About Us

Meet the Winemakers

For the owners of Island Winery, wine is not just their business. It is a labor of love. Loren and Georgene Mortimer met while students at Ithaca College in the heart of the Finger Lakes Wine region of New York State. Visiting wineries and vineyards in that region, they developed both a lifelong love for each other and a passion for world class wines.

Georgene grew up in a big Italian family where home winemaking was a way of life. Naturally when she and Loren started a family they continued the tradition. "It was a great way for the family to spend time together," Georgene remarked, "the kids used to love getting messy crushing and pressing the grapes." In the spring of 2000, Loren and Georgene decided to turn their family pastime into a family business and started their own winery, Westfall Winery, at the Mortimer family's historic Westfall Farm in Montague, NJ.

Georgene Mortimer used her background in biology, geology and her PhD in Environmental Science to perfect their wine making skills and soon they began to produce award-winning wines.

Being that Westfall Winery was a seasonal business and was closed in the winter, Loren and Georgene would spend the cold winters in their favorite vacation place, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Falling in love with this beautiful Island community, Loren and Georgene opened Island Winery in 2006. They divided their time between the two wineries for 10 years.

They now have settled full time in Hilton Head and are devoting 100% of their time to the Island Winery. They are excited about all the possibilities this will hold. They are currently experimenting with small batch limited release wines and look to expand into other areas as well.