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By JOYCE McKENZIE The Tampa Tribune Published: June 4, 2008 |
Owner Has Mild Aspirations TEMPLE TERRACE - Whenever she sips on a glass of Tropical Riesling from Aspirations Winery, Janet Mixon feels as though she were watching a Florida sunset. "It's light, it's refreshing, and it takes me to a space and time that's beautiful and a wonderful way to end my day," said the owner of Mixon Farms in Bradenton, whose 14,000-square-foot gift shop is stocked with several varieties of fruit-infused wines from the winery on the edge of Temple Terrace. Aspirations Winery's owner, Michael Rice, along with full-time University of South Florida student and part-time helper Patrick Mitton, makes all 22 of the winery's selections on-site with crushed grapes harvested and shipped from vineyards around the world. |
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| Aspirations News Article | Bat Tower News Article | |
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group of residents committed to rebuilding a piece of the city's history
hopes others in the community will help toast them toward its success.
The Friends of Temple Terrace Parks and Recreation and the Temple Terrace Preservation Society have partnered with Aspirations Winery in a fundraising project to reconstruct the Bat Tower. It was built in 1924 on the banks of the Hillsborough River and destroyed by arsonists in 1979. The winery's owner, Michael Rice, is offering two wines under the Vin de Tour de Batte label: the Bordeaux-style red L'Collage and the orange-infused Temple Terrace Orange Riesling, in honor of the Temple orange. The bottles are priced at $12 each, $3 of which will go toward rebuilding what many residents say was Temple Terrace's greatest icon. The wines are available at Aspirations Winery, 5116 E. Fowler Ave.; Olde World Cheese Shop, 11001 N. 56th St.; Chuck's Natural Marketplace, 11301 N. 56th St.; and the Empress Tea Room, 6810 E. Fowler Ave. Temple Terrace resident Lana Burroughs, a member of the Temple Terrace Preservation Society, designed the wine's labels based on old photos of the Bat Tower near Riverhills Drive. It was one of 14 in the world designed by noted architect and Nobel Prize nominee Charles Campbell. |
