Spring 2024 Update
Greetings Club Members!
Welcome to the Spring, 2024 Wine Club Release. We hope that you enjoy this new digital format of the wine tasting release notes. Our decision to move away from the printed version was not taken lightly and is based on our renewed efforts in environmental responsibility (saving trees). There’s much more that we are doing to improve our environmental impact, but we’ll have much more to say about that below. Right now, the big news is that we are almost in our new winery!
NEW WINERY. It has been nearly 8 years since we “temporarily” moved into RiverWalk Resort and we are so very close to occupying our permanent home. The new winery will soon be operational; the public tasting room will open soon, and the new Birch Room will be waiting for you to come enjoy for yourself. This construction project was massive. Over 100 new suites, a grand ballroom, new Rhythm Tap & Grille restaurant, and our new winery would not have been possible without the help of hundreds of contractors, a few lawyers, a banker or two and our amazing staff. But, we could not be more thrilled that the time has come to share it all with our club members who have helped bring this dream to life. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
NEW BIRCH ROOM. Some terrific changes are now upon us. We now have a room for our club members that we simply call our “Birch Room”. This room will soon be open for you to have a special place to visit when you are here, chat with our staff, try our wines and generally relax away from the general public in our tasting room. The Birch Room is also available for private parties. We can seat up to 40 people in there, so it is perfect for birthday parties, wedding parties, anniversaries, and other social events that our members may want to host.
NEW SUBSCRIPTION CLUB. The current traditional wine club is closing to new members. Your membership and the program you are familiar with is unaffected, but we won’t be registering more people in the traditional club the way that you know it. New members will be registering in our new “subscription” club, which offers quite a bit more flexibility in terms of amount of wine purchased and frequency. So, rather than getting 2 releases per year on set dates, members of the new subscription club will choose how much wine they want to get and how often they want to get it. It also allows them to choose the products they want from our list of available wines. Shipments and pickups will be based on their registration date and frequency, rather than the predetermined, twice per year releases like you have it now. OF COURSE, if you would like to consider a change to this club, you are ABSOLUTELY welcome to do so. You too can take advantage of this new flexible club. Just let us know!
NEW RETAIL AREA. As you enter our new winery tasting room, you’ll soon see that we have upgraded our retail offering to include more gifts and food. Our retail gifts cover both the Seven Birches Winery brand and the Rhythm Cider brand, among other great local producers. We aim to carry as much New England food and gifts as possible. Shop small.
NEW STORES DAILY. As you know, we only sell Seven Birches wine directly to our club members and visitors. We call this DTC, direct-to-consumer. However, we have begun our distribution efforts for our Rhythm Ciders. Every day, our sales staff are reaching into new stores and restaurants and getting our Rhythm products to more people in more markets. Here is a MAP of all the locations where one can by our Rhythm Ciders.
NEW ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS. One of our grand, bold initiatives as we operate in this state of the art, energy-efficient space is environmental responsibility. The equipment (HVAC, chillers, tanks, etc.) are all-new and utilize less power than some of the older versions. We will begin bottling in lighter glass (lowered carbon footprint) with smaller labels (fewer trees), and no capsule covering the natural cork (less plastic). We are moving to bulk wine storage (kegs) for wine we serve in our tasting room, reducing the glass bottle recycling by nearly 40%! We will refill bottles in our tasting room from wine in reusable stainless steel kegs to reduce how much glass gets opened and tossed. Even the LED lights in our new building will reduce the energy we consume. Sustainability is very important to us and we are just getting started.
NEW WINES. We have many new wines in production and now that we have the space we need, we can produce even more. Some of the wines in this club release are repeats, simply because we could not produce more due to our big move. That is behind us. What you will find in your box this release are the classics. 2021 Gusto, our Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon is out. The final bottling of the 2021 Pinot Noir from Washington State is on the list. And, Blueberry and Strawberry wine always make an appearance this time of year.
We sincerely hope that you enjoy the wines in this release and that you make plans to come visit us in our new space. We are hosting Open Houses starting in June for our club members. We want to personally thank you for your patronage over the years and we look forward to seeing you soon. Cheers!
Gourmet Tuscany!
June 29 – July 6, 2025
A culinary adventure in the world’s most renowned wine region of Italy.
Join fellow Seven Birches Wine Club Members on this quintessential trip to wine country in Tuscany, Italy in June, 2025. This 8-day, 7-night trip to Tuscany is built for you, the wine and food connoiseur. IF you’ve ever dreamed of taking a trip to Tuscany, but wanted a little help in planning the trip, then this is it!
French Wine Country
November 4 – 11, 2025
A week-long cruise through Burgundy, Beaujolais & Provence wine country.
Take a delightful river cruise through France along the Rhône and Saône Rivers with guided sightseeing in well-known French treasures and some hidden gems too! Take in the beautiful countryside, quaint villages and towns, as you sail through the most captivating views of France.
The Timeline
2010 – Seven Birches Winery was founded
2012 – Construction of new winery & tasting room
2013 – Opened new facility at Windy Ridge Orchard
2015 – Moved business to Lincoln, NH
2016 – Opened new facilities at RiverWalk Resort
2018 – Opened expansion tasting room at the Atrium
2019 – Planted first block of 76 hybrid vines
2020 – Launched Rhythm Brand, more vines
2021 – Opened Rhythm Studio, total vines now 454
2022 – Expansion construction starts, more vines planted; total of 518 vines.
2024 – Phase 2, Grand New Winery, Birch Room, Tasting Room OPEN
The Story
Prior to 2010, Mark LaClair was a hobby winemaker, making wines at home out of all sorts of fruits. In 2010 he founded Seven Birches Winery with his partners at Windy Ridge Orchard in North Haverhill, NH. That year, Mark started the first commercial batch of Apple and Blueberry wine, followed by the first vintage of grape wines from South America in the spring of 2011. In the fall of 2012, they began construction of a purpose-built winery at the orchard to allow for some expansion. That new facility and tasting room opened in the summer of 2013, offering customers more variety, more space, and a far better experience. It was a fantastic venue for growing the winery for the next few years.
At the end of 2015, after having a successful five years at the orchard, Mark decided it was time to move the winery into a year round facility in the bustling tourist town of Lincoln, NH. In the spring of 2016, Seven Birches Winery moved into its new home at the new RiverWalk Resort at Loon Mountain, still under construction at the time. The tasting room and the resort opened that June. In December, 2018, the winery opened its second tasting room called the “Atrium Wine Bar at the Lincoln Village Shops” across the parking lot from RiverWalk Resort. This second tasting room allowed for a more comfortable experience on busy days, and a new venue to host public and private events.
In May of 2019, Seven Birches planted a 76-vine test vineyard in the RiverWalk Resort backyard. The vines are all hybrid grapes that will withstand the harsh winters and will ripen its fruit in the shorter NH growing season. In October, 2019, Seven Birches completed the renovation of a new private function space adjacent to the Atrium Wine Bar only to be renovated again in 2020 for more COVID-safe tasting room space. 2020 also saw the launch of Seven Birches Winery’s newest product line, Rhythm Cider as a stand-alone brand made by Seven Birches Winery with the intention of being distributed around New England and beyond. 218 more vines were planted in 2020 along with 160 more in the spring of 2021. There are now 518 vines in the ground with the first block harvested in the fall of 2021. Construction of RiverWalk Resort’s phase 2 began in the spring of 2022 and is now complete.
The new winery facility opened in 2024 and incorporates a 5000 square foot winery, 3000 Square foot tasting room, 1000 Square foot “Birch Room” and 2000 square feet of outdoor patio space. The “Rhythm Studio” has evolved into a full-service restaurant inside RiverWalk Resort called Rhythm Tap and Grille and Rhythm Cider is now distributed state-wide in New Hampshire.
Upcoming Club Events
3 New Club Events for 2024
