Community Highlights: Meet Ashlee McElwain of Merry Family Winery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlee McElwain.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I had heard that someone in my family had a winery so for my 40th birthday I decided I wanted to go visit the winery. So my husband and I drove down to Bidwell Ohio. We introduced ourselves to the owners-Tim amd Lisa Merry and during our visit one of the owners asked if we would be interested in taking over. They wanted to retire in about three years and they would like to keep it in the family, I immediately called my daughter to ask her if she would like to buy a winery with me and told her what was going on. Of course, we spent the next three years preparing for buying the winery and here we are! We purchased the winery January 31 of 2025.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Change has always been a huge struggle and we definitely love our comfort zone so uprooting our whole family from the lives they had was very difficult. Planning for this move and major life change has been the hardest challenge. There is a lot to learn in the Wine industry along with a lot of work.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Merry Family Winery?
The Merry family winery was the Jewel Evans’ grist mill prior to transforming into the winery. The winery is family owned and operated by my daughter and myself. We produce and bottle all of our wines on site. We have not only an amazing Wine selection, but also wine slushies. We believe in the quality of our wines and we have had several that have never liked Wine or had reactions to others that can drink and enjoy our wines. At the Merry family winery we have approximately 30 wines at any given time ranging from dry to sweet. We have special events, such as paint and sips and live music. We do winery tours and tastings so you can fall in love with the Merry family winery just as we did.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I have several favorite childhood memories, but I remember in particular going to my grandmothers house and picking grapes off of her grape vines and the flavor was amazing and not like you get currently in the grocery store

Contact Info:

• Website: https://merryfamilywinery.com
• Instagram: Merryfamilywines
• Facebook: Merry Family Winery