Caught off-guard with high Fruit Wine sales (a good problem to have)

Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery figured its pre Christmas release of a strawberry pear dessert-style wine would last well into March.

Marketing director Kari Skrip said that the plan for what has become the winery’s annual release of a fruit wine flew out the window in, oh, like seven days.

“That has been hugely popular for us,” she said. “The strawberry pear, I’ve never seen anything sell like this. To be honest, just before Christmas we bottled 130 cases and we figured that would last us til about March. We sold 130 cases in a week. Never in our history have we sold something that quickly.”

Skrip said they went back to the tank and bottled the rest. “Now, it will all be completely gone by March. We had expected that [original release] would take us through the majority of 2010, and now it’s gone.”

Made out of local strawberries and pears, Skrip said the pale pink mixture is selling for $10.99 for a .375-sized bottle.

A member of the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail, Skrip said the winery overall produces around 72,000 gallons, the largest in the state per 2008 figures in terms of production and gallons sold. The 2009 numbers come out in April.

Article by: Paul Vigna

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