New Microwinery, “Gritty City Winery” Just Opened and Features a Variety of Housemade Wines
Sitting on the boarder of Olde Kensington and Norris Square is a new microwinery that was started by two local brothers looking to share their passion for wines. Gritty City Winery (1720 N. 5th St.) was founded by Tim and Mike Capuzzi who developed their love for wine making from their grandparents.
“Our interest in wine stems back to our Italian grandparents, who immigrated to Philadelphia in 1920 and brought with them the family’s tradition of home winemaking. This was always a really important tradition because it brought everyone together,” Tim states.
Gritty City Winery, whose name is a nod to Philly’s grit is a microwinery that is currently operating as a retail space. “We made eleven different wines this batch and we will be featuring four wines at a time, two house wines (600) bottles of each, Sauvignon Blanc (Chile) & Malbec (Chile). These will be featured from now until we are out. We will also be releasing two of our reserve wines at a time,” Tim Adds.
Although, Gritty City Winery is currently retail it does offer a tasting area. However, the brothers plan to incorporate wine tours in the future. The Capuzzis are looking to help push the microwinery culture to be on par with microbreweries. “Across the Philadelphia region there are more than 100 microbreweries but only a couple microwineries. We’d love to do for wine what craft beer has done for breweries. For our customers, you don’t have to be a sommelier to enjoy our wine, Tim states.
Private tours of up to parties of 8 are slated to start in October and guests will get to enjoy light bites including charcuterie boards as the Capuzzi brothers provide a production tour as well as their backstory. A courtyard will also be utilized for future tastings for tour participants.
“Our motto is start small but think big. For our first batch, we made 300 bottles in Tim’s basement and sold out immediately. We moved into our current commercial space in May and are currently in production of 1,500 bottles in eleven different varieties. Eventually we will scale up production to
10,000 bottles per year,” Mike states.
Gritty City Winery’s hours of operation are Fridays 4 pm – 8 pm and Saturday’s 2 pm -6 pm.
