By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Not long after Ginny’s Inspired Fashions closed shop, a sign appeared in the window promising the arrival of a winery.
That was in fall, 2017.
Now Myla Marcus Winery, at 133 S. Main St. in downtown Bowling Green, is poised to open. “Like a fine wine you can’t rush it,” said owner Kevin Madaras. “When it’s ready, it’s ready.”
And the winery is ever so close to being ready. Madaras is planning to have his doors open for the United Way’s Chocolate Crawl on Friday, Feb. 7 and he hopes to have a sampling of his wines. He’ll be shooting for a grand opening at a later date. For now he’ll be open limited hours on weekends.
Myla Marcus Winery will be a tasting room and purveyor of wines made on the premises, Madaras said.
Customers will be able to taste flights on wine at the bar, and purchase wine to bring home.
In time, Madaras said, he will offer 15 to 20 varieties of wine, all made from local grapes.
The wine will be “as local as possible,” made from grapes from Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
“I’d like to get them as local as possible so I can really market the wines as local. I want to provide that local product and produce everything right here on site and sell it right here in the tasting room,” Madaras said. “There are so many vineyards up by Lake Erie. I want to get as many grapes and juice from there.”
That’s what will differentiate his wines from what can be purchased at larger outlets.
Because he doesn’t have a press, he brings in grape juice from vineyards or has the grapes pressed elsewhere. He takes that juice and lets it settle and ferment for three to six months in stainless steel casks.
Then the wine is blended or sweetened depending on the style and bottled.
This region, he said, can produce all the varietals found elsewhere. And more hybrids are being developed that can withstand the cold of Michigan or Minnesota, and the periodic frigid spells in Indiana or Ohio.
The polar vortex of a few years ago took its toll on many vines, almost wiping out traminette, Indiana’s state grape.
These new grapes “will make some exciting wines,” Madaras said.
Madaras, 43, grew up in Pemberville. He attended St. Aloysius School before attending Eastwood High School, so he knows downtown, and is happy to have his new venture located here.
“This area was ideal for our needs, and it wasn’t for lack of looking,” Madaras said.
He said he was actually considering another storefront a few doors away when he stopped in to talk to Ginny Stewart. She told him she was retiring from retail and closing her shop.
He looked around and realized that the space would work far better for the winery, because of the concrete floor in the back and the design of the rear entrance.
He signed a lease and got to work with the help of his parents, Duff and Tekla Madaras, his wife, Leslie, and friends. They built a bar that stretches down the middle of the shop.
“It’s definitely a learning curve for us,” Madaras said. “If we were to do I again, we’d do it in a fraction of the time.” Running the winery is, for now, a one-man operation.
Not that he’s a novice in the wine business. He worked for Heineman’s Winery in Put-In-Bay for more than a decade.
Starting in 1999 when he was 23 he followed his best friend Marcus Frederick and worked there a few summers. Then he went back to college. In 2006, he returned to the winery starting as a bartender and ending up as an assistant wine maker. In those 11 years, he got married and started a family. He and his wife met on a tour at the winery. And he remembers playing Frisbee with her dog Myla in the vineyards.
The name of the shop honors those ties, Myla for the pet, and Marcus, for his late friend.
Myla Marcus Winery “is about the best of friends and good experiences,” Madaras said.
“I wouldn’t be in the business if I didn’t work at Heineman’s Winery.” The winery dates back to 1888, the oldest winery in the state. “It has such a rich history. … I have great respect for that family.”
With a growing family of his own, he decided he needed to stop splitting his time between Put-In-Bay and Bowling Green. He and Leslie now have three children ages 10 months, 4, and 7. “They’re our first priority,” Madaras said.
“It was time for a new challenge and there’s no bigger challenge than doing it on your own,” Madaras said.
He knew the wine making part from his time at Heineman’s, and had pick up some information on the business side there as well. “When you have to do it yourself, it’s different.”
The shop will also feature locally made wine-related merchandise for sale including wood items crafted by his father.
The walls will be adorned with local art. The first artist featured will be Beth Genson.
Opening a winery and tasting room involves maneuvering through a bureaucratic labyrinth.
Permits and licenses had to obtained from city planning, the county building inspection, the Health Department, the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, state Liquor Control Board, and the US Department of Agriculture.
For all the hassle at least going through all that gives him some peace of mind, Madaras said. “I know I’m doing it right. There won’t be any surprises. It’s a comforting feeling. You know you’re doing everything by the book. You don’t have anything to worry about. You sleep easier at night,” he said.
“What we’re most excited about the finished product,” he said of the wine. “We’re not sure with our clientele what wines they’ll want, but if we offer wines you can’t buy anywhere else that will be a big seller for us, a differentiator.”
