The irony of One Woman Wines & Vineyards? It was always a family affair. But after over 20 years of growing grapes and making wine, the mother-daughter winemaker pair of Claudia and Gabriella Purita have decided it’s time for One Woman to grow beyond their dual efforts.
As of this week, One Woman Wines & Vineyards have put their winery — both the acreage and winemaking facilities — on the market for $9.5 million. The announcement comes just a little over a year after they opened their brand-new, 2,600-square-foot tasting barn, café and some-time music venue. The latter, with its often sold out Friday night jazz sessions, was a nod to Claudia’s husband, Frank, who passed away in 2019 and owned the café and gelato spot D’Latte and Biere restaurant, both in Greenport. He also owned the short-lived micro-distillery and bar Greenport Distilling on Carpenter Street that he ran with daughter Gabriella (now home to Little Creek Oysters), who continued to perfect her distilling chops over the years.
“The mother and daughter duo have built something so big, new and amazing,” says Melissa Principi, the Douglas Elliman agent listing the property for the Puritas, of the new tasting room and scaled-up operation. “After nearly a decade of extensive site plans and approvals for a farm winery and distillery, achieving town, county and state board approval, they built a major winemaking and hospitality facility that most people don’t even know is there!”
Indeed, Claudia and Gabriella were both equally passionate about the work behind the scenes, less interested in hobnobbing than in the multitude of tasks involved in making a successful business, from vineyard management to winemaking to distilling and running a tasting room, among a multitude of other less romantic responsibilities that went along with keeping the business alive and well.
The mysterious, if not outright assertive, name of One Woman certainly grabbed the curiosity of both newbie and seasoned wine drinkers on Long Island when she began planting grapevines in 2004 and opened her initial tiny tasting room in 2009.
That Claudia has never been much for the limelight added to the fascination, begging the question of who was this singular woman behind inarguably the best grüner veltliner on the East Coast? With its gorgeous aromatics of pineapple and pink grapefruit, vanilla bean and nougat, ripe tangerine and white pepper, the wine’s consistent layers of entrancing aromas and flavors became Claudia’s calling card, often selling out due to high-demand.
On the rare occasion she could be reached for comment, her honest thoughts and observations added a richness and authenticity to the story behind the winery.
“I go myself and choose which rows to pick, and then I go back again. Day by day, not just one morning. And although it’s just three acres [of grüner veltliner], the composition of the soil is different from one end to the other,” Purita commented in a Southforker article about her cult-like white wine.
She grew up on her family’s farm in Calabria, Italy, and learned a bit about viticulture there. “My dad made wine for our household and for his brothers,” she recalled. “We had many grapes, but I don’t remember exactly what kind, just muscat. That was the one I liked the most; it’s very aromatic.”
Years later when planting her own vineyard in Southold, she found herself gravitating to grapes with similar floral aromatics, such as gewürztraminer (which Gabriella helped her mom plant) and grüner veltliner, three acres of which went in the ground in 2008.
From their 16 planted acres and nearby leased acreage of vines, they made other wines, too. Recently, Gabriella showed off their excellent cabernet franc in Manhattan at the second annual Cab Franc Forward tasting, which drew a multitude of luminaries from the wine world to taste myriad New York State versions of the grape.
The 27-acre parcel includes 16 acres of sustainably farmed vines, state of the art distilling equipment, the recently renovated and expanded 13,000 square foot wine production facility, new 2,600 square foot tasting barn with original wood beams and approved expansion to accommodate large scale events, a 4,000 square foot storage barn, approved on-site workforce housing, as well as a residential building lot accessible via Chardonnay Drive.
“It’s turnkey – most vineyards I’ve shown or seen that were built in the ’90s aren’t in this condition, but what they have there is spectacular from a construction point.”
But for fans of the Puritas, it’s the end of an era and the kind of careful, driven winemaking that made them stand out, even as they shunned the spotlight.
One Woman Winery & Vineyards is located at 5195 Old North Road, Southold, 631-765-1200. While the Puritas plan to keep the tasting room open, it is recommended to call and check for updates on days and hours of operation.
