had no idea what was coming. For special events, Autumn Lake offers private events spaces for parties of 25 to 150. There is ample room to expand. Autumn Lake will put on a themed festival, according to the time of year. A few are the Harvest Festival, The KY Derby, The Autumn Lake Wine Mixer and we have even done a luau. When weather is cooperative, we can get 500 in attendance on a single day. It has been as high as 800. Other smaller events include wine pairing dinners, holiday celebrations, full moon party, murder mystery theatre and trivia night. These are ways to fill the space on Wednesdays and Thursdays .

Come see the wonderful tasting room, state-of-the-art production area, full barrel cellar. Office and storage space has been conceived and built. This building opened in 2020 and has improved all aspects of the wine making process. In 2022 there was over 2,000 cases sold. The biggestimprovement came with the addition of an educated winemaker who is committed to wine production of high quality interesting wines that represent our terroir here in the Outer Coastal Plain AVA. Our first planting was in 2012. We planted each year after through spring of 2017 adding acre after acre of vineyards. At this writing, there are 15 wine grape varieties growing on approximately 9 acres. Varieties grown are: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Traminette, Cabernet Franc, Albarino, Viognier, Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, Vidal Blanc, Cayuga, San Marco Blaufrankisch, Chambourcin, and Trentina.

We anticipate 30 tons for the 2024 vintage as many new vines will fruit for the first time that year. Ultimately, we will expect the 2026 vintage to be around 40 tons because the entire 12 acres will be producing. This will need to subsidized by 18 to 25 tons of fruit purchased from other vineyards if the current trends persist. About 25 tons were purchased during the 2022 vintage harvest. There are two full time farm hands at Autumn Lake plus the work that Mark does in the vineyard. Vine work takes most of the time available in May and June as well as September and October