Historic downtown Benton will soon have a winery. Charles Meyers resigned from his Federal job and began organizing wine festivals in Florida. He is now the owner of Forbidden Fruits and is ready to use his winemaking skills to stay in one spot and serve the community from the property at 300 N. Main Street. Some will recognize this address as the former Posey’s Gas Station. It’s currently occupied by Roseberry Landscaping, but they will relocate soon.
Meyers hopes to have over 30 varieties of wines, including mead, blackberry, peach, strawberry, chardonnay, cabernet and others.
“I chose to do this in Benton because I feel the direction our new mayor, Tom Farmer is going with revitalizing the downtown,” said Meyers. He’s on point and I definitely see the same potential he does. Working with the Downtown Benton Business Owners Association on the Third Thursdays events sealed the deal.”
Forbidden Fruits Winery owner Charles Meyers
From a design point, Meyers said he’s making changes inside but also wants to make the exterior very colorful and plans to add a wrought iron fence, along with outdoor seating under the canopy. The plans are to have an open wine bar, with free wine tasting as well as winedown events on the weekends.
“I can’t wait to bring this to our beautiful downtown district,” said Meyers. “I really wanted it opened before Christmas but it will be around the first of 2020.”
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Current site of Roseberry Landscape Services at 300 N. Main in historic downtown Benton. Click to enlarge image.