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David Page and Barbara Shinn at Shinn Estate Vineyard and Farmhouse in Mattituck. (Credit: Randee Daddona)

David Page and Barbara Shinn at their vineyard where holistic farm techniques are practiced at Shinn Estate Vineyard and Farmhouse in Mattituck. Sept. 17, 2014. Photo by Randee Daddona

It’s that time of year when businesses re-open for the season on the North Fork, announcing changes and outlining plans for the future. But for a pair of Mattituck businesses, those future plans will include new owners. 

Barbara Shinn and David Page, owners of Shinn Estate Vineyards in Mattituck, announced in an email Tuesday that they have sold their 20-acre property on Oregon Road to a New Jersey financier and his wife.

“We’d like to thank all the loyal customers who have supported our success here on Oregon Road — helping bring life, grace and clarity to our dream of sustainable living,” Shinn and Page said in their email. “This chapter of our lives has been beautiful in every possible way. We look forward to the next with open hearts and minds. Our story is far from over.”

The Shinns said in the email that they sold the business to Barbara and Randy Frankel, who they said will “bring new energy and passion to the Estate.”

Randy Frankel is a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, whose various business interests include a minority stake in the Tampa Bay Rays baseball franchise and part-ownership of Windham Mountain Ski Resort in Windham, N.Y., according to an online biography. The Frankels could not be immediately reached for comment.

Shinn and Page said they will remain connected to the business as consultants for the “foreseeable future.” Restaurateurs by trade, the couple purchased the vineyard in 1998 at the former Tuthill homestead, a 19th century farm property. Noted for its sustainable farming practices, today Shinn Estate Vineyards produced about 6,000 cases of both wine and spirits.

Shinn and Page, who previously owned the popular Home restaurant in New York City, said they will focus much of their efforts moving forward on a permaculture project on a farm in Maine they’ve owned for several years.

The Old Mill Inn is the site of a former milling operation. (Credit: Paul Squire)
The Old Mill Inn is the site of a former milling operation. (Credit: Paul Squire)

News of the Shinn Estate sale comes just one day after Bia Lowe of the Old Mill Inn in Mattituck announced in an email that the restaurant would not reopen for the season.

An author, Ms. Lowe wrote in her email that she’s moving back to her native California to focus on writing projects and that the future of the property is unclear.

Ms. Lowe has listed the restaurant, located in a 19th century mill building on Mattituck Inlet, with Corcoran agent Sheri Winter Clarry, according to the restaurant’s website.

“No one likes change, particularly when it comes to an institution as steadfast as the Old Mill, so rife with tradition and in step with the rhythms of the seasons,” she wrote. “But It’s time to move on.”

The mill was built in 1821 and became a tavern in the early 20th century, according to the local history book “Images of America: Mattituck and Laurel.”

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