About 613 Wines

TESTING!
613 Wines is a winery specializing in pomegranate wines. We also create other fruit wines that have the same crafting and uniqueness as their grape counterparts. Our mantra is that fruit wines can be given the same consideration as grapes and we will treat our fruit wines with the same time, care, and respect that any upscale grape wine is given without question. We take pride in our quality and the healthiness of each wine.

What's In A Name?

The name 613 Wines originates from the lore about pomegranates in the Jewish tradition. They were said to contain exactly 613 seeds, which corresponds with the 613 mitvot (or commandments) of the Torah. This is why you may see pomegranates used in Jewish art and early Christian art.

We call our pomegranate wines and variations Punica (pronounced Pew-Nick-A), which comes from the genus name for pomegranates (as in Punica Granatum). Like what cider is to apple wine, we feel our pomegranate wines deserve a suitable name that gives them style and recognition.

Once Upon A Time...

"I originally started making Punica in 2003 as an extension of my love for pomegranates. They were intriguing to me, as a fruit buried deep in mysticism and lore, with a blood red juice and sweet tangy flavor; I just loved them! At first, this wine was for myself, to be made as a close relative to the Cabernet line, with medium body and tones of pepper and oak. However, this evolved into something totally different. Punica became the drink for those who could not imbibe the grape wines that so many people enjoy. Many of my close friends have allergies to wine, may it be to grapes, tannins, gelatin, or gluten; the recipe I crafted over the years has adapted to be completely hypoallergenic so that all of my friends may enjoy this wine."

"The road leading to this point has been a long and strange one. In the beginning, pomegranates were considered nothing more than an ethnic fruit with little value to the masses. This posed a certain problem in the early years since most grocery stores only carried 5-10 pomegranates at a time. For a gallon, 30 to 40 pomegranates are needed, depending on size of course, and we can see an inherent flaw in the equation. This meant I had to track down every supermarket in the area and buy out their entire stock of pomegranates, usually resulting in me driving to at most 10 locations to get enough. Of course, as a college student at the time, this whole operation was low budget, so the majority of my wines were made in plastic gallon water jugs with a stopper and using fish tube (clean of course) to rack it."

"Squishing the pomegranates was a disaster on an epic scale. On average, it takes about 20,000 seeds to produce just 1 gallon of pomegranate wine! Again, on a college budget, this meant cutting open all of the fruits, hand pressing them through a colander, and boiling the remains to get every last drop. Needless to say, the kitchen was obliterated and I would be marked for at least a week with purple/maroon skin up to my elbows. But what is art if the master suffers not?"

"Some time passes, jobs come and go, my wines are crafted mainly for gifts to family and friends… Then I enter the MBA program to experience a new adventure and as my time there was filled with new ideas and learning, I made some very good friends, one of which had a mind for wine like my own. Lee and I have spent most of our MBA in the same classes, becoming great friends, and I remember telling her about my wine once, saying, “I wanted to retire one day and have my own pomegranate winery”, her reply, “why wait?” From that moment on, we became business partners and with her incredible expertise, amazing business and marketing skills, and combined passion for wine, our business has taken on a life of it’s own, and we proudly nurture it into the extraordinary feat it has become."

- Shawn