Cellardoor Winery will permanently close its Portland location because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Owner Bettina Doulton announced the closing in an email Friday, saying that Cellardoor on Thompson’s Point will close on Sept. 30. The facility will host its last wine tastings – by reservation – on Sept. 19, she said. The venue is licensed as a restaurant and has been able to host some tastings, at tables, following state guidelines for social distancing and crowd limits. But it has not been able to seat people at bars and host enough people to make the business feasible, Doulton said.

Cellardoor’s main location in Lincolnville will remain open for “socially-distanced” tastings in the dining room, on decks and in the vineyard. The vineyard will continue to produce wine, which it sells in retail stores around Maine.

Doulton called closing the Thompson’s Point location after four years “heartbreaking.” She said in the email that the facility has not been able to host large gatherings like food and wine pairings and parties.

“Unfortunately, as we knew (and loved) them, gatherings are not feasible currently or in the near future,” Doulton wrote in the email.

Owners of another coastal Maine winery announced in late August that the pandemic had convinced them to speed up plans to sell the business. Holly and Elmer Savage said they had been thinking about selling the 15-year-old Savage Oakes Vineyard & Winery in Union for some time and move on to something else, but COVID-19 helped convince them to act sooner rather than later.

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