About Clever Girl Winery
A wife suggesting that her husband finds a new hobby? That could be taken rather lightly. However, if your husband is Don Andreas, your suggestion could turn your home’s basement into a fully licensed, commercial winery in just over a year!
As Don Andreas’ daughter, Chloe, prepared to walk the stage at her high school graduation in the spring of 2018, his wife, Pamela, knew that he would need something to fill the absence of his daughter’s time away at college.
Pamela had introduced Don to enjoying wine many years ago, and visiting wineries had become something they would frequently do together on the weekends to relax and put the work week behind them.
Andreas purchased a basic home wine making kit that summer of 2018 and began making wine from concentrate kits. He quickly searched for as much wine making information as he could get his hands and eyes on, leading to enrolling in Northampton Community College’s Wine Specialist program.
Wine making from concentrate kits would lead to wine production from grape juice (a common method of wine making in commercial wineries). Andreas would advance his winemaking skills by applying lessons from the classroom on wine blending, back sweetening, and sterile filtering, eventually creating seven crisp and unique wines from three juice varieties.
After receiving rave reviews from his fellow classmates, the seven wines would be entered into Winemaker Magazine’s International Amateur Wine Making Competition. The ‘lucky seven’ held up well among the 2,300 entries with the judges, bringing Andreas not only his first, but his first 4 amateur medals (a Gold, a Silver, and two Bronze). This, along with the completion of the Wine Specialist program in July of 2019, provided the assurance needed to take the necessary steps to convert their cellar into a licensed, commercial wine production facility.
With Clever Girl Winery celebrating its 3rd anniversary in September 2023, Andreas now anticipates the move to downtown Easton in early 2024. Until then, Clever Girl's tasting room in Bangor, PA remains open Fridays through Sundays.
We hope to see you there soon!