How Wellness Sessions Shape the Guest Experience at the Vineyards

We talk about turning a Pennsylvania vineyard into a place where people truly slow down through breathwork, nature, and small intentional gatherings. We also share how our winery supports a nonprofit mission that bridges human and animal welfare so every visit can give back. 

• Jennifer’s healthcare background and why mind body spirit matters
• Using the Endless Mountains landscape to help guests reset
• Wellness events through hikes foraging workshops and sunset moments
• Starting a wedding day with meditation a walk or simple breathwork
• Digital detox made easier by limited cell service
• Trying yoga Qigong Kundalini writing workshops and what actually helps
• Making wellness welcoming for beginners and letting people participate their way
• Building a sustainable model where vineyard proceeds support rescue work

You can call or text 267-785-3814 or visit EndlessMountainsVineyards.com to learn more about upcoming events and vineyard experiences.

To learn more about Endless Mountains Vineyards visit:
https://www.EndlessMountainsVineyards.com/
Endless Mountains Vineyards 
296 Vineyard Lane  
Falls, PA 18615
267-785-3814  

Transcript

Welcome To Endless Mountains Vineyards

0:00

Welcome to the Endless Mountains Vineyards Podcast, where the landscape slows you down, the wine invites conversation, and every visit tells a story. Join your host, Jennifer Estelle, owner and operator of Endless Mountains Vineyards. Nestled in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains, this podcast is an invitation into intimate vineyard experiences, small gatherings, meaningful events, and stories that live where people, purpose, and the land meet. Endless Mountains Vineyards, where life is grape and connection is intentional. When guests step onto the property, they often say the land itself feels like it exhales, and the wellness sessions are designed to help them exhale right along with it. Welcome, I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer here with Jennifer Estelle, the owner and operator of Endless Mountains Vineyards. Jennifer, it's so great to chat with you again. We love hearing from you. Thanks, Julie. Sam. Oh, thank you. So we could dive into something that guests ask about

Why Wellness Belongs In A Vineyard

1:10

a lot. How does the vineyard incorporate wellness sessions into the guest experiences? Yeah, so I mean, my background is in healthcare and I had some health issues along the way, which really made me check into all of it mind, body, and spirit. So when I started looking for land, I wanted it to be in a specific location, which would be north and the endless mountains. And the first time I pulled up to the vineyard, I was like, this is it. This is the spot. Um, it has a beautiful overlook of the Endless Mountains. Uh, we're nestled in the Appalachian Trail. We get a river view of the Susquehanna River, and then you start really grounding in when you get here, and there's just so much history that it's impossible not to just like disconnect, you know, to really check out. We have the best view of the sunset. So when we are incorporating some of our events, um if it is a little bit, you know, later in the day, I usually get a beautiful sunset, and people just stop and they're in awe of uh Mother Nature itself. So yeah, the way we incorporate wellness into the vineyard is through our events. Um we have hikes where we forage, we made uh grape wreaths, so we're using you know leftovers from the land to incorporate into what we're building. Uh people get to just check out, sip wine, learn about dogs, learn about what we're doing. So everything that we do here really does incorporate wellness. And when you do private events like weddings, do you incorporate like a lot of experiences for the wedding party where they can do, you know, some of the things that you mentioned? Yeah, so eventually this area will be our Airbnb space. So when people come for their events, they could have the whole day. But we usually do start off the morning with meditation or a flow or a walk. Everyone's different, you know. Some people are just here because it's a beautiful overlook and it's wine. And some people come for specific reasons to really kind of tap in and um just disconnect to the world and reset here. So I think resetting and really connecting with nature and everything we do is with intention, that pause, that breath. You don't have to do a 30-minute or an hour meditation. It could be just the quick five minutes of breath work

Unplugging Without Cell Service

3:50

to kind of get you reset for your day. And how do guests handle it too, if it's such a beautiful place that you have? But how difficult is for people to like get off the screen and you know shut down their phones or computers? Not hard because we don't have service. Perfect. That's perfect, actually, right? And so so you're sometimes you're forced into it. We do have Wi-Fi, but if you're not right next to the house, you're not getting it. Um when I first moved here, I was Verizon and very rural. It's T-Mobile. So not a lot of people have T-Mobile because it wasn't the top carrier, but in your rural areas, if you have T-Mobile, you usually do get better service. So that's not an issue. People like it's the issue. People are like, I can't I can't connect. And I'm like, because we don't have service for the first year. It was great, you know, because I moved here and I was Verizon. So, but when I needed to make a call, that's when it became a problem. But forcing people to kind of uh like disconnect, the power in that is when you leave, like you realize, wow, like got to unwind, I got to disconnect, and then you see how that really does benefit your overall health and well-being. Absolutely, even some people taking a break, not just work but social media. I mean, what a detox of the mind that could be, I imagine. And you know, you come from an intense corporate background, so I was curious too, even you know, obviously wellness and and healthcare are very important to you for a long time, but do you try all the sessions and did you have experience with any of the types of uh like the wide range of sessions that you do offer there for wellness? Yeah, before like practicing it. Oh yeah. I started practicing yoga about 20 years ago and then I became a yoga instructor in 2020. I'm not a big fan of teaching yoga. Um, I could do I could teach breath work and meditation because that's really where I found the most benefit. I try if we're having an event and we have some instructors, I try to join in on Qigong or Kundalini or anything that anyone's offering, even if we're doing like a writing workshop. But um, I'm also working when I have my events. So it depends on who's here. If I can hand off a dog and say, I really want to take Rosalie's Qi Yong class at seven, can somebody like check someone in or um and if I don't do it here, I make it a point to that's my reprieve. I have to do at least a Pilates class, a yoga class, a juice detox. I always have to be doing something for my mind, body, and spirit. Even if it's walking barefoot. You are in this, you are in the mix, and that's really cool.

Designing Events Around The Land

6:55

And you know, the natural landscape, obviously, like you were mentioning the different activities that people can do there. How did that set the tone for you? How you structured each session? Because you just looked at the lay of the land and you're like, I see that it's best purpose being this, or like, how did you because there's so much, right? There's so much to look at there. Yeah, there is. The guy that had it before me was his hobby, but where he left off is kind of where I picked up. So he had a specific area. We call it the circle that overlooks the south slope. And although I have 16 and a half acres, five of it is vines. So that was kind of already set, and then the other half is all woods and it's like a horseshoe. It starts at the top of the vineyard and horseshoes around, and it's a completely different vibe in the woods, and even from the north slope to the south slope, because the vineyard is all sun, and then in the woods is where you get, you know, a lot of your moss. It's like rainforest, it's a little buggy. But that's where we want the cabins and the dogs to be because it does give you like the best of both worlds when you're here to kind of uh uh see how how the land operates. And it kind of was like, or well, this is gonna be the vineyard side, this will be the nonprofit side, and then the circle is where everything merges. So we'll have a bathhouse and we'll have cabins and we'll have this area where everyone kind of connects and comes together. And then you're always free to either stay on agenda

Making Wellness Easy For Beginners

8:25

or feel free to roam the land. And then how do you personalize sessions for guests that are pretty new to wellness practices? Yeah, so some people, it's funny, you can tell. Not it's not funny, but you can always, you know, tell when somebody's uncomfortable because they'll, you know, stay on the outskirts so they're not too committed to the breath work, or they're the people that'll say, I'll watch the dog, and kind of walk around. And I think it's important sometimes just to hear because that's when everyone gets quiet. We connect to our breath. And sometimes even if you're unconsciously doing it, you're still getting the benefits of it. So that's why I think some people right away are like, I think I had a spiritual awakening here. And then it'll be days later where people will say, I just I felt different. I can't explain. And that's how what happened to me in my first yoga class. I'm like, why am I crying? What's happening here? And it's because I was connecting and I was grounding and I was resetting my central nervous system, and I was unaware of all of the baggage, you know, that your body hangs on to. So I think just show showing up um and meditation and yoga is not comfortable for everybody, but wine and sunset is. Oh, yes, yeah, absolutely. And you know, I say it like so now I'm saying it in each episode, but and the dogs, dogs and wine. All dogs, you can just sprinkle a little rescue dog in there, and it's the perfect combination. Love, love, love dogs. Um, and then, you know, a la last

Wine With Purpose Supporting Rescue Work

10:05

question for you quickly. All your wellness offerings, how does that support you the broader mission that you have too of connection and like you said, restoring, resetting and community, bringing people together. Is that part of it too? Is that part of the connection? I guess, you know, there's no right or wrong answer, but I think, you know, our mission behind the nonprofit is to help bridge the gap between human and animal welfare. And there's this bond and connection that we share. And sometimes people don't recognize it until it's introduced to them. So I always say the nonprofit came first and then the vineyard came, and it was just a way for us to make our nonprofit profitable because there's work in nonprofit. A lot of people think, oh, well, she's nonprofit, she's fine. No, there's a grind behind nonprofit, and I'm asking money for dogs. So I wanted a way that the nonprofit would be fed without having to ask or like beg for donations. And when I stumbled upon the vineyard and I was working with a business coach at the time, she was like, This is a great way to incorporate an LLC and a nonprofit, and everything we do at Endless Mountain Vineyards, a portion of our proceeds at the end of the year goes back to the nonprofit, which allows us to offer workshops for education, which allows us to help our neighbors spay and neuter their pets, which allows us to help our neighbors get the fence that they need so that they can be a responsible pet ownership and also provide them with the food and supplies and resources that our animals need. But at the same time, when you're taking care of somebody, if you're a pet parent or a human parent or just a caregiver, that bond that you are building, you know, taking responsibility for somebody else, I always say I went for every job opportunity I went after because I wanted to provide my dogs with a better life. So I adopted one dog and you know, I realized how expensive that was. And it helped me become a better person because I wanted to provide for my dogs. And then with that, I got into rescue and advocacy work and saw this huge gap. So I guess to answer the question in my roundabout ways is that that's how we incorporate wellness and human and animal welfare and everything that we do. Because when you take care of yourself, you're able to help take care of other people. No, absolutely. That and that is a great way to wrap it up. So true. Well, thank you again. We always appreciate you, and I know the dogs do too. So wonderful work.

Visit The Vineyard Next Steps

12:53

Thank you for spending time with us on the Endless Mountains Vineyards podcast. Whether you're discovering Pennsylvania wines, exploring the beauty of the Endless Mountains region, or simply looking for experiences that feel personal and grounded. Endless Mountains Vineyards offers something a little different. This is a place where wine brings people together with purpose. We'd love to welcome you to the vineyard, share a glass, and invite you into the experience. You can call or text 267-785-3814 or visit Endless Mountains Vineyards.com to learn more about upcoming events and vineyard experiences. Endless Mountains Vineyards, where life is grape and every visit gives back.