Home Buying

For $464,999, a Maine home with an artisanal winery. Recipes included.

Local legend has it that the hill it's named after is haunted.

The farmhouse has four bedrooms and one bath and dates to 1850. Jessica Wiltbank

June 19, 2023

2 minutes to read

If you’ve dreamed of moving to Maine or owning a winery, here’s an opportunity to do both.

Listed at $464,999, 661 Blackswood Road is a four-bed, one-bath renovated farmhouse with a barn that holds Catherine Hill Winery. The 2,300-square-foot home, which was built in 1900, is set on 6.6 acres in Cherryfield, a town that got its name from the wild cherries that grew along its riverbanks but bills itself as the blueberry capital of the world.

A roughly 200-foot-long rocky driveway leads up to the home and the winery. Legend has it that Catherine was a young woman who died in a violent car accident and that her ghost haunts the area, known as Catherine Mountain or Catherine’s Hill.

“It’s kind of a local legend,” said Jessica Wiltbank of SVN The Masiello Group, who has the listing. “The original owners of the winery named it ‘Catherine Hill,’ and these current owners continued using the name because it’s part of the town’s legend.”

661-blackswood-cherryfield-winery — . – Jessica Wiltbank

Inside the winery, there’s a tasting room and bar, as well as a cozy woodstove. It features a counter to sell wine and other local products and a bathroom for guests. In the back, you’ll find the area where all the small-batch wine is made. The sale comes with all of the inventory, including the contacts for local ingredients, such as Maine blueberries and cranberries that are turned into wine, and the recipes.

661-blackswood-cherryfield-grapes — . – Jessica Wiltbank

661-blackswood-cherryfield-wine — . – Jessica Wiltbank

“The owners are even willing to stay on to train the new owners,” said Wiltbank, who noted that the barn also features a second floor for storage. “The current owners make their wines every day, and it’s easily managed between the two. It’s a very artisanal wine business, and they have orders from multiple stores and restaurants for their wine.”

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When the workday is finished, step inside the historic farmhouse via the foyer, which leads to the cozy living room. A woodstove and hardwood floors provide the quintessential Maine aesthetic. There’s a family room off the living room, as well as an office that could easily function as a fourth bedroom. In the spacious kitchen, you’ll find classic wood cabinets, an L-shaped island with bar seating, and an arched brick entrance to the sunken parlor, which also has a woodstove. French doors lead outside.

“It’s very cozy, very quaint,” Wiltbank said. “Anyone who walks in here could move in tomorrow, and it would be ready to go.”