Vineyards in Ramona were forced to shutter their doors due to the novel coronavirus, including the vineyard of the Castelli family. Although sales decreased, the owner of Castelli Family Vineyards did not let his guard down and instead, used the quarantine to reinvent the business and create new ideas to stay afloat.
“It’s difficult to sell a product that people need to try and we’re trying to sell it online,” Nelson Pizarro, owner of Castelli Family Vineyards, told Telemundo 20.
The vineyard spans over three acres with 3,000 grape vines and it has the capacity to produce 9,000 bottles of wine.
“With COVID-19, we stopped almost all sales because no one was able to go out,” Pizarro said.
The closure sprung new ideas so Pizarro’s family business can stay afloat. This caused a boom in their income despite the ongoing pandemic.
“I’m making a lot of things on TikTok, on Instagram, we made a podcast in English but right after I make it bilingual on Google,” Pizarro said. “We’re sending boxes of 12 wine bottles. People are buying more and we’re making more sales that way.”
With hand sanitizer on each table, signs on the floor to maintain physical distancing, the use of plastic cups and mandating all customers wear masks at the site, wineries can now open.
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“I spread each table six feet apart. We moved the tables and chairs that don’t need to be next to each other,” Pizarro said.
Pizarro said he is organizing a wine-tasting event so people can try his wine. For more information on the event, click here.
