'Ephiphany' Leads to Successful SLP Business

Tucked back in a maze of generic commercial buildings sits a white warehouse with a retro metal sign and a wine barrel mounted above the door. These are the first clues that what awaits behind this otherwise drab facade is not an ordinary industrial space in St. Louis Park.

Inside, vintage tables with candlesticks speckle the room. Wine bottles draped in awards sit atop shelves. Oak barrels line the side of a wall and a shiny tasting bar sits in the middle of the business known as Warehouse Winery. An eclectic mix of art, antiques and decorative sheet metal surround the winery, and its owner Billy Smith is just as intriguing as the atmosphere he’s created for public wine tasting events.

“It just came to me one day. I had an epiphany that I should grow my own grapes,” he said when asked how he got started in the wine business.

It wasn’t just a fleeting thought for this commercial real estate agent—he tore up his luxurious front yard in Wayzata and planted 400 cold-climate Marquette grape vines.

“Then I thought, ‘If I’m going to have grapes I better learn how to make wine,’” he recalled matter-of-factly. With no previous knowledge and no connection to any winemaker, Smith started buying the equipment needed to crush grapes and bottle wine.

“I had no clue what I was doing, not a clue,” he said with a chuckle. That was four years ago. Now he buys grapes from all over Minnesota and parts of California. While the grapes from his front yard do contribute to the wine he makes, the bulk of the grapes he uses are purchased.

In just a few short years, Smith has managed to create eight different kinds of award-winning wine that is sold at 65 retailers and restaurants across the state.

“My wines have become hugely successful,” he said. “It’s taken time to learn the process and get the chemistry of wine making down, but we’re there now. We’re doing well.”

This early success is not without hard work. As I ask him questions about his business, he’s running a forklift and moving plastic tanks of wine in an area sectioned off from the tasting room. With just two other employees, the process of making, storing, aging and bottling wine keeps Smith working upwards of 50 to 60 hours a week.

“It is a lot of work, but I have never been happier,” he said. “This truly is a passion.”

Smith has big plans for this growing business. He is releasing three new wines this year, selling his “Ballpark wine” at Target Field, and hopes to boost the number of wine tasting events he hosts out of his far-from-bland warehouse.