Wine consumption in the U.S. has been declining in recent years. While the baby boomer generation drove wine consumption for decades, millennials and Gen Z are not following that trend.
The Bartlett Maine Estate Winery, which became known in the 1980s for its wine made from locally grown wild blueberries, is on the market for $1.795 million.
The Norwegian firm bought the former seafood processing facility, including a 100,000-square-foot complex on 94 acres, a year ago, in the midst of controversy around its proposal to farm 66 million pounds of salmon annually in Frenchman Bay.
Top among the proposals is a moratorium on the approval or renewal of net-pen fish farms. American Aquafarms’s applications for a 120-acre lease was nixed last year, but the company has said it would submit new applications as soon as possible.
The goal is to make the proposal for a salmon farm on Frenchman Bay acceptable within Department of Maine Resources criteria. “We’re not going anywhere,” said a company spokesperson.
While commercial fishing and aquaculture activities are part of the bay’s heritage, the latest proposal “is fundamentally different” from other activities, said opponents.
It’s too soon to speculate how the Norwegian company proposing the operation will proceed after the state nixed its applications last month, said a project manager.