Couple puts Hanover winery in the works

The patio to the rear of Cindy and Steven Sterner's home on High Rock Road looks out onto the woods, where shade prevails and deer tread near the backyard.

And by this time next year, people might be sipping wine there.

The Sterners are working on turning part of their Hanover property into the High Rock Winery, a venture Cindy Sterner decided to pursue after years of making homemade wine and winning prizes for her products at the York Fair and elsewhere.

"That just made me think, 'Somebody likes it,'" she said. "With that kind of push, that's when I thought maybe I ought to go ahead and go commercial."

At home:

Cindy Sterner started learning about the home-winemaking process a few years ago with the

help of a book and by talking to wineries.

She prefers wine over beer, she said, but finding a sweet wine in stores had been difficult. Her foray into winemaking for her own consumption started with a gallon of strawberry-based wine and ballooned from there.

Home winemaking is a rapidly growing activity, Sterner said. Three of her friends started making their own wines after tasting some of her varieties.

"The market is out there," Sterner said.

People wanted their wines "all the time," Steven Sterner said, and he and his wife gave bottles as gifts. Recipients wanted to compensate them for the wine, he said, but the Sterners could not accept payments since they were not operating a business at the time.

The Sterners

have lived in their home for about 10 years and found a grapevine on the property when they moved in. They have since planted their own vines on a hill by the house, although they said they do not know how the plants will do on the shady property in the Pigeon Hills north of Hanover.

"I did put some out just out of curiosity," Cindy Sterner said. "They still don't get quite enough sun."

Several wineries have opened in York and Adams counties in recent years. The Adams County Winery,

based in Orrtanna, has been operating since 1978, and the Marburg Estate Winery near Hanover opened in 1988. The Seven Valleys Winery outside Shrewsbury followed in 1994 and the Hauser Estate Winery near Arendtsville opened this year.

The Sterners plan to remain in their home while operating the winery, which they expect to open in April or May 2009. Should the business outgrow the site, the Sterners will move the winery to another location, Cindy Sterner said.

But she noted she is going to start small.

"I'm going to stay more of a home-winemaker atmosphere and taste," Sterner said. "I think the larger wineries lose a little bit of their product in commercializing it."

The wines:

Gallons of wine sit in glass containers on a countertop in the wine-making room, yeast settling at the bottom. Airlocks stick out of the containers' tops, drawing gases off the wine and simultaneously keeping out air. People can consume grape-based wine after about six months, but non-grape wines taste better after sitting for about a year, Cindy Sterner said.

Sterner plans to sell grape- and fruit-based wines at High Rock Winery, ranging from those derived from Concord grapes to strawberries and peaches.

"As I see what I have room for, I will probably bring in a few more grapes," she said.

To create her wines, Sterner picks some fresh supplies from friends' and neighbors' properties and buys other juices and grapes. She orders her supplies - bottles and the like - from online suppliers, and her husband has rigged up a device to help them lift the containers.

"I plan on starting small basically because, with the exception of my husband doing a lot of the grunt work, I do everything else myself," Sterner said.

Starting a business:

The Sterners had talked about opening a winery for a long time but did not know if they could support it, Steven Sterner said.

"(We will) try it, see how it goes," he said.

The Sterners had to receive a special exception to Heidelberg Township's zoning to operate the winery out of their residential area and received their final permits in the spring. They are licensed to sell wine now, but will not open for business until they have enough wine in stock.

"Ultimately, what I want to do here is retire from Gerard Daniel," said Cindy Sterner, who works in that company's accounting department. "This will be my supplemental income to Social Security."

They have focused on turning part of their basement into a commercial wine-creation station. Gone are the laundry machines and water heater. In are the 100-gallon tanks and wine racks.

"It took a lot to get this room ready," Steven Sterner said.

The "Penn State room," as the Sterners call it (they go to the school's football games) has been transformed into a tasting center in another part of their basement. Racks in the room already are filling up with some of Cindy Sterner's creations.

The Sterners also are licensed to have their wines on their back patio area and part of their property on a hill by the house, a spot where Cindy Sterner envisions having tables and chairs where people can taste wine or hold parties and other events. She plans to eventually enclose the patio and turn that into a tasting area as well.

Sterner has specialized wine-bottle labels for wedding gifts and said she wants to continue to do so. She also expects to eventually develop a Web site and sell her products online.

High Rock Winery can operate for four hours a day, seven days a week, and Sterner said it probably will be open in the early evening. But people also will be able to make appointments to visit the winery as well.

"It's OK to call me for an appointment, because that's when I'm going to be able to see people who can't get my hours," Sterner said.

Contact Caitlin Heaney at cheaney@eveningsun.com.

WHOM TO CALL:

Contact High Rock Winery, 7982 High Rock Road, Hanover, at (717) 633-1288.

Read more local business stories at www.eveningsun.com/localbiz.