From grape to glass: Rochester couple transforms home into winery

ROCHESTER — For years, friends of Tony and Mary-Patrice Ruocco told them they should start selling the wine they made. They had long been giving away home-made bottles of wine as gifts and wedding favors. 

“That planted the seed,” Tony said. In October of 2023, the couple opened A&M Winery in their Rochester home at 308 New Bedford Road. A&M — A for Anthony and M for Mary-Patrice — is a boutique farm winery. All the wine it sells is fermented and bottled on site.  

A&M Winery is also a vineyard. The 29-acre property on which it sits, which the couple bought in 2021, has two small plots with 150 grape vines. The larger plot, at the back of the property, contains 100 vines, while the other 50 are in a smaller plot that hugs the side of the Ruoccos’ home. The couple’s goal is to expand the operation to five acres.  

The vines they’ve already planted, bare on a visit to the property in early February, could start forming buds after just three days of 50-degree weather, said Tony.

From the beginning, the Ruoccos knew they also wanted to avoid the challenges that come with managing a second property. “We want our grapes where we can see them,” says Mary-Patrice, in a soft —  yet firm — voice.  

A&M winery sells a variety of red and white wines, as well as fruit wines and dessert wines. Wines sell for $8-$9 a glass or $15-__ a bottle.  

The winery is open Saturdays and Sundays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Fridays 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the warmer months, as well as by appointment. Up to 30 guests can be seated indoors, and there is more capacity when outdoor seating is available.  

Most of the fruits used to make wine are sourced locally, according to Mary-Patrice. Half of the grapes come from Massachusetts, and the other half from all over New England. 

In addition to the more traditional reds and whites, A&M offers a wide variety of fruit wines such as pear, cranberry — a must, given where they live, they said — and even more out-of-the-ordinary flavors like watermelon and pineapple. 

Of course, some of the fruits are impossible to source locally. In Massachusetts, “there are no local pineapple growers,” notes Mary-Patrice.

The winery’s best sellers include Rochester Red, a classic Italian red wine made from the Montepulciano grape, and “Me Time,” a Gewürztraminer, a semi-dry white wine with a “fruity profile.”  

The couple gets creative with wine names. The idea for “Me Time” originated with a response from the couple’s daughter, Margaret, when asked if she’d like to help with yard work. Margaret had just come home from after a stressful day as a crisis clinician during the Covid pandemic. Sitting in a lawn chair, relaxing with a glass of Gewürztraminer in hand, she responded: “No, this is me time,” Mary-Patrice recalls with a smile.  

Tony’s passion for wine reflects his Italian roots. He grew up learning to make wine from his father, uncle and grandfather, he said. Tony is the sommelier, shares Mary-Patrice. “He’s the one who can squish it, sniff it, slurp it and taste it.” 

He proves her point during the interview, slowly sipping a glass of Rochester Red. It’s a little too cold for his liking, he says.  

The Ruoccos’ 20 years of experience making wine translated to fewer obstacles when it came time to putting a price tag on their product.  “We worked out the kinks at the amateur level,” states Tony. 

Opening a winery was originally part of their retirement plan, but the couple couldn’t quite wait for retirement — both still working full-time. Tony, a graduate of West Point, worked as an army engineer for 24 years, and is currently a professor of computer science at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.  Mary-Patrice served for 18 years in military medical command. She now works in psychiatric healthcare at Taunton State Hospital. 

When asked if any grape-stomping still occurs in the winemaking process, Mary-Patrice let out a little laugh. “We don’t stomp grapes. We press them.” Grapes are pressed manually using a small machine. Fifteen pounds of grapes make five bottles of wine.  

There are health risks to stomping grapes, she notes. “When you think about the infection control issues and all that, why would you want people to do that? That’s the hospital side of me.”

A&M Winery is the first winery in Rochester. Navigating unchartered territory for the town proved to be the biggest hurdle in bringing the couple’s dream to fruition. “The town had never done this before,” says Tony. “We had to educate the community more than we needed to educate ourselves about what it means to produce wine.” 

For the Ruoccos, wine has a special place in the hierarchy of alcoholic beverages because of its connection to its place of origin.  Different topographies and environments create different wines all over the world, says Mary-Patrice. “There’s a trail to where the grape was grown.”  For many of their wines, that’s right here in Rochester.