Bunker Hill Vineyard and Winery in Duette gains interest as tourism destination

BUNKER HILL -- The wines made by Lenora and Larry Woodham at Bunker Hill Vineyard and Winery are getting noticed.

A Scandinavian wine magazine recently featured wine the Woodhams make from muscadine grapes and from other fresh Florida-grown fruits and vegetables -- seemingly everything from dandelions to strawberries and cherry tomatoes.

Two busloads of tourists from Miami recently visited; others from around Florida, including a Corvette club, and day trippers from Sanford have also have been drawn to the winery, still a rarity in the Sunshine State.

It's unusual for a Florida county to have even one winery, and Manatee County has two, Larry Woodham said. The other is Rosa Fiorella Winery on County Road 675.

"We draw people from everywhere," he said.

The Woodhams pride themselves on the green standards of the winery, which opened in 2010.

All wine bottled at Bunker Hill goes into recycled bottles. Last week, the total had reached 35,126, and the Woodhams encourage folks to bring in their old wine bottles, regardless of where they were purchased, to be recycled. Natural oak corks are used and each bottle is sealed with wax.

All wine at Bunker Hill is made from fresh fruit and vegetables. No concentrates or juices are used.

Bunker Hill has 23 acres of vineyards. Grapes are picked, washed and mashed before being placed in 5-gallon containers to ferment with wine yeast for 10 to 14 days. Once the fermenting stops, the wine is transferred to carboys, large glass jugs and aged for a minimum of one year in the wine cave. Temperatures in the cave -- actually a metal building with an insulated interior -- are maintained at 52 to 57 degrees year-round.

Because the wines are unfiltered, they may continue to improve with age and have a shelf life decades long when properly stored.

"We started with elderberry and grape wines and then we expanded into things like cherry tomatoes, which is an American heritage wine," Larry Woodham said.

Lemon, lime and banana wines were rolled out in September.

And that hardly begins to touch all the varieties available, including green tea, kumquat and papaya.

"We are not driven by the mantra of 'wine clarity,' but, rather by the taste, bouquet and flavor of the grape. Our grapes/wines are never blended! From the vine to the bottle, we never mix or blend a single grape or carboy of wine," the couple says on their website.

The Woodhams moved to Duette from West Bradenton 19 years ago after searching for several years for a place to grow grapes.

"We wanted to grow grapes. This land is ideal. It has a 6 percent grade and grapes need drainage," Larry Woodham said.

The couple also liked what they found in the soil, which is rich in phosphate.

"We looked for five years," Lenora Woodham said.

In addition to the right terrain, the couple also needed vision and patience. It takes up to a dozen years for the vines to mature.

For now, the Woodhams say they are at maximum production.

They would like to expand their operation but, like everything else about the business, that takes time and money.

Complimentary tours and wine tastings are held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.

Information: Call 941-776-0418 or visit bunkerhillvineyard.com.

James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee reporter, can be contacted at 941-745-7053 or on Twitter @jajones1.

This story was originally published October 6, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bunker Hill Vineyard and Winery in Duette gains interest as tourism destination ."