Meet Pam Cloer | Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Pam Cloer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Pam, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind our success is our customers!

With a limited marketing budget, we rely heavily on word-0f-mouth. We love to see new customers come in (who usually live right down then road and never knew we were here) and enjoy themselves: drinking wine, roaming the vineyards, sitting on one of our beautifully landscaped patios or petting our horses and sheep. But most importantly, we love to see them come back and bring family, neighbors and friends. They help spread the word and help us stay in business!

We literally live where we work, so every customer is a guest in our home. Through the years, we have had strangers walk through our doors, become valued customers, but most importantly, they become friends. Some of our customers have gotten engaged at the winery, then had a bridal shower and now baby showers…they truly become part of our family. We watch their families grow and they watch ours grow.

What should our readers know about your business?
Cloer Family Vineyards started as a hobby thirty-two years ago. We bought the farm and decided to start growing grapes and making wine in our kitchen. Our first vineyard consisted of vinefera and French hybrid grapes and for years we forced them to grow in an environment that they were not well suited for. Fourteen years in, we decided to build the winery. However, we made the painful decision to pull up 3,000 vines and replant the vineyard with muscadine grapes. Muscadines are native to North Carolina, so they do extremely well, especially in our part of the state.

Farming is not easy and we’ve learned some hard lessons through the years, but we kept pushing through, and now we can share our passion and love for wine with others.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If I had a friend visiting the area, I’d take them to downtown Apex. It is such a quaint town with cute boutiques, charming stores and great restaurants. After shopping and eating, we’d get ice cream at Fresh, grab a beer at Southern Peak Brewery and then end the day with a glass of wine (or a wine slushy) at Cloer Family Vineyards!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We also wouldn’t be in busines without wonderful mentors, like Marek Wojciechowski (past owner/winemaker) at Chatham Hill Winery and Andy Zeman (owner/winemaker) at Benjamin Vineyards, who took the time to sit and talk with my husband (our winemaker) for hours about the wine making process and answering all his questions. I also have to mention Nancy Zeman, who sat and helped me fill out all the necessary federal paperwork. Again, without them, we wouldn’t be here today!

And I can’t forget my “She FARMers”, who run other local farms near me (Diana May/Jordan Lake Farms, Beth Farrell/Pack House Farms, Karen Szulewski/Farrell’s Creek Farm, Lisa Copeland/Jean’s Neighborhood Market, Heidi Watkins/Sun Star Farm School and Beverly Mooney/Millstone Creek Orchards) who help me nagivate agricultural and agritourism issues, help promote my business and partner with me for special events.

Website: https://www.cloerfamilyvineyards.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cloerfamilyvineyards/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cloerfamilyvineyards/

Image Credits
Kasia Hedley
https://www.kasiaheadleyphotography.com/