Attendees were singing and dancing in the rain Saturday as regulars and newbies mingled and celebrated Shade Winery’s second anniversary.
The event’s name was a misnomer, as Shade Winery has been making wholesale wines since 2004. However, the winery opened its retail store two years ago, and set up the weekend’s festivities to celebrate their customers.
“It was a really joyous event,” said Neal Dix, owner of Shade Winery. “We had people coming into the bar and thanking us for a great party. It’s something we love to do in order to give back to the customers.”
Despite the on-and-off rain throughout the day, Dix said he was pleased with the turnout.
“There were a lot of kids out there dancing in the rain and the grass,” he said. “We like to say the rain cooled everyone off.”
One development over the past year, he said, was that there were many more returning customers to the winery, including Robert Jeffers of Athens.
“We’ve been out here plenty of times and Neal’s a really good fella, and it’s nice and quiet out here and we’re out supporting him,” Jeffers said.
Even sporadic customers of the winery attended the event in order to celebrate its newfound success.
“When relatives come in, they like to come to the winery; they think it’s pretty cool,” said Chris Burke, an Athens resident who attended the event. “I think that it’s great, the hard work that they’ve done has come to fruition because it can be so hard to, you know, have a business in Appalachian Ohio.”
There was a full house Saturday night, with attendees indulging in a total of 200 pounds of pork, said Dix. There were live bands from 2 to 8 p.m. with the lineup featuring Controlled Folly and Colleen Carow. Athens jazz regulars The Royales closed the event.
“Everyone had a fine time dancing and frolicking,” Dix said. “We had lots of mixed guests, from mohawked people to little old ladies.”
As for the future, Dix said he hopes to start opening the winery on Sundays sometime in the next year. He said he also wants to put in a concrete pad with barbecues for customers to use.
—Sarah Grothjan contributed to this story.
eb104010@ohiou.edu
