Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 16, 2025 17 Mike Melninkaitis, director of operations for Northeast Winemaking, stands next to wine barrels at the company's facility at 10 Robert Jackson Way, in Plainville. Northeast Winemaking is building a larger facility in Southington, at 310 W. Queen St. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL JULIANO 'Bigger and Better' CT winemaker to launch new wine label, relocate to larger HQ amid growth ambitions business development. "It was a family decision," Melninkaitis said of that deal. Building trust Today, Northeast Winemaking has five employees, but the goal is to grow the staff to 15 to 20 people as part of the expansion. The company declined to disclose its annual revenues. The new Southington facility will have winemaking and wine tasting areas, in addition to a lounge and space for enthusiasts to make their own wine on-site. The company is also investing in new equipment, including demijohns (fermenting containers) and destem- mers — all from Italy. Helping with the wine label launch will be Drew Clock, a chemical industry executive who was brought on as Northeast Winemaking's CEO in November 2024. Richard Loomis, the company's chief winemaker, will oversee production. Clock said Mindset Wines will be made through time-honored pressing and fermenting techniques, and by adding fewer chemicals than other wine producers. Melninkaitis said Northeast Wine- making's growth has come, in part, from the transparency the company offers in the winemaking process. Some wine enthusiasts, he said, "don't necessarily trust what's in the bottle," when they are buying off-the-shelf brands. "Here, they could come in, see the process and see what's being done, how it's done, and they have more faith in knowing what's actually in there," Melninkaitis said. "So, if it's supposed to be a Cabernet Sauvignon grape, they could come in and see that we're making it with real Cabernet Sauvignon grapes." 'Make it happen' Northeast Winemaking's growth efforts come as the broader industry faces some headwinds. U.S. wine consumption has declined steadily in recent years as more consumers under 60 years old drink less of the beverage, or choose not to drink it at all, according to Silicon Valley Bank's 2025 "State of the U.S. Wine Industry" report. Consumption fell from 1.04 billion gallons in 2020 to 899 million in 2023, according to the Wine Institute. The downward trend has caused an over- supply of wine in the industry. Younger adults' preference for less costly alcoholic beverages also factors into wine's declining popularity, said Rob McMillan, founder of Silicon Valley Bank's wine division and the report's author. "Wine in restaurants can be two times to three times more expensive than beer or spirits," he said. Melninkaitis said he isn't worried about the broader industry challenges. "There's always something that's going to come at you, but if you really love what you're doing and you love what you're going after, you always find a way to make it happen," he said. "You always find a way to keep people happy." By Michael Juliano mjuliano@hartfordbusiness.com I t's no secret that global wine consumption and sales have been declining in recent years, driven by a shift in consumer preferences, rising costs and changes in demographics. But that's not stopping Plain- ville-based Northeast Winemaking from pursuing an aggressive expansion plan. The company — which makes wine, sells home winemaking kits and lets people make their own wine on-site — is investing $4.5 million to build a larger headquarters facility in Southington as it prepares to launch a new wine label. Construction on the 20,000-square- foot structure, being built on a 3.6-acre parcel at 310 W. Queen St., began in March and is expected to be completed in August. The new facility will come online as Northeast works to establish Mindset Wines, a new wine brand that it plans to sell to restaurants and other commer- cial establishments in New England and New Jersey. The company — which uses Cali- fornia grapes and targets customers who enjoy and recognize good wine, but may not be expert connoisseurs — has steadily increased its annual wine production to 12,000 gallons and plans to more than double that output in the years ahead, said Mike Melninkaitis, a co-owner and director of operations. "We're going to build upon that (growth) as we start getting more and more customers, more traction," Meln- inkaitis said during a recent interview. "It's just basically going to be bigger and better." Company origins Northeast Winemaking actually evolved out of another company: Northeast Produce, a tomato distrib- utor founded in 1980 by the late Nicola Ruffini at the Hartford Regional Market. In 1990, Ruffini also began selling California wine grapes, wine juice and home winemaking kits, and he even- tually moved the business in 2005 to a roughly 23,000-square-foot building in Plainville. Northeast Produce expanded the Plainville facility, at 10 Robert Jackson Way, by about 12,000 square feet in 2016 as part of a $1.8 million invest- ment to make room for the growing home winemaking business, which was attracting wine enthusiasts from New York and Massachusetts, Melninkaitis said. After a few years, home winemaking customers opted to make their wine at the Plainville facility, and Northeast Produce began making and selling its own bottled wine. Melninkaitis and his brother-in-law Joseph Ruffini, the son of Nicola Ruffini, separated the flourishing winemaking business from North- east Produce in 2022, and founded Northeast Winemaking. Separately, in March 2024, Northeast Produce was sold for an undisclosed sum to Lipman Family Farms, a Flori- da-based tomato distributor. Melninkaitis is still involved with Northeast Produce as its director of Rob McMillan 800M 900M 1B 1.2B 1.1B 2013 2017 2021 2015 2019 2023 TOTAL WINE GALLONS U.S. WINE CONSUMPTION Source: Wine Institute

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