BRIDGEPORT — Picture this: family and friends sharing a big meal and a newly uncorked bottle of your own homemade vino.
It's easier than you think and these Bridgeport guys can help make it happen.
Santa Fe Grape Distributors, made up of a group of Bridgeport old-timers who import wine grapes and sell all manner of winemaking accessories, opens for business bright and early Saturday at the corner of 35th Street and Racine Avenue.
Casey Cora says the Bridgeport wine guys have been in business for decades:
If you're interested in giving it a shot, you'd better act quickly: the pop-up grape emporium will be open only for about six weeks and insiders say the best stuff goes fast.
"It all depends on the availability of the grapes. Normally we run out about the 15th or 20th of October," owner Dennis Karas said.
The business was originally founded in the 1930s near a rail yard in what was then an Italian enclave at Archer and Princeton avenues and later moved to a terminal at 27th Street and Ashland Avenue.
In 2000, retired city worker Mario Coglianese and his late business partner Paul Alleruzzo moved the business to a vacant lot in Bridgeport, where a steady stream of customers shop for the grapes, all stored within refrigerated trailers.
Each September, Coglianese, Karas and crew open up the trailers to the public — that's when the grapes produce the best amount of sugar for winemaking, they say.
And in case you're wondering, the recent powerful earthquakes in the Napa Valley region did not affect the grapes, Karas said.
"That was more the wineries. The way they had stuff stacked up, the barrels were stacked one atop another and they came tumbling down," he said.
Starting Saturday, the imported grapes are available in 36-pound cases and offered in more than a dozen varieties, including cabernet, sangiovese, merlot, zinfandel, chardonnay and many more.
Prices range from $37 to $48 per case. After the grapes are pressed, each case will yield a little less than three gallons of wine.
Santa Fe Grape Distributors is open 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays through the middle of October.
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