COLRAIN — A third-generation Colrain resident is looking to share a bit of history with visitors — through wine.

Betty Ringwood and her husband, Chris Pelletier, have opened Redneck Wine LLC at 364 Jacksonville Road after spending six years homebrewing with local ingredients.

Notably, none of their wine is made from grapes. Their primary product, a maple syrup wine, is made from syrup produced at Colrain resident Howard Phelps’ sugarhouse. They mix the maple syrup with water and champagne yeast to make a drink with flavors reminiscent of the area where it originates.

“It tastes of Colrain,” Ringwood said.

The couple started homebrewing when a friend told them he couldn’t find blueberry wine. Ringwood remembered being taught how to make fruit wines as a child by her grandfather and decided to give it a shot.

Ringwood said she has taken her grandfather’s recipes and updated them to work with modern equipment, making a product rooted in the history of farming in Colrain.

“Back in the old days, in my grandfather’s time,” she said, “whatever you didn’t sell would turn to pies, preservatives or, in many cases, alcohol.”

The project started out small, with Ringwood and Pelletier giving bottles of wine away as gifts to neighbors. Redneck Wine has since established itself, with the couple getting a license to sell in Massachusetts. The name comes from the signature red label around the neck of each of their wine bottles.

Available flavors include cranberry, mango, maple, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, blackberry, black raspberry, pumpkin, pear, plum, lemon/lime, blackberry/blueberry, watermelon and hazelnut. They are currently experimenting with olive wine.

Many of the ingredients are sourced straight from Colrain. The blackberries were picked from their backyard, and the strawberries and blueberries are sourced from local farms.

The couple mashes the berries before adding water. Pelletier then combines the mixture with yeast.

“I’m the muscles,” he said.

They then let the concoction ferment in their living room and bottle it to sell to interested customers.

Ringwood explained her home used to be her grandfather’s chicken farm. The legend goes that her grandfather would sell chickens to be shipped to cities by the truckload, and each truck would have moonshine made in Colrain hidden under the goods. Making fruit wine, she argues, is continuing the farming legacy of the area.

“I don’t want to see this place with a bunch of young kids who don’t know anything about Colrain. I want people to understand that there is a lot that went on here,” Ringwood said. “We are losing our farms. We need to see Colrain come back. We need Colrain to be the prosperous little town in the hills that is nice and quaint and fun to live in.”

Ringwood said that starting the wine business supports local farmers and gives travelers a reason to stop in town.

“I’m 66 years old. I should be retired, but instead I started a business,” Ringwood said. “I love talking to people who come in and telling them what this place is about.”

Reach Bella Levavi at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.