Winery coming to Pearland

With boxes packed, Dionisio Winery owner Jimmy Aranda is set to move his business from this downtown Houston location to Pearland. The grand opening for the winery, the city's first, is scheduled for Feb. 27. With boxes packed, Dionisio Winery owner Jimmy Aranda is set to move his business from this downtown Houston location to Pearland. The grand opening for the winery, the city's first, is scheduled for Feb. 27. Photo: Pin Lim, Freelance Photo: Pin Lim, Freelance Image 1 of / 80 Caption Close Winery coming to Pearland 1 / 80 Back to Gallery

With an elbow resting on the bar surface, Jimmy Aranda scans the décor: tall white vats, a rustic wine cellar and a legion of moving boxes full of reds, rosé and fruit wines.

He has built it all from scratch, but now he's ready for a new beginning.

Aranda taught himself how to make wine as a way to spend more time with his family. Giving up his corporate career to go out on a limb with no prior experience, he opened Dionisio Winery at 2110 Jefferson St. in downtown Houston in 2011.

Now Aranda, 38, is moving the business to 2635 Miller Ranch Road in Pearland, where it will be the city's first winery when it opens this month.

"I said Pearland needs something different; we've got enough (food) chains," Aranda said, recalling a conversation with the Pearland Convention & Visitor's Bureau. "Residents want to see something for the adults."

A Galena Park native who now lives in Pearland, Aranda often references his youth when describing how he conducts business.

"You dress the way you want to be treated," said Aranda, who was dressed in a beige, three-piece suit. He was echoing a phrase his mother emphasized throughout his childhood.

His mother, a school bus driver, would go off route just to drop him off at school. She eventually withdrew him and his sister, Karen, from high school to be homeschooled in an effort to keep them away from gangs.

More Information Want to go? What: Dionisio Winery Where: 2635 Miller Ranch Road #103. Pearland, TX 77584 Details:http://www.dionisiowinery.com/, 713-906-2499, www.facebook.com/DionsioWinery, DionisioWinery@gmail.com

Aranda received his GED from San Jacinto College. He'd worked long hours and rose to become a manager at AT&T, but decided to give it up after 13 years because he felt he worked too much to see his kids. He regrets missing his only son's first footsteps.

He chose to make wine because his wife, Clarice, a speech pathologist at the University of Texas, loved it; although he said he'd never had much of a taste for it.

He also lacked the experience or connections in a competitive industry to be taken seriously by banks or potential investors. Five years later, relentless networking and plenty of trial and error has positioned Aranda to where he says he's pressed to keep up with demand for his award-winning wine.

The Dionisio label - named after his grandfather - offers cabernet sauvignon, pomegranate zinfandel, black cherry pinot noir, green apple riesling, peach chardonnay and merlot among others. Bottles go for $30 to $150 each.

"It feels good to go from 800 to 3,000 square feet," Aranda said with a chuckle.

"Right now the production side of the new space is done. We'll stain the floor and then (start) to move the tanks, too."

In the new winery, the tasting room and the wine production space will each fit up to 150 guests. There'll be a VIP room that holds up to 10 people for private parties and corporate meetings, and the site has more than 3 acres of outdoor area to host events like weddings.

Aranda anticipates the last phase of work to be complete in the next week or so.

On Feb. 13, he has a soft opening planned, with a grand opening scheduled for Feb. 27.

Aranda mentioned Bakfish, a brewery which recently moved to Pearland's east side, as an example of how the city is changing.

City Councilman Derrick Reed said the winery will add a unique attraction to Pearland.

"There are wine bars but no winery, unless you go a ways outside of the city," Reed said. "The goal is to bring more people to the city to visit and maybe bring their business here, too."

Carol Artz-Bucek, the president and CEO of the Pearland Chamber of Commerce, said she's excited about the winery because she expects it to bring tourism to the city and more choices to its residents.

"It's something fun," she said.

Dionisio Winery grossed between $360,000 and $380,000 last year. Moving forward, Aranda said he wants "to get into as many retail chains as possible," adding that he plans to contract a distribution company before year's end.

He has plans to expand his five-person staff during the summer and he's also in talks with Dawson High School for a partnership with its culinary class.

His wine is available for purchase from the winery or online. It's also available in H-E-B and in wine bars and tasting rooms as far away as Texarkana.

He said the move will not affect the annual Pearland Wine & Food Festival, which he created in 2011 as a means to introduce his wines to the community and to provide a sampling of other Texas wines.

He's describes the new beginning as a gamble but said he's optimistic.

"I want to be in position so that my family is taken care of," he said.

"All I've done is hustle to get to this point; so all I can do is pay it forward."