As an accomplished pastry chef for over a decade, Frank Zoll has long been been familiar with exceptional wine. He has worked for a number of world renown restaurants over his career including New York’s Tavern on the Green, and the Ritz-Carlton in Boston. Through the years, Zoll eventually found a calling for winemaking and in 2008 planted his first grape vines at his home in Shrewsbury, MA.

Zoll Cellars became a fully licensed winery in 2009 and bottled its first wines in the summer of 2010. The winery now produces seven varietals including Riesling, Cabernet Franc, and Pinot Noir. Each varietal is produced from locally grown grapes as well as from vineyards throughout New England and New York. The wines are hand crafted in small batches of about 100 cases or less, to preserve quality and to create unique wines that reflect the quality of each vintage year.

Zoll Cellars also offers a number of unique private winery classes including the ability for consumers to produce their own private label wine. Participants are are given a unique hands on winemaking experience with one-on-one training from Frank Zoll. The classes begin with an initial consultation and one-of-a kind harvest crush class, all the way through to the aging and bottling of the wine. Consumers are rewarded with 240 bottles of personally handcrafted wine.

“We want to give people the ability to make their own wine without the limitations of equipment wine science knowledge or space,” Frank Zoll said. “I want to show people that you can make a traditional wine in a traditional style without any fancy bells or whistles and you can still make a good product.”

Additionally, Zoll Cellars features monthly food and wine pairings as well as its very unique yoga and wine classes which in the winery’s vineyard.

In this segment, Frank Zoll explains more on the history of the vineyard and winery and takes us through one of his exciting harvest crush classes where 1000 pounds of Alicante grapes are readied for their next step in the winemaking process.

Zoll Cellars is located at 110 Old Mill Rd in Shrewsbury, MA. Private tastings and tours are available by appointment on Saturday & Sunday. Please contact Frank Zoll at 857-498-1665 or visit zollwine.com for more information.

Editor’s note: This video segment is the fifteenth in a series profiling the Massachusetts Farm Winery & Growers Association and each of its member wineries.