A new website http://www.drinklocalwine.com/ is set to debut next week. The emphasis on this site is to encourage consumers to drink their local wines. One statement we often hear at wineries is, “The community doesn’t know they have a winery in their own backyard.” Getting the community to accept and support a local winery is a challenge met by many wineries. Some wineries embrace the challenge wholeheartedly.

As written in yesterday’s blog, The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City Colorado produces a community wine made from grapes that over 100 families in the community grow and bring to the winery.

Childress Winery in Lexington, North Carolina listened to their community when the community asked for a wine that would pair with the community’s famous pork barbeque. The winery answered with a wine called “Fine Swine Wine.” It is only sold on the day of the Lexington Barbecue Festival in October. Last year the five hundred cases were sold out by early afternoon.

Fulkerson Winery in Dundee, New York reaches out to the home winemakers in their community, of which there are many. Each year Fulkerson crushes grapes and notifies the local home winemakers that juice is available for them to purchase. Fulkerson Winery has over 5000 local winemakers on their email list. Although many buy the juice to make wine, there are those who buy the juice and freeze it, then drink the unfermented juice. Some in the community enjoy the taste of grape juice made from wine grapes.