A Wyoming winery is taking on its neighbors after successfully closing the business due to a feud with the community’s homeowners association.
The popular Jackson Hole Winery, located in the rolling hills of the Cowboy State, is fighting to stay in business after angering its neighbors Robert Kirk and Viesia Kirk in 2022.
The Kirks won a lawsuit filed that year claiming it violated commercial activity rules, forcing them to cease all operations outside Teton County, despite having previously shipped thousands of crates around the world.
To stay alive, owner Bob Schroth claimed in a counter-filing that Kirk misrepresented his understanding of the winery in his lawsuit, in an effort to stay in business on a technicality.
Schroth said Kirk claimed he never knew about the winery’s success until 2020, but that Kirk bought a case of his wine in 2017 and left an email on his registry.
It comes amid a bitter dispute between the two, as Schroth related Cowboy stands daily that ‘you know, we’ve been around for years… they just decided to do something in 2022.’
Bob Schroth, owner of Jackson Hole Winery, is suing his neighbors after they closed his business
The Jackson Hole Winery, a popular spot in the rolling hills of Wyoming that reportedly brings in $2 million a year, has been restricted to selling only wines in Teton County after its neighbors complained
Schroth and his wife moved to his Teton County neighborhood in 1993 and began exploring opening their winery in 2011 while seeking approval from the homeowners association.
The property is subject to both Teton County land use regulations and the policies of the homeowners association, which ultimately approved the Schroth’s request for a petition to make wine in their barn.
But according to the Kirk’s lawsuit, the winery was never authorized for its current operations, which include “high-intensity wine production, bottling, packaging and shipping large quantities of wine to other destinations for profit.”
Jackson Hole Winery ships approximately 4,000 cases of wine around the world each year, hosting wine tastings and weddings at the scenic location and reportedly generating $2 million annually.
The Kirk’s lawsuit alleges that this violated the homeowners association’s rule on commercial businesses, which they say could harm the region’s status as a sleepy, affluent area.
Schroth told the Cowboy State Daily that he filed a countersuit on these grounds, finding the lawsuit trivial because the Kirks — who are reportedly a quarter-mile away from the winery — do not share a private road with them.
Following a judge’s ruling, the winery can still make wines and hold its own private wine tastings on site, but has been forced to close its previously successful operations
“They don’t drive by the winery. Our customers don’t drive past their house and therefore don’t see any traffic,” he says. “They can’t see the winery, they can’t hear it… It doesn’t really affect them at all.”
In his recent filing, Schroth added, “Plaintiffs will not suffer any harm from the operation of the winery, nor have they ever done so.”
The winery has faced restrictions before, including a conditional use permit from the Teton County Planning Department that limited them to 30 tasting room guests per day.
According to reported court documents, the Schroth’s did not shy away from expanding their winery despite having complaints filed against them dating back to 2013, including spending more than $600,000 on upgrades to the property.
The Kirk’s reportedly said their lawsuit was sparked by a trip to the winery in September 2020, when they were surprised to discover how large it was.
They then tried to prevent the province from reapproving their conditional work permit in 2022 — and when that failed, they filed a lawsuit at the end of the year to try to shut down all its operations.
The Schroths reportedly spent more than $600,000 upgrading the winery, despite it being against homeowners association rules
The lawsuit went to trial in March, when Wyoming District Court Judge Peter Froelicher ruled that the Kirks were correct in their assessment of the homeowners association rules.
His ruling also prevented anyone not from the Schroth family from working at the winery, which Schroth said could force him to lay off four employees.
In his last-ditch effort to stay in business, Schroth alleged that the Kirks delayed filing their lawsuit for two years and misrepresented when they learned of the winery’s expansion.
But Froelicher’s final ruling seems to make this a moot point, noting that Schroth’s argument about harm to the Kirk’s is not the reason for his ruling.
“Regardless of whether Jackson Hole Winery’s operations have a direct, physical impact on the Kirks, a large and growing commercial wine production, wine distribution, wine sales and wine marketing business is not in compliance with the covenant,” his order said. Cowboy stands daily.