LR Lately
A Travel Blog by Lakes Region Airport Shuttle
Subscribe to LR Lately | View All PostsWeddings with Wine: The Gilmanton Winery and Vineyard
Posted On: 03/31/2015
The Lakes Region Airport Shuttle has begun its rounds talking to local wedding venue owners in order to ask them to recommend us to their bridal party guests for transport. We really enjoy talking to people in the community and letting them know what services we have to offer, but it's especially enjoyable when those community members are lighthearted and quick witted as Sunny and Marshall Bishop of the Gilmanton Winery and Vineyard. Their business has just begun its wedding services on the vineyard but from the sound of their interview, it is quickly understood that these people are great ones to have around a celebratory gathering. Besides the fact that they are neighborly, funny, and accommodating, their vineyard is a gorgeous place to celebrate a special day of marital bliss!
The story of how the vineyard came to be is an interesting one! Sunny Bishop worked for 26 years as a flight attendant for American Airlines out of Boston and retired to Gilmanton on the winery: "We joke that I was out on a 3 day trip and when I came back my front yard, like an acre, had 150 or so sticks (read baby grape vines) sticking up in the air!! They weren't pretty back then, just sticks. We initially moved here so I could raise alpacas (still have 14 of the cute critters) and because it used to be owned by Grace Metalious, the author of Peyton Place. If you're under 40 you may not have heard of it. But it was big in its day."
We asked Sunny more about the vineyard itself and about this local wine they produce: "I think our wine is different from others in the area because we grow a lot of our own grapes. Not all wineries do that. We do however order red grapes (Merlot, Cab., Malbec, Carmenere) from Chile since we can't grow those here. We do grow Seyval, Concord, Marguette, Marachel Foche, Aurora, and Reliant. All of these last ones are designed for our short growing season and tough winters. Brutal winters!! We use local peeps to help us harvest, sometimes bottle and label and to wait on our customers when we do dinners. We've been accepted really nicely into this spread out little town. Mostly because Marshall is such a good, social people person."
"In regards to weddings, we haven't done many yet so we have quite a few weekends available for that. We're hoping to hire our own Wedding Planner to have available to the bride. We also print the bride and grooms name on the wine bottle labels for a small fee. We've been told that people end up feeling like family after they visit us. That's what we're going for and I think that's unique when it concerns weddings. We'd like to be able to recommend the Lakes Region Airport Shuttle service for the wedding party (so they can drink) to and from our vineyard. I think it could be a nice service to have already available for them so that it's one more thing they don't have to concern themselves with. We plan to incorporate it into our wedding package. Details to follow soon hopefully."
As a final question for our wedding venue owners, we asked what they think makes a healthy marriage: "Hmmmmm, a healthy marriage. Well, I know we're best friends. That's how we started and it's still there. Also patience and tolerance, fun and humor. Basically, if it's legal and it makes your spouse happy, do it! We all have our ups and downs, but it's the coming thru it that makes it work." Follow the Gilmanton Winery and Vineyard on Facebook and check out their wine tastings for local New Hampshire wine!
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