No need to wine, new tasting room opens in Dartmouth

Hidden between North Dartmouth and Padanaram, thousands of grape vines grow that will be pressed into locally made wines. This would be Anchor Rock Vineyard, which soft opened in April and officially received their state liquor license to offer wine tastings on Thursday, May 7.

Previously, owner Steve Barwikoski could only sell bottles of wine. 

“We’re trying to make the best wines possible,” said Barwikowski, “I think we have a wine for everyone.”

Barwikowski bought the land in 2019, and moved his family from outside Boston to Dartmouth. His wife’s family grew up in Mattapoisset, and her father was from Padanaram. 

His father always wanted to own a vineyard, and since Barwikowski wanted to be a better father he decided this was a good way to spend more time with his kids. 

“I was able to kind of pursue this dream that’s been in my family for a long time while we were able to get closer to my wife’s family,” said Barwikowski. 

While the land was originally a vineyard when Barwikowski purchased it, the land was not viable. After pulling up all the old grapevines and weeds, removing the wires and trellises, he was able to start his own,planting over 13,000 grape vines consisting of 12 grape varieties. Last year, Anchor Rock Vineyard harvested 50 tons of grapes. From these  Barwikowski makes a variety of red, white, chardonnay and blends. 

“We picked the grapes all by hand” he said “Myself, my family, my wife’s family, neighbors, friends, volunteers. It’s quite a labor intensive process.”

He submitted eight of these into a nationwide contest and won eight medals, including two gold medals for the 2023 Riesling and the 2024 Cuttyhunk White. 

He, along with his architect Skott Rebello, remodeled the old tasting room and turned the barn into a wineroom.

“If you’re going to have a second life, you can put together a 10 piece puzzle and be done pretty quick or you can spell out a 1,000 piece puzzle like this and get a lot more out of it,” Barwikowski said. 

They make the wines onsite in a barn next to the tasting room. After picking, they put the grapes in a wine press, pump the juice into a tank, add yeast and the wine starts to ferment. After a couple months the wine is ready to be bottled. 

“The best part is finishing it and seeing people’s reaction and seeing the smiles on them,” said Barwikowski, “And hearing things like ‘Wow, I had no idea that you could make wine like this here.’”

Now that the state has approved his liquor licence, Barwikowski is going to open the tasting room. He envisions people sitting around, eating cheese while tasting the wine and potentially listening to live music.