RAD Winery brings new life to fast-growing Corkscrew Road

RAD Winery sits like an oasis along Corkscrew Road, in what was once the middle of nowhere and is quickly becoming the middle of somewhere. Eleven miles east of Interstate 75 and a few miles west of Kingston — a development slated for 11,000 homes — visitors are greeted by rows of passion fruit and dragon fruit leading to a quaint, old-fashioned front porch.

Rockie and Allison Rick opened the winery last March, and it quickly has become a “Cheers”-like hub for the new gated communities along Corkscrew. Live music, food trucks, bingo and other events draw neighbors and newcomers alike.

Allison said one of the things they hear most is that people on this road just want things to do, and “we are an outlet for that.”

Carla Milisich and her husband, who live about a mile away in Verdana Village, visit the winery twice a month. It’s a neighborhood hangout for the community, she said.

Opening a winery in Southwest Florida made sense to the Ricks, as they already grow grapes and own two wineries in Michigan. Rockie grew up on a farm in southwest Michigan, where his father cultivated apples, cherries and peaches. With a degree in agricultural business and an MBA, Rockie turned to farming because he missed being outside. Instead of following the family tradition, he chose grapes.

“It was a little outside the norm,” he says. Allison noted that their backgrounds made the

winery a natural fit. “He got a degree in agriculture, but he also got an MBA. I got my degree in teaching. Wineries are the best mix of all three: business, farming and teaching what we feel passionate about. It all just fell together.”

Southwest Michigan, 90 minutes from downtown Chicago, is wine country, with more than 30 wineries near Lake Michigan. Rockie pointed out that the region lies along the same latitude as Napa to the west and France’s wine-producing regions to the east.

The Ricks began selling grapes to local winemakers in 2006, the year they married, and launched a winery tour business. They started making wine in their basement while Rockie took winemaking courses. By 2011, they began selling their own wine and eventually opened a winery to have a dedicated sales location.

The Ricks started small, crushing grapes with a basket press and corking bottles by hand. “You start small, and you slowly grow as you have more cash flow,” Allison says. 

Wine is capital-intensive, Rockie added. Their grape press in Michigan cost $250,000, and they have invested millions into the business. At RAD, they purchased just enough equipment to bottle their passion and dragon fruit wines.

They opened a second Michigan winery in 2017 but grew weary of the winters; they had always considered moving somewhere warm, though not this soon. Rockie is 47, Allison 42, and they have a 14-year-old daughter, Dylan.

Rockie’s family vacationed annually in Lake Placid. When he and his siblings were old enough to drive, they often visited Fort Myers Beach. He and Allison continued vacationing there, and when Rockie suggested moving somewhere warm, Allison proposed the Fort Myers area. But you can’t grow grapes there, Rockie said. They’d figure something out, Allison replied.

“We had to make the move and take the risk. It was a lot of relying on God. It was a big risk just to move down here because we still have our business up there,” she says.

The couple opened a wine-tasting room at Miromar Outlets to test the market, then began looking for a permanent winery location. “We wanted a place that was serene and relaxing, with a touch of farm feel,” Allison says.

While grapes wouldn’t grow in Southwest Florida, the couple planted passion fruit on their 10 acres. “I’m a farmer at heart,” Rockie says. Passion fruit grows on a trellis system, similar to grapes.

“We’re hoping to make some sparkling and more luscious wines with passion fruit,” Allison says.

Today, RAD Winery is more than a business — it’s a community hub, a weekend escape and a testament to following your passion, even when it means starting over in a new state.