The owners of Southold Farm + Cellar announced today they are selling their property and moving to Texas, to join “a vibrant, young, and nascent winegrowing industry.”
The announcement comes after the Town of Southold in March denied a variance application that would have allowed the construction of a 3,600-square-foot winery and the use of a 400-square-foot out-building as a tasting room on a 23.5-acre site already improved with a single-family house.
“Without being able to offset the costs of land and living through the ability to grow, make and sell our small batch wine from our farm, our ability to sustainably run our small business here has been diminished. Furthermore, this zoning decision, coupled with recently uncovered conflicting Town Code and State Liquor Authority regulations, means we are left with no viable options to continue here in Southold Town,” the vineyard owners said in statement posted on Facebook.
Owners Regan and Carey Meador wrote that they have been “charmed, to say the least with people, the incredible diversity in land, and the notion of our ability to affordably continue pushing the envelope and pursue our dreams” in Texas.
“So after many visits, discussions, much excitement and many tears, we have decided to completely re-locate Southold Farm + Cellar, name, inventory and all, to the Texas Hill Country. While some things, including varieties, may change, our commitment to our craft will remain firmly intact,” they wrote.
The town shut down Southold Wine + Cellar’s tasting room last July, citing the vineyard for opening it without a certificate of occupancy.
The Meadors live in the single-family home on the site, which has been stripped of its development rights on all but one acre. The town building inspector cited the zoning code’s bulk schedule which requires a minimum of two acres of developable land per use.
“Of course we could attempt to continue operating as some others here do on the fringes or loopholes of the law. Or we could choose to fight and waste taxpayers’ time and money as well as our own on unending litigation with the town or those with unlimited means,” the owners wrote in their post. “But it’s hard to see anything but a brick wall with those choices. After many meetings and pleadings with industry, Town, County, and State officials, it is clear that these issues are bigger than us, with no near-term resolution in sight,” they wrote.
“We implore the community who support this farming business to be vigilant in protecting and fostering the future of this noble endeavor of growing quality wine, because like potatoes, grapes are not permanent.”
Here is the full letter to the community the owners posted this morning:
