Hometown Pride Tour: Cotton Blossom Winery

MARLOW, Okla. (KAUZ) - Our Hometown Pride Tour of the Duncan area takes us to Marlow, Oklahoma on Wednesday.

It’s a small town full of charming shops and the Cotton Blossom Winery.

“It was something I did on my own just to decompress in the evenings and things like that just for fun and that grew and grew until I had taken up my entire home office with wine making at the house and my wife said enough, that’s it, you’re not making anymore wine so I said let’s open a winery,” said Ryan Bell, owner of Cotton Blossom Winery.

That hobby has blossomed into a three year long labor of love.

“We were kinda nervous about opening in such a small town because we didn’t know how the town would respond and the response has been fantastic,” said Bell. “People make little day trips down from the city all the time which is super cool and they’ll come down and eat at our local restaurants and stop by the winery.”

Because of that community support, the Cotton Blossom Winery has been able to move into their second location in downtown Marlow; an old candy shop where they continue to squeeze the grapes that will be used to make their 27-year-round and four seasonal wines.

Hometown Pride Tour: Wine’n on the Chisholm Trail

“It’s really turned into just a thing of joy,” said Bell. “It’s something that friends can sit around, share at dinner, by the pool and things like that. It always seems like happy memories come with that.”

Memories that the Cotton Blossom Winery hopes to share with those who attend the Wine’n on the Chisholm Trail by the glass or the bottle.

“Cotton Blossom is the only winery from Stephens County that will be there so we’re grateful that they continue to be partners with us, not only do they bring fabulous wine but they have an awesome gift shop they contributed to our guarantee auction this year,” said Destiny Ahlfenger, executive director of Main Street Duncan.

Just one of the many ways the community helps the winery and others small business grow.

“That’s how we are able to provide grants for them, like our micro-signage grants or our vibrancy grants, but it’s also an economic developmental tool it generates sales tax for our city,” said Ahlfenger.

“People get to sample different wines so it’s a great keeping it a local vibe and it’s really just a fun weekend,” said Bell.

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