MANSFIELD, Ohio—Driven by a desire to satisfy several customer requests, Steve and Lisa Beilstein, co-owners of The Blueberry Patch, have added a winery to their business at 1285 W Hanley Road.
“We’ve always been in-tune to our customers and what they’ve asked for. And in recent years, we’ve grown from the blueberry farm to adding a number of venues—the gift shop, the greenhouse, and we had a request from lots and lots of customers to add the café,” noted Steve Beilstein.
The couple said that they had received many requests from customers who wanted wine with their meals from the café, so they took that into consideration and began brainstorming how they could meet the demand.
Roughly two years ago, they decided they would remove one of their greenhouses to make room for Winery 1285.
Construction of the winery began on Oct. 28, 2013. Steve Beilstein said they used trees from their farm for the building’s structure. “We cut 57 trees from the woods, which actually just frees up more land for us to plant more blueberries and grapes,” he said.
The primary labor force involved in the construction process was Steve Beilstein and his three sons: Andrew, Grant and Ben.
“This is probably the most ‘green’ or recycled building that we have built here on the farm,” he said. They recycled tin from a Mansfield building on East Fourth Street to place on the wall as a decorative feature. They also recycled a door from a mansion that was torn down on Park Avenue West over 30 years ago to use as their main entrance.
They finished construction in early spring of this year and then opened the space for people to host birthday parties, bridal showers, baby showers and other get-togethers.
In the fall they obtained their wine manufacturing license.
“We are planning our own vineyards and how they will be planted,” noted Steve Beilstein. “It takes awhile to get those up and running, so in the meantime we have imported grapes and juice from the best grape-growing areas in the United States.”
By using their imported grapes and juice, they’ve been making their own wines. They have eight different wine selections, which include Seyval, Cayuga White, Riesling, Chardonnay, Catawba, Cabernet Sauvignon, Blueberry Dry and Blueberry Sweet.
They’re in the process of oak-aging a blueberry wine that is made from one of their most popular blueberries, the blueray blueberry. They will be introducing that wine sometime in 2015.
In addition to wine, they offer a menu that includes wood-fired pizzas, cheese plates, tapenades, homemade hummus, among other items. They also offer gluten-free and vegetarian dishes.
The winery features live entertainment, as well. This Friday, Dec. 26, a jazz band will play at 7 p.m.
For their new venture, they’ve invested hours upon hours of time and research. “The only experience I had, personally, was my dad had a very small vineyard and was a homemade winemaker, so some of my youngest memories are bottling and sticking labels on bottles,” said Steve Beilstein.
He continued, “Andrew and I have been very fortunate in that we have met some extremely knowledgeable people across the United States who have mentored us and helped us get this thing rocking and rolling.”
“And we’ve done a lot of reading,” added Andrew Beilstein, who helps manage the winery.
The name, “Winery 1285” was taken from their business’s address, 1285 Hanley Road W. “We wanted a name that would appeal to a wide age-range of people and would set it just a little bit apart from The Blueberry Patch, just a little bit,” Steve Beilstein said.
Thursday, Dec. 18, they held a soft opening and then opened to the general public the following day.
“It was nice,” Lisa Beilstein said of the customer response. “The nice thing was not being inundated with too many people so that we could kind of smooth out any problems we may have encountered.”
Winery 1285 is open Wednesday and Thursday from 4 p.m. – 10 p.m.; Friday from 4 p.m. – 11 p.m.; and Saturday from 2 p.m. – 11 p.m.
“This is a good change for Mansfield,” Steve Beilstein said. “It’s a nice, laid back opportunity to enjoy your friends.”
For more information, visit their website or Facebook page.
“We are planning our own vineyards and how they will be planted,” noted Steve Beilstein. “It takes awhile to get those up and running, so in the meantime we have imported grapes and juice from the best grape-growing areas in the United States.”
