Vines to Cellars to Overseas: Winery Co-Owner Serving in Kuwait

A local couple who met in the Army Reserves is busy running their winery while one of them serves overseas with the U.S. Army.

in Port Washington. However a few months ago CJ, who is in the Army Reserves, found out she would be deployed. CJ is currently serving in Arifjan, Kuwait with the 380th TTOE Detachment out of California.

Jim, who is retired from the military, is hard at work at running the store while his wife is in Kuwait. Jim said he has a great support system to help him with the business.

"It’s a lot of adjusting. We’ve got some great part-time help that’s offered to step up and do a lot of extra hours while she’s gone to keep the business going," Jim said.

This is CJ’s third deployment. After she came back from her second deployment, she told her husband she wanted to stay in the service until they had 50 years between the two of them. Jim retired after 22 years of service and CJ has been in the Army Reserves for 28 years, so she is happy to have reached her goal.

Jim and CJ moved to Belgium in 2001, where CJ suggested they make pear wine to toast with at their wedding. That got the ball rolling to start a winery. The couple then found the retail space in Port Washington and thought it was the perfect place for their business.

"We love this town. It’s got some really great festivals throughout the year. We found our location, and our idea for wine was to have something that was fun. So many other wineries seem to have such dark atmospheres and have this big mystery about wine,” Jim said. “We got lucky when we found this building. There were some artists that were in here and they did all the fancy colors and the unique things. This ended up being what we were looking for, for what the wine spirit should be.”

In addition to a warm atmosphere in Vines to Cellar, a nod to the military can be found in the wine rack. The couple sells a military themed wine called AMCAN.

"Last year we had a new wine and we brought it out on Armed Forces Day in November. We tried to come up with some kind of name for it because both veterans and the military are kind of dear to us," Jim said. "My wife took all the first letters of all the branches of the service and laid them out. She played with them on a board and finally came up with AMCAN. It stands for Army, Marine, Coast Guard, Air Force and Navy."

Jim said the wine he fermented complements the military theme.

"It’s a nice, big, bold flavor, so it’s fitting for the military."

The Wirsching-Neusers plan on donating a portion of the sales from every bottle of AMCAN sold in the month of November to the program. The organization, based out of Port Washington, sends WWII veterans to see the war memorial in Washington D.C.

When the Honor Flight program did their very first flight three years ago, Vines to Cellar had just opened. The Wirshing-Neusers custom labeled a special wine for the Honor Flight’s board of directors. The directors auctioned off extra bottles of wine they had, so the Wirshing-Neusers bought a bottle.

Jim said it’s the most he has ever paid for his own wine, but it was worth it to have it go towards an organization that helps veterans.

Besides helping area veterans, Jim is proud to support his wife as she serves overseas. While in Kuwait, her unit will help others link up with equipment that’s been shipped out ahead of time as they travel to Iraq and Afghanistan. Equipment is also dropped off to her unit when soldiers are returning home.

Jim said his wife took care of the details of the business so he could focus on making the wine. He is working to juggle it all while adjusting to life without his wife. 

"Sometimes it ends up being hard, talking about it," Jim said. "I kid CJ, she’s the emotional one and I tell her there’s no crying in the Army. I always try to put the strong front forward and it’s hard. It’s good to go home and have some down time with the dogs."

CJ plans on staying connected with the store while she is gone by writing the store’s monthly newsletter. The couple plans to unveil two new wines before the end of the year.

Jim is already thinking about serving CJ’s favorite wine, Vino De Amore, at her welcome home party.

For Jim, he said his wine is like his children, he simply cannot pick a favorite.