DRUMS, Pa. — It was another busy weeknight at Honey Hole Winery.
Whether customers were enjoying the selection on-site or heading home, flights and bottles were going fast.
Angela Rickert of Freeland comes here for the atmosphere and, of course, for the wine.
"I'm pretty basic, I just stick to the pinot grigio and dry reds, but they do have a lot of fruity ones," she said. "My husband is super into the sweet stuff, so he prefers all of the slushies and any of the other things."
While sales have been steady, profit margins are getting thinner, according to Honey Hole's Owner Pete Aiello.
"What's happening now is that the price of glassware, labels, corks, string tops, anything you need to do to decorate the bottle has all gone up from say 10%-12% on glass," he said. "It could be pennies because labels, tops, and corks are only pennies to the cost, but if it goes up a penny or two, it does add up."
Honey Hole uses multiple 400-gallon tanks to ferment the wine.
The bottles run through an assembly line of sorts.
They're filled, corked, and labeled before making their way to the store shelves, but the bottles themselves are harder to come by.
"We tried to switch it up, but the suppliers are having a hard time getting it, so you're buying what you can," Aiello said.
Even more painful for wineries is the increasing cost of ingredients.
"The biggest hurt is the cost of freight, getting stuff mostly from anywhere in the country," Aiello said. "We bring a lot of product over from the west coast, and it's gone up, in some cases, doubled. There's other things added to it, like fuel surcharges and so-forth."
Aiello said a single pallet of supplies on a refrigerated truck used to cost $500. Now, it's an eye-popping $1,200.
Even though the cost to get the bottles on the shelves is increasing, the owner here says he's not raising prices, at least not yet.
He'll reassess that in the fall.
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