August 12, 2024 • 18 mins
Rich Parron is the owner of Hickory Vines Winery & Venue, which is located in Mifflin Township. The company has been open for around 8 months and features a total of 27 wines, which 8 of them are made locally. The venue has 3 pavilions, which can be rented for weddings and other events. Rich and his wife run Hickory Vines Winery & Venue in Mansfield. Parron was born in New York and shares his story and about his business on the podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The CEO you Should Know, brought to you by Roby
Foster Miller Eric Insurance. This week's CEO, Rich Perone, owner
of Hickory Vine's Winery and Venue. First of all, good
morning and thanks for coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
All right, So I'm excited to learn about a local
company here. So maybe somebody's new to the area, maybe
they just don't know tell us about you, guys.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
So I'm the owner of Hickory Vine's Winery and Venue.
It is a new venue located in Madison Township within Mansfield.
It's one of those places where we call it a
blue collar winery concept, so blue collar with sophistication, as
we say. It's one of those places that we believe
that it's your place to be. Our place is your place.
So when you come to the winery, the atmosphere when
(00:48):
you drive down Hickory Lane to get to the location,
you question if there's anything even back there, and then
it completely opens up. A lot of people are calling
it the hidden gem in Miflin Township. So it's one
one of those things that we're very proud of the
individuals that come there. We have an assortment of wines
We have over twenty seven different types of wines, eight
(01:09):
of which are our own vintage that we produce there locally.
We're also in seven different locations throughout I won't go
through all those, but I think the biggest thing about
our winery is really the people. And a lot of
people say that that, you know, hey, the people.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
The people.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
We have been blessed with the number of individuals from
our community, the outreach we've had from the community. Just
being open now for eight months, we're relatively you know,
brand new. I've been building it for the past four
years with bare hands and some help from some people,
but over the past eight months it's just exploded because
of the outreach of the people. I believe that's what
(01:43):
make Hickory Vines unique. So when you come there as
a new customer, you actually leave feeling like you're part
of a family. Most individuals will talk about when they're
at the winery, it feels like somebody's backyard. It feels comfortable.
So what we love is we have a tremendous this
amount of first responders, you know, business professionals, teachers, everybody
(02:06):
from all walks of life come out there and really
make it a unique kind of euclectic type of situation
where feel like it's your place.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You are hearing the voice this morning of Rich Peroni
is the owner of Hickory Vine's winery and venue, so
we hear venue.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
It's more than just wine then.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Absolutely, it's more than just one.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Things that we're very proud of is we've already had
a number of weddings. When we first started and opened up,
I did not believe this year we would have a.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Lot of bookings.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
We've had a tremendous amount of bookings to the point
now where my wife, who does all that event planning
and so forth, I've lost count even coming up you
know shortly here in the fall. We have multiple weddings
back to back to back. So it's one of those
nice areas where we have plenty of space. Three pavilions.
One of them is a massive pavilion one thousand square
feet sixteen foot high. We have a thirty foot patio
(02:54):
deck by seventy feet wide where people have weddings out there.
You know, internally we can fit comfort eighty to one
hundred people, so it's rather large. But the most exciting
news that we have is we've been open for eight months.
As we've said, however, we're looking to have the second
building installed right around the time we hit our one
year anniversary, so we're excited to potentially be celebrating that
(03:17):
we've got all the plans in place. We've had a
great outreach with the Mifflin Township to help us, you know,
with what's needed, what's required. A lot of very good
people there, so we've been very fortunate that that venue
has started to grow. We have fully stocked fishing pond
where we've had people that have been at weddings basically
after the wedding and waiting for the bride and groom
(03:37):
to come up, and you're seeing kids fish at the pond,
people playing horseshoes, playing corn hole, pictures being taken throughout.
So as a venue, it's really kicked off because of
the atmosphere in the view that you have there.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
We are learning again this morning about this week's CEO.
You should know his name is rich Porne and he
is the owner of Hickory Vines Winery and venue. So
you say, in Mifflin Township, we're exactly at are.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
You, guys?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yes, we are at seventeen forty five Hickory Lane, Mansfield,
Ohio four four, nine oh five.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
All right, so tremendous to learn about that love, to
get the story of how this started. So you mentioned
been open about eight months, but you mentioned, you know,
four years are probably more in the making.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Give us the history.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So this story. Everybody was coming to the wineries heard
this story. It's even printed up on our walls with
a picture. I wouldn't say it was late one night,
but my wife and I were sitting on the couch.
It's about eight thirty five. We're watching that one of
those famous shows, you know, Farmer Needs a Life for
Once a wife or something. Somehow she got me pulled
into that and as she was dozing off, I think
it was eight forty five pm, I said, hey, we're getting,
(04:41):
you know, up there in age, you know, and we
want to start planning for our future retirement and things
of that nature. And as she was falling asleep, she
mumbled wineries. And I'm like, great, I love traveling the wineries.
I love them. Sometimes I don't feel like it belong
all the time, but you know, it's like, hey, let's
leave what this concert's about. So she mumbles again, I
really want one. So I decided to plant our first
(05:03):
row of grapes. And as people come out there, you
see these nice, you know, basic vines that have been
planted four years ago and are fully grown at this point.
And I said, I'll see what happens. I'll plant some
grapes and see what happens. Well, it wasn't too long
after that I went ahead and started drawing the drawings
of the building what we wanted, how we wanted it.
But I forgot to tell my wife, and one day
she wakes up, there's street tractor trailers pulling up to
(05:24):
the site and we're literally putting in the winery. Roughly
about thirty six months from us having that conversation to
the point when we opened up last November.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Wow, tremendous story. Now you bring up grapes and those
kind of things. How many rose grapes that those kinds?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I'm sure people would be interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yes, absolutely, So we have twenty six rows of grapes there.
We have three different types of grapes at the vineyard.
We have our marquette, which some of those now are
old enough to point where we'll be destemming crushing those
this year. Four wines we have a front toick Blanc,
which is a white wine grape, and then we have
a sober which is a red wine grape. We'll be
adding more over the next several years. Those grapes that
(06:05):
I just spoke of, many of them were planted last year,
so this is like their second year in growing. You're
looking at about four to five years before you can
really get some good grapes off there. So we've been
fortunate to insource some grapes from local wineries such as
in vineyards such as Knoxview out in Treasurestown. They've been
very helpful to us. And then even Michigan grapes. So
(06:26):
the Ohio people have been very accepting of the Michigan
grapes and love our line that we're making with them.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
All right, tremendous, great story about a local company again
in Mifflin Township. You're hearing the voice this morning of
the owner of Hickory Vine's winery and venue. That is
rich Parone this week's CEO. You should know now how
far are people coming to see you guys?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
From it?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Sounds like you mentioned, you know, bookings for weddings and
events is great, but how far are they coming.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
That's a great question. So fortunately we're right off I
seventy one. We're literally sixty seconds from the highway. That's
why everybody's kind of calling it that hitt and gym.
It's a great pocket where our environment is that we
have so Cleveland and Columbus, so on both sides, about
an hour south and an hour north. We've been able
to stretch out for people to come in and actually
(07:13):
tell us, hey, we heard you on this, or we
saw you on that. We saw you on your social
media and we thought that we would come up there.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
So you brought up social media. Let's throw it out there.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
They can call you, guys, they can go to the
website you have social media. I'm gonna give them the
phone number. It's four one nine five seven one zero
four seven five. Again that's four one nine five seven
one zero four seven five.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
But you have a great website in social media too.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Absolutely so far our Facebook, it's Hickoryvine's Winery in Venue.
And then for our website and we've got a great
team out of Lucas that helps us with our website.
It's Hickoryvinswinery dot com.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
All right, so check it out, photos and everything. Check
out the wines.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Absolutely, come check the wines out. Everybody loves them, especially
the blueberry.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
All right, love that great time of the year.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Now, if somebody's wondering in turn of like harvest in
terms of that, you mentioned what forty years or so
things like that, but what time of the year for grapes?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Great question.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So you're looking at anywhere between three to four years
before you're able to get grapes off the vines. But
when they're ready, you're looking between September and October where
you're beginning to harvest it. And simply you take the
grapes off the vine, you put them through a decemmer crusher,
so you get all the kind of the bad stems
and things away, and then you've got all this juice.
Then you put that juice in a ferm enter and
then the whole process begins a fermentation which everybody loves.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
The after effect.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, they love the end result, absolutely terrific. From Rich
Paron this morning again, our CEO. You should know this
week Hickory Vines Winery and Venue again in Mifflin Township.
All right, let's step away from work and find out
a bit more about you. So let's step back to
the very beginning. I'm sure people want to know where
was rich.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Parone born in Troy, New York. Okay, all right, from
the state of New York. Yes, sir, we're at in
New York?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Is that so that's upstate? Okay?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, we had spent some time down south in the city,
but basically upstate.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Okay, growth, Now tell us next, where'd you go to
high school?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So? I went to Troy High School?
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Okay, all right, Next tellspot college?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So college?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Well, before college, I actually went into the United States
Marine Corps. So I graduated high school early at seventeen
and went on some amazing adventures. Also spent time in
the Army as well. After that because I needed more
money for school. After that, I spent you know, some
time in manufacturing, but went and got my degree. So
I got a BSTM, which is a Bachelor's of Science
and Technical Management, and then went ahead and got my
master's degree as well.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Where'd you get those from?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So the first one that I went to was a
dry and the next one I went to was Bethel
University that was actually out of Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Okay, all right, now people want to know the story
of you know, finishing up. You mentioned college things like that,
and now of course you know running the winery, and
I know you have other venues as well, but tell
us about college and kind of where all you've worked.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
The highlights along that.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
So the highlights is I've been a manufacturing guy my
whole life, which is probably the best place to have
a military guy there afterward because of a structure and
things like that. So I spent you know, many years,
roughly about thirteen years in this steel industry kind of
things that you see on TV with all the sparks
and everything flying.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So it was always liquid metal.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Spent a number of years with Good Year Time and
Rubber Company, which isn't too far from here in Akron.
And then currently right now I'm with Vitro Automotive that's
within you know, Richland County as well.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, all right, so busy, busy, yeah, yeah, you hear that.
And I want to go next. People may have heard
that you said wife, So tell us a bit more
about rich and the family.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yes, yes, so my wife, very fortunate to have her.
She puts up with me. She's the one that actually
focuses on all the social media all the event planning.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
She's also our venter.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
She's the one that actually makes the wine and spends
time on the wines.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So I'm on the business.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Side of things, you know, the construction side of things,
and you know, she's on the inside type of thing.
So she's done an extremely good job with that. She
had worked at the hospital for some time at the
ICU in therapy, so she has a great connection with
the community. Many many people see her on a daily
basis there and thank her for the time that she
spent helping them through certain things.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
All my kids are older, I guess claim the fame
is My oldest son just finished his seventh year at
the White House within the Air Force, working for strategic
cyberspace commands. So he's done a lot of good things.
He's been there long enough, so now he's moving on.
He's he's got a couple more years before he retires,
but we're very proud of him. And got a couple
of you know other children that you know work on
skyscrapers and piping and stuff like that in Chicago. Another
(11:27):
one that works on electrical lines. It's my daughter and
then my fourteen year old or my Corvette, as I say,
actually plays football for Madison.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
He's doing very well.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
We try to get him to help with the winery
whenever we can or he's willing.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, it's great to learn about rich Parono wife. You know, businesses,
kids busy. Now when you have spare time, and it
sounds like when you have spare time you probably work.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Right pretty much pretty much.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
But if you have any hobbies, things you like to
do away from work, what do you like to do?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I would say, what's fitness for the long time? You know,
my son and I, the younger son, had done martial
arts together and things of that nature to sort of
stay in shape. We love that, but really it's just growth.
The hobby now is when we listen to our customers
about things that they'd like to see, what's the next step.
It's almost something that's perpetual.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
We have a couple of families that come in every
week and haven't missed it a week since we've opened
over the eight months, and their comments are we're just
excited to see what you've done since last week. A
lot of pressure, but we definitely love them because it
keeps us motivated. So we spent a lot of time
making really nice, cool places within the property that we're
at and that's exciting to me.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
A great story this morning hearing from Rich pron again.
He is this week's CEO. You should know he is
the owner of Hickory Vines Winery and venue again. The
website he threw it out earlier, Hickoryvineswinery dot com. All right,
so let's get back to work. You know, I visit
with a lot of people now. It seems to be
everybody's looking for good people. Are you guys hiring right now?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Absolutely, We're always looking for, you know, good team members.
Those are team members that will serve It's funny. I
went to the Ohio Winery conference and you know, you
take away a lot of information, but there's one thing
that you know, you always look to take it away
with you. And the one thing was this young lady
and I wish I could remember her name and where
she was from, but she said something. She goes. You know,
it's the ten eighty ten rule. You know, there's ten
(13:19):
percent of the people that you know, maybe not quite
the greatest fit, there's ten percent of the people that
you immediately get them in. Today However, most of the
time what you do is at other eighty percent. You
have to make sure you train, you're communicating all that,
but you hire for nice. So we're always looking for
great people that have a great personality that resonate with
our customers. We teach everything else. Be honestly, it's not
that hard. I've figured if I can learn it, anybody can.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well, you mentioned if they want to reach out and
you know, looking for a job, they can call four
one nine five seven one zero four seven five with
throughout the website a moment ago Hickoryvineswinery dot com. I'm
sure they can message through social media or maybe even
better yet, stop in and talk to you, right.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Come in and talk to myself for Sonya.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Absolutely, So again give people the address.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So the addresses seventeen forty five Hickory Lane, Mansfield, Ohio,
four four nine o five.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
All right, before I let you go, as we circle
back from talking about you know where you're from, state
of New York, and I guess I had asked the
question how you made it to Ohio?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
How about that I made it. I made it through
Ohio through work.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Actually I started out roughly eleven years ago at there's
a Crestline facility. It was the old PPG, then became PGW.
Now it's a Vitro automotive, you know, a very good
manufacturing organization. So I started there eleven years ago and
haven't left. And literally now I am rooted. And my
wife was not necessarily from here, but she had lived
here for twenty seven twenty eight years. Our daughters somehow
(14:43):
connected us, and you know, that's that's the story right there.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
The rest is history, right, great story to learn about
Rich Peron again this week's CEO. You should know again
the owner of Hickory Vines, Winery and Venue. All right,
before I let you go, And I love to get
local business owners. I'd love to give them a moment
to kind of brag about yourself. You know, you know,
somebody just move to the area. Maybe they don't know
(15:08):
what makes you guys special at Hickory Wines, Winery and Venue.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
That is a great question, without a doubt. It's two things.
The first thing is the property. When you come down
Hickory Lane, and we call it the dead end of
Hickory because people think it's on the other side. If
you will, when you come down, you're not expecting it.
You're thinking at some point it might be in somebody's house.
And then the property opens up to a you know,
a very nice, beautiful pond with a fountain, a massive archway,
(15:34):
wooden archway, and then you see the sprawling of the
of the vines. You see the venue in the back.
So I would say the property in itself is one.
The second thing is the people. And I know a
lot of people say that, you know, because they feel
like they have to. I have been grateful because not
only do I feel like that, you know, we've done
very well with the public. It almost no longer feels
(15:54):
like the public. It feels like family. And there's so
many people where we remember their names. And that's one
of our commitments is after a few times, you know,
we need to know your name because now you're part
of our family. And I'd say those two things are
the most important for us.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
All right, terrific, Now before I let you go, you
mentioned earlier you guys have been busy throughout the summer,
you know, weddings and events and things like that. I'm
sure if they want to book your venue, go ahead
and reach out here soon.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Then right, absolutely, In fact, something that we're doing right now,
is that anybody that books the venue for twenty five
or the future actually gets twenty twenty four pricing. There
are still openings for this year, but they are rapidly closing,
you know, for either the venue itself, for the pavilions,
for the camping that we have that's on site as well.
Now we've started booking for that. But we've been very grateful.
(16:42):
You know, we take a look at a lot of
the information and in fact we've exceeded that, and we've
only exceeded that because of the people in the community
and around us who are utilizing the facility for their needs.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
All right, tremendous.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Did we miss anything that you wanted to bring up
that people should know about you guys? Sounds like you
have a lot happening.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
There's a lot happening. We're just again, we're are very grateful.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I know a lot of people say that, but the
CEE where we were at a year ago to where
we're at today is only because of those around us.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
All Right, tremendous to learn about Hickory Vines Winery and
venue again in Mifflin Township. The owner with us, Rich Paron,
let's give out that contact information one more time. You're
you're looking to check out some great wines. You're looking
to you maybe you know book the venue for a
great event. Maybe maybe you want a job working for
a great local company. You can call four one nine
(17:29):
five seven one zero four seven five and also let
them know Rich your website and on social media absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
The website is Hickoryvineswinery dot com. And then for Facebook,
you're looking at Hickory Vine's Winery and Venue.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
All right, a lot of great things happening locally, another
great local company learning about them this morning Hickory Vine's
Winery and Venue with the owner Rich Parom. Well, it's
great to learn about you. I mentioned great story. Thank
you for coming in and sharing and we wish you
continued success.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Rich Parone, owner of Hickory Vine's Winery and Venue, the
CEO you should know. Read a bio, see a photo,
and here the extended interview at wm A n FM
dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
This is John Roby of RFME Insurance.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
It is said that a good leader sets the bar
high because he or she wants to reach goals and
make the best of their teams.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
We are proud to introduce you to some of the
community's leaders on the CEO series.
The CEO you Should Know, brought to you by Roby
Foster Miller Eric Insurance. This week's CEO, Rich Perone, owner
of Hickory Vine's Winery and Venue. First of all, good
morning and thanks for coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
All right, So I'm excited to learn about a local
company here. So maybe somebody's new to the area, maybe
they just don't know tell us about you, guys.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
So I'm the owner of Hickory Vine's Winery and Venue.
It is a new venue located in Madison Township within Mansfield.
It's one of those places where we call it a
blue collar winery concept, so blue collar with sophistication, as
we say. It's one of those places that we believe
that it's your place to be. Our place is your place.
So when you come to the winery, the atmosphere when
(00:48):
you drive down Hickory Lane to get to the location,
you question if there's anything even back there, and then
it completely opens up. A lot of people are calling
it the hidden gem in Miflin Township. So it's one
one of those things that we're very proud of the
individuals that come there. We have an assortment of wines
We have over twenty seven different types of wines, eight
(01:09):
of which are our own vintage that we produce there locally.
We're also in seven different locations throughout I won't go
through all those, but I think the biggest thing about
our winery is really the people. And a lot of
people say that that, you know, hey, the people.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
The people.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
We have been blessed with the number of individuals from
our community, the outreach we've had from the community. Just
being open now for eight months, we're relatively you know,
brand new. I've been building it for the past four
years with bare hands and some help from some people,
but over the past eight months it's just exploded because
of the outreach of the people. I believe that's what
(01:43):
make Hickory Vines unique. So when you come there as
a new customer, you actually leave feeling like you're part
of a family. Most individuals will talk about when they're
at the winery, it feels like somebody's backyard. It feels comfortable.
So what we love is we have a tremendous this
amount of first responders, you know, business professionals, teachers, everybody
(02:06):
from all walks of life come out there and really
make it a unique kind of euclectic type of situation
where feel like it's your place.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You are hearing the voice this morning of Rich Peroni
is the owner of Hickory Vine's winery and venue, so
we hear venue.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
It's more than just wine then.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Absolutely, it's more than just one.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Things that we're very proud of is we've already had
a number of weddings. When we first started and opened up,
I did not believe this year we would have a.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Lot of bookings.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
We've had a tremendous amount of bookings to the point
now where my wife, who does all that event planning
and so forth, I've lost count even coming up you
know shortly here in the fall. We have multiple weddings
back to back to back. So it's one of those
nice areas where we have plenty of space. Three pavilions.
One of them is a massive pavilion one thousand square
feet sixteen foot high. We have a thirty foot patio
(02:54):
deck by seventy feet wide where people have weddings out there.
You know, internally we can fit comfort eighty to one
hundred people, so it's rather large. But the most exciting
news that we have is we've been open for eight months.
As we've said, however, we're looking to have the second
building installed right around the time we hit our one
year anniversary, so we're excited to potentially be celebrating that
(03:17):
we've got all the plans in place. We've had a
great outreach with the Mifflin Township to help us, you know,
with what's needed, what's required. A lot of very good
people there, so we've been very fortunate that that venue
has started to grow. We have fully stocked fishing pond
where we've had people that have been at weddings basically
after the wedding and waiting for the bride and groom
(03:37):
to come up, and you're seeing kids fish at the pond,
people playing horseshoes, playing corn hole, pictures being taken throughout.
So as a venue, it's really kicked off because of
the atmosphere in the view that you have there.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
We are learning again this morning about this week's CEO.
You should know his name is rich Porne and he
is the owner of Hickory Vines Winery and venue. So
you say, in Mifflin Township, we're exactly at are.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
You, guys?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yes, we are at seventeen forty five Hickory Lane, Mansfield,
Ohio four four, nine oh five.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
All right, so tremendous to learn about that love, to
get the story of how this started. So you mentioned
been open about eight months, but you mentioned, you know,
four years are probably more in the making.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Give us the history.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So this story. Everybody was coming to the wineries heard
this story. It's even printed up on our walls with
a picture. I wouldn't say it was late one night,
but my wife and I were sitting on the couch.
It's about eight thirty five. We're watching that one of
those famous shows, you know, Farmer Needs a Life for
Once a wife or something. Somehow she got me pulled
into that and as she was dozing off, I think
it was eight forty five pm, I said, hey, we're getting,
(04:41):
you know, up there in age, you know, and we
want to start planning for our future retirement and things
of that nature. And as she was falling asleep, she
mumbled wineries. And I'm like, great, I love traveling the wineries.
I love them. Sometimes I don't feel like it belong
all the time, but you know, it's like, hey, let's
leave what this concert's about. So she mumbles again, I
really want one. So I decided to plant our first
(05:03):
row of grapes. And as people come out there, you
see these nice, you know, basic vines that have been
planted four years ago and are fully grown at this point.
And I said, I'll see what happens. I'll plant some
grapes and see what happens. Well, it wasn't too long
after that I went ahead and started drawing the drawings
of the building what we wanted, how we wanted it.
But I forgot to tell my wife, and one day
she wakes up, there's street tractor trailers pulling up to
(05:24):
the site and we're literally putting in the winery. Roughly
about thirty six months from us having that conversation to
the point when we opened up last November.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Wow, tremendous story. Now you bring up grapes and those
kind of things. How many rose grapes that those kinds?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I'm sure people would be interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yes, absolutely, So we have twenty six rows of grapes there.
We have three different types of grapes at the vineyard.
We have our marquette, which some of those now are
old enough to point where we'll be destemming crushing those
this year. Four wines we have a front toick Blanc,
which is a white wine grape, and then we have
a sober which is a red wine grape. We'll be
adding more over the next several years. Those grapes that
(06:05):
I just spoke of, many of them were planted last year,
so this is like their second year in growing. You're
looking at about four to five years before you can
really get some good grapes off there. So we've been
fortunate to insource some grapes from local wineries such as
in vineyards such as Knoxview out in Treasurestown. They've been
very helpful to us. And then even Michigan grapes. So
(06:26):
the Ohio people have been very accepting of the Michigan
grapes and love our line that we're making with them.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
All right, tremendous, great story about a local company again
in Mifflin Township. You're hearing the voice this morning of
the owner of Hickory Vine's winery and venue. That is
rich Parone this week's CEO. You should know now how
far are people coming to see you guys?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
From it?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Sounds like you mentioned, you know, bookings for weddings and
events is great, but how far are they coming.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
That's a great question. So fortunately we're right off I
seventy one. We're literally sixty seconds from the highway. That's
why everybody's kind of calling it that hitt and gym.
It's a great pocket where our environment is that we
have so Cleveland and Columbus, so on both sides, about
an hour south and an hour north. We've been able
to stretch out for people to come in and actually
(07:13):
tell us, hey, we heard you on this, or we
saw you on that. We saw you on your social
media and we thought that we would come up there.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
So you brought up social media. Let's throw it out there.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
They can call you, guys, they can go to the
website you have social media. I'm gonna give them the
phone number. It's four one nine five seven one zero
four seven five. Again that's four one nine five seven
one zero four seven five.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
But you have a great website in social media too.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Absolutely so far our Facebook, it's Hickoryvine's Winery in Venue.
And then for our website and we've got a great
team out of Lucas that helps us with our website.
It's Hickoryvinswinery dot com.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
All right, so check it out, photos and everything. Check
out the wines.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Absolutely, come check the wines out. Everybody loves them, especially
the blueberry.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
All right, love that great time of the year.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Now, if somebody's wondering in turn of like harvest in
terms of that, you mentioned what forty years or so
things like that, but what time of the year for grapes?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Great question.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So you're looking at anywhere between three to four years
before you're able to get grapes off the vines. But
when they're ready, you're looking between September and October where
you're beginning to harvest it. And simply you take the
grapes off the vine, you put them through a decemmer crusher,
so you get all the kind of the bad stems
and things away, and then you've got all this juice.
Then you put that juice in a ferm enter and
then the whole process begins a fermentation which everybody loves.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
The after effect.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, they love the end result, absolutely terrific. From Rich
Paron this morning again, our CEO. You should know this
week Hickory Vines Winery and Venue again in Mifflin Township.
All right, let's step away from work and find out
a bit more about you. So let's step back to
the very beginning. I'm sure people want to know where
was rich.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Parone born in Troy, New York. Okay, all right, from
the state of New York. Yes, sir, we're at in
New York?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Is that so that's upstate? Okay?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, we had spent some time down south in the city,
but basically upstate.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Okay, growth, Now tell us next, where'd you go to
high school?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So? I went to Troy High School?
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Okay, all right, Next tellspot college?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So college?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Well, before college, I actually went into the United States
Marine Corps. So I graduated high school early at seventeen
and went on some amazing adventures. Also spent time in
the Army as well. After that because I needed more
money for school. After that, I spent you know, some
time in manufacturing, but went and got my degree. So
I got a BSTM, which is a Bachelor's of Science
and Technical Management, and then went ahead and got my
master's degree as well.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Where'd you get those from?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So the first one that I went to was a
dry and the next one I went to was Bethel
University that was actually out of Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Okay, all right, now people want to know the story
of you know, finishing up. You mentioned college things like that,
and now of course you know running the winery, and
I know you have other venues as well, but tell
us about college and kind of where all you've worked.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
The highlights along that.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
So the highlights is I've been a manufacturing guy my
whole life, which is probably the best place to have
a military guy there afterward because of a structure and
things like that. So I spent you know, many years,
roughly about thirteen years in this steel industry kind of
things that you see on TV with all the sparks
and everything flying.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So it was always liquid metal.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Spent a number of years with Good Year Time and
Rubber Company, which isn't too far from here in Akron.
And then currently right now I'm with Vitro Automotive that's
within you know, Richland County as well.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, all right, so busy, busy, yeah, yeah, you hear that.
And I want to go next. People may have heard
that you said wife, So tell us a bit more
about rich and the family.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yes, yes, so my wife, very fortunate to have her.
She puts up with me. She's the one that actually
focuses on all the social media all the event planning.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
She's also our venter.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
She's the one that actually makes the wine and spends
time on the wines.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So I'm on the business.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Side of things, you know, the construction side of things,
and you know, she's on the inside type of thing.
So she's done an extremely good job with that. She
had worked at the hospital for some time at the
ICU in therapy, so she has a great connection with
the community. Many many people see her on a daily
basis there and thank her for the time that she
spent helping them through certain things.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
All my kids are older, I guess claim the fame
is My oldest son just finished his seventh year at
the White House within the Air Force, working for strategic
cyberspace commands. So he's done a lot of good things.
He's been there long enough, so now he's moving on.
He's he's got a couple more years before he retires,
but we're very proud of him. And got a couple
of you know other children that you know work on
skyscrapers and piping and stuff like that in Chicago. Another
(11:27):
one that works on electrical lines. It's my daughter and
then my fourteen year old or my Corvette, as I say,
actually plays football for Madison.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
He's doing very well.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
We try to get him to help with the winery
whenever we can or he's willing.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, it's great to learn about rich Parono wife. You know, businesses,
kids busy. Now when you have spare time, and it
sounds like when you have spare time you probably work.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Right pretty much pretty much.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
But if you have any hobbies, things you like to
do away from work, what do you like to do?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I would say, what's fitness for the long time? You know,
my son and I, the younger son, had done martial
arts together and things of that nature to sort of
stay in shape. We love that, but really it's just growth.
The hobby now is when we listen to our customers
about things that they'd like to see, what's the next step.
It's almost something that's perpetual.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
We have a couple of families that come in every
week and haven't missed it a week since we've opened
over the eight months, and their comments are we're just
excited to see what you've done since last week. A
lot of pressure, but we definitely love them because it
keeps us motivated. So we spent a lot of time
making really nice, cool places within the property that we're
at and that's exciting to me.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
A great story this morning hearing from Rich pron again.
He is this week's CEO. You should know he is
the owner of Hickory Vines Winery and venue again. The
website he threw it out earlier, Hickoryvineswinery dot com. All right,
so let's get back to work. You know, I visit
with a lot of people now. It seems to be
everybody's looking for good people. Are you guys hiring right now?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Absolutely, We're always looking for, you know, good team members.
Those are team members that will serve It's funny. I
went to the Ohio Winery conference and you know, you
take away a lot of information, but there's one thing
that you know, you always look to take it away
with you. And the one thing was this young lady
and I wish I could remember her name and where
she was from, but she said something. She goes. You know,
it's the ten eighty ten rule. You know, there's ten
(13:19):
percent of the people that you know, maybe not quite
the greatest fit, there's ten percent of the people that
you immediately get them in. Today However, most of the
time what you do is at other eighty percent. You
have to make sure you train, you're communicating all that,
but you hire for nice. So we're always looking for
great people that have a great personality that resonate with
our customers. We teach everything else. Be honestly, it's not
that hard. I've figured if I can learn it, anybody can.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well, you mentioned if they want to reach out and
you know, looking for a job, they can call four
one nine five seven one zero four seven five with
throughout the website a moment ago Hickoryvineswinery dot com. I'm
sure they can message through social media or maybe even
better yet, stop in and talk to you, right.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Come in and talk to myself for Sonya.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Absolutely, So again give people the address.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So the addresses seventeen forty five Hickory Lane, Mansfield, Ohio,
four four nine o five.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
All right, before I let you go, as we circle
back from talking about you know where you're from, state
of New York, and I guess I had asked the
question how you made it to Ohio?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
How about that I made it. I made it through
Ohio through work.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Actually I started out roughly eleven years ago at there's
a Crestline facility. It was the old PPG, then became PGW.
Now it's a Vitro automotive, you know, a very good
manufacturing organization. So I started there eleven years ago and
haven't left. And literally now I am rooted. And my
wife was not necessarily from here, but she had lived
here for twenty seven twenty eight years. Our daughters somehow
(14:43):
connected us, and you know, that's that's the story right there.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
The rest is history, right, great story to learn about
Rich Peron again this week's CEO. You should know again
the owner of Hickory Vines, Winery and Venue. All right,
before I let you go, And I love to get
local business owners. I'd love to give them a moment
to kind of brag about yourself. You know, you know,
somebody just move to the area. Maybe they don't know
(15:08):
what makes you guys special at Hickory Wines, Winery and Venue.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
That is a great question, without a doubt. It's two things.
The first thing is the property. When you come down
Hickory Lane, and we call it the dead end of
Hickory because people think it's on the other side. If
you will, when you come down, you're not expecting it.
You're thinking at some point it might be in somebody's house.
And then the property opens up to a you know,
a very nice, beautiful pond with a fountain, a massive archway,
(15:34):
wooden archway, and then you see the sprawling of the
of the vines. You see the venue in the back.
So I would say the property in itself is one.
The second thing is the people. And I know a
lot of people say that, you know, because they feel
like they have to. I have been grateful because not
only do I feel like that, you know, we've done
very well with the public. It almost no longer feels
(15:54):
like the public. It feels like family. And there's so
many people where we remember their names. And that's one
of our commitments is after a few times, you know,
we need to know your name because now you're part
of our family. And I'd say those two things are
the most important for us.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
All right, terrific, Now before I let you go, you
mentioned earlier you guys have been busy throughout the summer,
you know, weddings and events and things like that. I'm
sure if they want to book your venue, go ahead
and reach out here soon.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Then right, absolutely, In fact, something that we're doing right now,
is that anybody that books the venue for twenty five
or the future actually gets twenty twenty four pricing. There
are still openings for this year, but they are rapidly closing,
you know, for either the venue itself, for the pavilions,
for the camping that we have that's on site as well.
Now we've started booking for that. But we've been very grateful.
(16:42):
You know, we take a look at a lot of
the information and in fact we've exceeded that, and we've
only exceeded that because of the people in the community
and around us who are utilizing the facility for their needs.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
All right, tremendous.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Did we miss anything that you wanted to bring up
that people should know about you guys? Sounds like you
have a lot happening.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
There's a lot happening. We're just again, we're are very grateful.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I know a lot of people say that, but the
CEE where we were at a year ago to where
we're at today is only because of those around us.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
All Right, tremendous to learn about Hickory Vines Winery and
venue again in Mifflin Township. The owner with us, Rich Paron,
let's give out that contact information one more time. You're
you're looking to check out some great wines. You're looking
to you maybe you know book the venue for a
great event. Maybe maybe you want a job working for
a great local company. You can call four one nine
(17:29):
five seven one zero four seven five and also let
them know Rich your website and on social media absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
The website is Hickoryvineswinery dot com. And then for Facebook,
you're looking at Hickory Vine's Winery and Venue.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
All right, a lot of great things happening locally, another
great local company learning about them this morning Hickory Vine's
Winery and Venue with the owner Rich Parom. Well, it's
great to learn about you. I mentioned great story. Thank
you for coming in and sharing and we wish you
continued success.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Rich Parone, owner of Hickory Vine's Winery and Venue, the
CEO you should know. Read a bio, see a photo,
and here the extended interview at wm A n FM
dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
This is John Roby of RFME Insurance.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
It is said that a good leader sets the bar
high because he or she wants to reach goals and
make the best of their teams.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
We are proud to introduce you to some of the
community's leaders on the CEO series.
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