After having their tasting room shut down by town officials during the busiest months of the season, the owners of Southold Farm + Cellar have once again opened their doors.
But Southold Town officials said they did so without necessary approvals.
An announcement on the business’ Facebook page said the winery and tasting room would be open Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.
“After spending the last two months working with various agencies, organizations and the Town of Southold, we took the proactive steps this week to mitigate the major issues facing our property and our operation,” a message on the page said.
“Now, with only one issue facing the zoning board and our every intention to move forward quickly and completely with the planning department we have decided to re-open our doors. In doing so we will not only be able to get back to speaking with each of you about our wines — including two new ones, stay tuned — but also be able to generate the revenue necessary to keep us afloat and pay for the upcoming harvest, our first and the first for a couple varieties ever on the North Fork. The last few months have been a great education for us and as we’ve said before, we look forward to being an asset to this town.”
The note was signed by Regan, Carey, Coralai and Sawyer Meador.
The Meadors opened without any approval from the town, Southold Town Attorney Bill Duffy said today. But, because there is a zoning board of appeals application pending, “Under town law, we can’t bring enforcement efforts. They found a loophole in the law.”
If the ZBA rules against the application, Duffy said, the town can then commence enforcement action.
The Meadors said they did not wish to comment further when asked this week.
Last month, the public turned out in a big way to support the young local couple whose winery’s tasting room was shut down by Southold Town code enforcement in July.
A zoning board of appeals hearing was held at Town Hall, and after a Facebook shout out for support for the Meadors and Southold Farm + Cellar, friends, neighbors, and even some who had never met the couple showed up in support of keeping farming alive.
According to Southold’s Chief Building Inspector Mike Verity, in July, code enforcement was sent out per his direction to Southold Farm + Cellar, a winery located at 860 Old North Road in Southold that he said has been the subject of multiple complaints.
Verity said as per normal procedure, the town asked for voluntary compliance. The business, he said, has only a certificate of occupancy for a single family dwelling. A winery and tasting room had been operating on the property since last year.
The Meadors received a notice of disapproval for a building permit for construction of an agricultural production building at less than the code minimum required setback of 100 feet from a major road. The Meadors are seeking variances for conversion of an existing building to a tasting room and construction of a new winery building at less than the code required minimum of 100 feet from a major road and a winery building located on a parcel less than the code required minimum of 10 acres. Also, the winery/tasting room constitutes more than one principal use; the winery building at less than the code required minimum rear year setback of 60 feet and the tasting room at less than the code required minimum rear yard setback of 60 feet, according to the ZBA.
At the hearing, attorney Pat Moore, representing the Meadors, spoke about the business, a “boutique, handcrafted” winery, where the couple grows their own grapes. “They’re the newest generation of wine producers,” she said.
The site, she said, qualifies for area variances because “it’s not a typical winery.” Wine tasting, she said, is a supported mechanism in the town code, so individuals can taste the agricultural product, much as they watermelon or any other crop.
The Meadors are seeking area variances to construct a processing facility, and to keep the 400 square foot tasting room where it is currently is sited.
ZBA chair Leslie Weisman said as it stands, tasting rooms are only allowed as an accessory to a winery or in a commercial zoning district. Moore said the definition of “winery” was important. ZBA member Kenneth Schneider asked if the address on the farm winery license was the Meadors’ residence, they said it was. He said he thought the business was “great, it’s just where you want to do it. You are running a winery on your property illegally,” he said.
Moore once again said the definition of “winery” was critical and said that according to the state definition, it was. Schneider said state definition or not, the use was not allowed under town code.
Over the years, Moore said, across the country, farmers have grown up on family homesteads and lived on the land, selling their crops.
Schneider said this “is different,” because alcohol was sold.
“I respectfully disagree,” Meador said, noting that across the world, notions of tasting rooms are quite different than in the United States. In France, for example, he said, most wineries do not have tasting rooms. “The notion of tasting rooms is very, very new,” he said, and the “cavalcade of tasting rooms and grandiose tasting rooms” seen on the North Fork are “a fairly new endeavor.” While he said those businesses can be fairly lucrative he did not feel it necessary to have a winery at that scale.
“We’re now getting to the point where wine stands on its own. We don’t have to entertain people for them to buy or consume our wine. I want to be part of that change,” Meador said. He added that the small scale gives him the ability to have control over small lot production.
After a business trip to California, Meador said the goal “is very much about getting wines past our borders and not having it consumed on our property. This just gives us the ability to support our family so my wife doesn’t have to commute into the city, and so that we can make this a sustainable business for us.”
Weisman said she respected and appreciate what the Meadors are trying to do. “We are neighbors; we know we are living in an agricultural area and we’re lucky to do so. It’s worth fighting to preserve. There’s no one here that would not support what you want to do. But what we need to look at is whether this one acre of property can actually support those activities.”
Residents turned out in force to support not only the Meadors, but their business model and the future of agriculture in Southold.
The matter will once again be on the ZBA agenda on October 1.
