August, 2026

There’s a lot happening at Todhunter Vineyards this week—and after months of planning, permitting, engineering, and paperwork, the Cellar Door is finally moving from drawings on paper to stakes in the ground!

Building Permit: Check! ✓

We’re very happy to announce that our building permit has been issued for the Todhunter Vineyards Cellar Door.

That little piece of paper represents a lot more work than you might imagine. Architectural plans, structural engineering, plumbing and electrical design, mechanical systems, septic planning, site work, reviews, revisions, approvals—and more than a few emails and phone calls—have all been part of getting us to this point.

Now we get to build it.

Breaking Ground: Check! ✓

Yesterday, the crew was on site laying out the foundation for the Cellar Door.

As the photos show, that starts with stakes, string lines, measurements, and a surprising amount of careful surveying. Before an excavator starts moving earth, we have to know exactly where the building sits, where every corner belongs, and—especially on a Pennsylvania hillside—how the elevations work across the site.

The Cellar Door may eventually look perfectly level, but the ground beneath it certainly isn’t!

Today brings another major milestone: electricity is being run up to the building site. Seeing utilities actually arriving at the future home of the winery makes the project suddenly feel very real.

What Happens Next?

Once the layout and elevations are finalized, excavation can begin.

From there, several trades have to work together in a carefully coordinated sequence. Our plumbing and electrical contractors will install everything that needs to pass through or beneath the concrete, working alongside the foundation and concrete crews to prepare for the foundation pour.

And once the foundation is ready?

Up goes the building.

That will be the moment when the Cellar Door really begins to take shape: our future tasting and retail space, winery production area, kitchen, private event space, and the place where we’ll finally be able to welcome all of you to Todhunter Vineyards.

About That October Grand Opening…

Those of you who have been following our progress know that we had hoped to celebrate our Grand Opening during the first week of October.

Construction projects, however, have a way of reminding you who’s actually in charge of the schedule!

We’re behind schedule—but we’re working fast.

At this point, a Grand Opening during the first week of October is no longer realistic. Rather than rush the final details, we’re shifting our sights toward a Soft Opening in late October, followed by more opportunities to visit as we settle into our new home.

There is still a great deal of work between here and there, and we’ll keep sharing the progress—the excavation, the foundation pour, the building going up, and eventually the transformation of an empty field into the Todhunter Vineyards Cellar Door.

For now, though, we’re celebrating two very important checks on a very long to-do list:

Building Permit: CHECK! ✓

Breaking Ground: CHECK! ✓

Next stop: excavation.

Stay tuned. Things are about to start changing very quickly on the hill at Todhunter Vineyards!