Photo Essay: Brooklyn Winery, Under Construction

There's a new urban winery under construction in an industrial space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn once occupied by a car repair shop and a nightclub.

Yesterday Edith and I got to take a hard hat tour of Brooklyn Winery's active construction site.

A lot of wineries you visit out in wine country - whether that means the North Fork, Finger Lakes, Temecula or Napa and Sonoma - are attached to their own vineyard, and so conversations about their wines are very focused on the grapes themselves and the growing process. But an urban winery imports its grapes grown elsewhere - in Brooklyn's case, New York State, California, and South America - so it becomes very focused on the wine-making process.

Brooklyn Winery is building a facility where you can develop your own vintage in your own barrel (and actually select your grapes, taste from the barrel, and bottle and label yourself!) or participate in a communal barrel with a minimum two-case commitment. They're also opening a wine bar and tasting room that will be open to the public by the end of the year.

It's exciting that these days, an entrepreneur can still quit his job, fall in love with wine, and start a major manufacturing facility in Brooklyn. As a wine enthusiast, it's exciting to get a peek into a growing business, even if you can't watch the grapes themselves grow.


future front courtyard, where we tried to convince them to turn their dumpster into a swimming pool


future production room, former conduit for distribution of foam at the former nightclub's foam parties


current concrete floor, which lay hidden under a wooden dancefloor

Because of the cracks and holes, this concrete will be torn out and a new concrete floor will be poured, featuring a very necessary drainage trench.


future wine bar / tasting room


future kitchen

It's nice to see them reusing as many elements from the former occupants as possible - everything from the bar to the insulation. What they didn't need or couldn't use (like scrap metal and a lot of tires) they managed to recycle.

Brooklyn Winery's hard hat tours are open to the public, but they're pouring the concrete floor next week so there will be limited access to the future production room and other interior areas.

Thanks to Sasha and Conor for the great tour!

Click here for some before pics of the space's former life as Supreme Trading Company

To become a fan on Facebook, click here.