The Chaddsford Winery is now under the ownership of the Vinton family of Delaware. The Vintons already own the White Horse Winery in New Jersey but the winery on Route 1 in Pennsbury Township will remain the Chaddsford Winery.
Even though the other winery is in New Jersey, the Chadds Ford area is nothing new for the Vinton family. BJ Vinton lives in Greenville, Del.
“I live about 15 minutes from there, my father lives about 10 minutes from there, and my sister lives just on the other side of the Chaddsford Winery,” Vinton said.
He’s canoed and tubed along the Brandywine and hiked and camped by the winery. Vinton’s father knew the former owners, Eric and Lee Miller, and Vinton said he remembers going to the Chaddsford Winery with his father to buy grapes that his farther would turn into wine in the basement.
“We are excited,” said BJ Vinton of the new acquisition.
Some changes are planned, but nothing major in the immediate future.
“We definitely plan on expanding,” Vinton said. “There have not been any renovations to the winery in I believe well over a decade. We would like to expand both the indoor and outdoor event spaces.”
But those changes will have to wait until after the harvest season which runs into Thanksgiving.
“At this point, every decision made for what’s going to be done for this season were made months ago,” he said. “We’re going to take some time to make a plan and mindfully implement that plan.”
There are some other renovations already planned. Vinton said they plan to bolster the kitchen and food offerings, as well as make any repairs that are necessary.
Will there be any changes or additions to the wines made and sold? Perhaps, but that remains to be determined.
“At White Horse, we have two very talented winemakers who have already met with the Chadds Ford team. We’ll be collaborating and sharing our knowledge and experience, and some of our methodologies to help [Chaddsford Winery] develop their dry wine portfolio.
Current management thinks the move is a good one.
“We wanted to find someone local who recognized the history and legacy,” said winery General Manager Corey Krejcik. The plan was always to try to find someone willing to continue it as a winery.”
He said the Petrillo family, the sellers, met with multiple interesting groups with different synergies, but the Vinton family stayed engaged until about the middle of August when it got serious.
“The deeper we dug in, both parties, we realized this an incredible fit because of their history and the proximity to the winery, and their knowledge of the winery beforehand and, obviously, their other business venture, The White Horse Winery,” he said.
Krejcik was clear that it was the family, not the White Horse Winery, that bought the Chadds Ford Winery.
“They’ll stay two separate entities. There’s no merger, but we’ll benefit from each other’s expertise,” he said. The biggest thing for the CFW, is that the White Horse has 25 acres of vineyards while Chaddsford only has 5 acres.
This marks the second sale of a local winery in 12 months. Longwood Gardens bought the former Galer Estate Winery and Vineyard last September.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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