Winery Rebounds After Fire

A winery devastated by an arson in Lackawanna County last year is back in business, just in time for the holidays. The owners lost 70,000 bottles of wine and so much more in that fire.

Shoppers are once again picking out the reds and the whites at Maiolatesi Wine Cellars' new location in Mayfield.

Fifteen months after the business was knocked down by fire, customers are happy to see them reopen.

"Everyone appreciates a good bottle of wine.  This is a good friendly atmosphere, a good place to come," said Joe Cavalier of Jermyn.
 
Besides the store in Mayfield, the winery also has one open in Hawley but getting the two stores open certainly has been a long process.

"They always say you always end up better off after a fire.  That is the furthest thing from the truth," said owner Salvatore Maiolatesi.

He was getting ready to bottle a batch of red wines at his new wine-making facility, still under construction in Scott Township.

"I probably look at it once every day and think I've accomplished a lot and I'm kind of proud of it.  We've bounced back, that was our theme," Maiolatesi said.

They bounced back from a deliberately set fire the size of a football field, that ripped apart the winery's former home, Mermelstein's Marketplace near Carbondale, destroying an entire inventory of wine and nearly all the equipment too.

"It's almost as if we're staring over with a good reputation, thank God!" Maiolatesi added.

Soon the facility in Scott Township will have a wine tasting bar too.

For now the Maiolatesis are just happy seeing customers buying their wines in Mayfield and Hawley, including some new selections, the Phoenix collection, symbolizing this rising from the ashes.