One Woman Wines & Vineyards in Southold is on the market for $9.4M

One Woman Wines & Vineyards, a bootstrap winery that expanded to become a Southold destination a stone’s throw from Long Island Sound, is on the market for $9.4 million, according to a new real estate listing.

The sale includes a recently opened 2,600-square-foot tasting barn/cafe, 27 acres of property including 16 planted acres of vines, and a recently renovated 13,000-square-foot production facility.

It's one of only a handful of properties in the state that has a farm winery license and a farm distillery license, said Melissa Principi, the broker at Douglas Elliman who is handling the listing. 
Claudia and Gabriella Purita, the mother-daughter team who have built and operated One Woman, have "built something that deserves to be taken to the next level. It's just not something they can do on their own," Principi said. Four acres of the farm have development rights intact, and the sale includes wine and liquor inventory and equipment. 

In addition to its proximity to the Sound and Greenport, the vineyard also benefits from regular traffic from the  Cross Sound Ferry in Orient Point, Principi said, adding she's had "strong interest" in the property since its listing.

"I think it's a special one," she said of the property. 

The production facility is "outfitted with fully automated climate-controlled wine tanks, two commercial-grade stills, barrel storage, case storage, a commercial kitchen, dedicated office space, and a conference area," according to the notice with DouglasElliman. The sale was first reported by Northforker.com.

The facility can produce 35,000 cases of wine and 100,000 gallons of spirits annually, the listing said. Property taxes are just over $37,000 a year.

Claudia Purita launched the tasting room in 2009 after years of nurturing vines and making wines.

The vineyard, previously farmed for potatoes and melons, is located across from her Southold home. She bought it in 2001, closed her restaurant in Nassau County and devoted herself full time to the operation. She sold development rights on nearly all the property to make certain it remained farmland and "preserve its beauty," her website noted.

When Newsday met up with her in 2009, Purita, a native of Calabria, Italy, was working the 16 acres of planted vines mainly on her own.

"I put so much work into it and I don’t give up easily," she said. She didn’t return a call seeking comment. Her husband, Frank Purita, died in 2019.

"Much of the vineyard was hand planted and each vine has been meticulously tended to by Claudia’s exacting touch," One Woman noted on its website. "Day in and out, she has labored, largely by herself, to produce the highest quality fruit. The superiority of her work is evident in each of the wines made from the vineyard. A few sips will lead you to appreciate just what one woman’s hard work can produce." 

The New York Times in a review in 2011 agreed, noting "some of these bottles are expensive" but "all are worth the price."

In addition to wines, One Woman sells Sunken Barrel Bourbon, Whale Rock Gin and Greenport Distilling Vodka. 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.