Wineries affected by coronavirus legislation

BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. - Michiana wineries also being affected by coronavirus pandemic.

We’ve heard in past weeks about restaurants and bars having to change to take out and losing business because of it and wineries are no exception. One owner tells ABC57 they’ve lost 90 percent of their business due to the coronavirus.

“It’s severely affecting us for sure, to the point that we hope we can make it through this. Our online sales and the support from locals have been strong still but the fact that we can’t have people out to most of our properties at all is pretty devastating,” Matthew Moersch, the CEO of Moersch Hospitality Group said.

He owns several wineries and a brewery in Michigan. Although the brewery can still do take-out, the wineries he owns are now sitting empty, relying on online sales to keep money coming in.

“Our employees have been dramatically affected. Unfortunately, we had to lay off a lot of our staff while we weather the storm,” he said. “We didn’t want to have to really anyone off but with 90% loss of revenue, we have to.”

Moersch said he hopes the pandemic gets under control by June because that’s the busiest time of the year for his company.

And once everything is back and running, he said they just want to make sure customers feel safe enough to come back.