DAUFUSKIE ISLAND, SC
THE FRONT PORCH Neighborly News for Residents and Visitors
www.DaufuskieIslandFrontPorch.com
Holiday Issue 2015
Issue No. 86
Wine and Woodworks Open for Business
I
t all started 12 years ago with a visit to a small coffee shop in Connecticut. Mike Loftus, owner of Daufuskie Island Wine and Woodworks explains, “My kids and I answered an ad placed there for a kayak building class. It took about four months of sneaking off after school and on Saturdays, but on Christmas we all surprised my wife, Joanne with a 17 foot wooden kayak.” He was immediately hooked on woodworking and more specifically on wooden boat building. “In the years since, I tried to learn as much as I could about building things with wood,” Loftus says. “Three summers ago I convinced Bill Greenwood to take a two week course at the Wooden Boat School on the coast of Maine and we both really enjoyed it.” With plans to retire on Daufuskie, he and Joanne began thinking about building a woodworking shop 5 years ago. They later came up with the idea of selling wine and beer out of the shop. “We have always enjoyed finding good wine at reasonable prices,” Loftus says. “In recent years we have looked for wines made from organically grown grapes, usually from small vineyards. The recent surge in our country of small craft breweries fit right in to our ‘sweet spot.’ ” “We began searching for a company that could design a barn for us made from sustainable wood in a post and beam design and found what we wanted in the New England Barn Company based in northern CT,” Loftus continues. “What we have now is a very cool building where I can teach local people how to build some really neat small wooden boats and have some fun selling interesting wines and craft beers.” Loftus is still trying to figure out what the hours of operation for the Wine and Woodworks will be, but he is currently there most days from around 10:30am to 4:00pm. See WOODWORKS on page 2
Above: The “barn” of Daufuskie Island Wine and Woodworks on a recent morning. Below: A look inside the woodshop at Daufuskie Island Wine and Woodworks.