Zorvino Vinyards in Sandown hosts more than 100 weddings a year and also presents themed dinners and wine tastings. (Courtesy of Zorvino Vineyards)
The post-and-beam building that Jim Zanello built at Zorvino Vineyards was never intended to become a venue that hosts more than 100 weddings and other events each year. “This building was built for Jim to house his antique car collection, and to be a fun retirement thing, which quickly turned into something greater than that,” wine director Tom Zack said during a recent visit to the Sandown venue. Most of the woodworking on the property was created by Zanello, one of two hobbies — the other being winemaking — that inspired the business four years after he and his wife, Cheryl, bought the 80-acre property in 2000. “Zorvino” combines the origin of the family name Zorzanello with the Italian word for wine.
Zorvino Vineyards produces more than 60 different wines made from fruit grown at the company’s 2-acre vineyard, which includes about 1,200 hybrid vines, or from grapes sourced from winemaking regions all over the world. “We started out at about 800 cases a year, and during COVID we hit our height, which is about 9,000,” Zack said. “We fluctuate now between 7,500 and 9,000.”
Zorvino Vineyards is operated by Amy Zanello and her father, compamy founder Jim Zanello. (Courtesy of Zorvino Vineyards)
During a tour of the property this spring, Jim Zanello could be spotted doing work on the property. These days, the Zanellos’ daughter, Amy, runs the business. Like many companies during the pandemic, Zorvino adapted to changing conditions.
Outdoor dining became a big growth source for the company.
“We had to stop doing events, so our patio just kind of blew up,” Amy Zanello said. “The winery probably had its best season that year. We also had the ability to order online so people could come pick up during that time.”
Even as pandemic conditions eased, outdoor dining has continued to be a strong revenue generator.
“People appreciated being outside more and they still do. The patio for us is still huge,” Amy said. “Now it’s just that we have to share our time with weddings.”
COVID-19 prompted the company to pivot, which ultimately included new ways to bring in revenue that have outlasted the pandemic.
“It wasn’t unusual for Saturday in here to have four tasting tables going and 200 people in there, which was obviously something you couldn’t do during COVID,” Zack said. “So we kind of went to the outdoor patio, and we changed it to fIights — as opposed to doing tastings and having people four deep around here — and went outside.”
The company started doing reservations, telling customers to bring blankets and lawn chairs. “Every Saturday looked like Woodstock out back. It really exploded,” Zack said.
And we’ve been trying to keep that going ever since, but the weddings take precedent.”
Wedding boom
Weddings generate about 70% of Zorvino’s business, Amy Zanello said.
“We’re definitely filling (2025) right now. We’ve had some inquiries and some people asking about 2026. But the fall is looking pretty full right now for 2025,” she said.
While most of the wedding business comes from northern Massachusetts to middle New Hampshire, they attract customers from all over. “Some have family here, and they come back and have their weddings. The couple isn’t always from around here.”
The wedding business came back with a boom after the pandemic but not without some hiccups, said Amy, noting that 2022 was busy but that bookings tapered off in 2023 after pent-up demand had run its course.
“But ‘24 is just our busiest altogether. It doesn’t fall in line with what we’re hearing about economy these days,” she said. “We’re fortunate enough to keep ourselves very busy. We are seasonal, so we are very busy from as soon as you can get outside until Christmas.”
Zorvino employs 30 to 40 full-time workers and some seasonal help, such as extra staff for the patio dining and sipping season in the summer. While the business is open year-round, the beginning of the year is a slower season.
“January is kind of like when we catch our breath,” Amy said. “We regroup, and then there is a lot of planning. It’s a different kind of busy where we’re dealing with couples that are getting married six months out, planning meetings. We’re doing inventory. We’re seeing what we need to fix when we have a short window of when we can do maintenance.”
When Zorvino is not booked for weddings, it offers casual bistro dining. “We do stunt ourselves in that way, but that’s part of our future plans is to try and find a way that we can do both somehow,” Amy said.
The winery side of the business had its best year during the pandemic, helping to elevate the vineyard’s profile as a destination for food and wine.
“It definitely gave us exposure. It had people thinking like, ‘Hey, this is a place that we can go to now’ that maybe they didn’t think of before,” Amy said. “But I think we knew well enough that it wouldn’t return to that kind of volume once there were other options. But we definitely enjoyed it. And it brought us some recognition and some new faces.”
Zorvino regularly presents themed dinners, such as a “Chocolate Madness” dinner and a four-course beer-versus-wine dinner that includes four local brewers.
“Doing specialty stuff, we’ve always tried to think outside the box,” Zack said.
That holds true for the wines as well. While Zorvino’s line of wines include popular varieties like chardonnay, pinot grigio, cabernet sauvignon and malbec, its Z Wine Labs series of specialty wines includes Peanut Butter & Jelly, Peach Cobbler and Blackberry Bourbon Smash.
Zorvino’s 20th anniversary events run through Sunday, Aug. 11. See details at zorvino.com.
