#3 Private Company to Watch: LaBelle Winery

Three-Year Avg. Annual Growth: 65%
Headquarters: 345 State Route 101, Amherst
Product/Service: Winery, event centers, restaurants, golf, tasting rooms, and gift shops
Founder and Winemaker: Amy LaBelle
Founded: 2005
Total Number of Employees: 237
Website: labellewinery.com 

While others in hospitality were trying to survive the pandemic, Amy LaBelle decided to take a risk and expand her business beyond her Amherst winery, restaurant and tasting rooms by buying an events center and golf course in Derry in late 2020.

The gamble paid off and the Derry location has weddings booked out for the next two years already, and the corporate event business is growing. To attract guests during the winter, she developed a half-mile holiday light walk along the golf course, “LaBelle Lights,” which features 1.4 million lights and attracted 40,000 visitors last winter. She expects to see 60,000 visitors this year. “LaBelle lights is a sleeping giant,” LaBelle says. “It’s everything for our winter business. It’s helped us gain awareness for that property. There are still lots of people who do not realize we have that second location.”

LaBelle keeps looking to the future. In addition to renovating the golf course in Derry this year, LaBelle is planning to close the restaurant in Amherst for a week in January for what she calls a “mini renovation.” She will also attempt a national launch of her Winemakers Kitchen culinary line, which will include a rebrand and working with a copacker.

And there is growth on the horizon as LaBelle is considering creating 20 bungalows near her winery for brides and their guests. “I want to create space in New England that is the most awe inspiring, best hospitality experience,” she says. “I want a space for people to create awesome memories with people they love.

“I’m in a weird place in my life, I could stop here. We have enough. Do I really want to build more projects or dial it back? But I can’t really do that. I wouldn’t be good at that. I think we will keep going and develop more businesses. It’s the greatest, funnest thing.”