Judy and Darren Horn toast to their great customers over the last 10 years. “Thank you!”
Tell us about your 10th year anniversary.
“Yeah, it's a decent milestone, ten years in business,” says Darren Horn, owner and winemaker at The Summit Winery. “When you first open a business, you don't know whether it's going to work or not. We started off with just five wines. Now we're up to 23. We've been working on making our wines better and better every year.”
“I think the real thing that has gotten us to where we are today is our people. We have great people here at the winery. Nobody gives up. Everybody's competent. Everybody understands the wine. Everybody's very customer service-focused, and if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn't be here today.”
What big changes have you made or are going to make in your 10th year of operation?
If you can’t find a style you like in the wine pouch, let us know. Next time we bottle, we will try to have it available.
“We have invested in some equipment to be able to offer wine in a pouch to both our retail and wholesale customers. It's a new trend in the wine industry where people want a small carbon footprint and less hassle. Many don't want glass. In our area, particularly, we have a lot of hikers, anglers, and kayakers. They want to take wine with them, but they don't want to take a heavy bottle along. So they buy a 750ml (one bottle equivalent) wine pouch from us, consume it, roll the empty pouch up, and put it in their backpacks. It makes it a lot easier and lighter to carry for them.”
They now have boxed wine (3L with an equivalent of 4 bottles of wine) for their restaurant and bar customers.
“We hope to make a good dent in the restaurant market going forward helping them bring high-quality local wine to their customers in a much more convenient and environmental way. Plus, the wine stays fresh for 6 weeks or more from the first pour to the last pour. That’s a biggie.”
The owners of the Drewsville General store love their on-brand label. Visit their classic general store near Walpole, NH.
Another new offering in 2025 is their Private Labeling Bottling program where restaurants, retail outlets, country stores, Inns can put their own branded label on our wine.
“We have a local general store in the the area doing this very successfully. And have 3 more interested. We'll be starting to expand that whole part of our business in 2026.”
Many people enjoy public events at the winery, like art classes. But can they rent the winery for private events?
Flower arrangement workshops are super popular.
“Yes! I'm amazed how many events we offer each year. Easily over a 100. Besides our public events for classes and artwork classes, workshops, we host private events in our large event space and even outside. We are seeing an uptick in 2025 in bridal showers and baby showers, birthday parties, and celebrations of life. So we do a lot of those. We hope that continues to grow.”
Tell us about your Wine Club.
Special Wine-Club Only wine tasting during a the Fall 2025 release party. Remember membership is free to join!
“We are very, very proud of our Wine Club membership. Really glad how well it is working and how fast it has been growing. We currently have almost 60 members who see the real value in it. They get a quarterly release of 4 curated bottles, and discounts on wine. But they can also choose the wine they want each quarter. They all come to the winery for the wine release party, where everybody just seems to have a really good time. So we're going to continue to push that forward and grow it. We hope to grow the membership with the help of our membership coordinator, Simone, to over 100 soon.”
For anyone wanting more information, visit these pages:
upcoming workshops, hosting private events, or to sign up for wine club. While we are only open 4 days a week, we are available on the other days by appointment. Call first if you want to buy wine on our closed days.
The Summit Winery is located at 719 Rte 12 Westmoreland, NH just 7 minutes from Keene (toward Walpole). Open: Thursdays: 4:30-7 pm; Friday-Sunday: Noon to 5 pm; Mon-Wed: Closed, but by appointment for wine sales only. Call: 603-852-8025.