When Joel Ritter and Mary Reshetar met, Ritter had the wine and Reshetar had the art. It was the perfect marriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As fianc\u00e9s, the two share more than creativity. Together, they blended their passions into Unwine Vineyards Bar & Art Emporium, a cozy spot at 309 E Third St. where customers can enjoy art, sip wine and explore crafted herbal goods.<\/p>\n
As Ritter and Reshetar launched their venture, they found their work to be less like labor and more like leisure \u2014 a realization that inspired the name \u201cUnwine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we went up to work, it seemed it was a chance to chill and just relax, so we came up with unwind,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cAs we were looking at the grapes one day it was kind of unwinding.\u201d<\/p>\n
But their partnership started long before they blended wine and art into their shop. They met in a classroom after bumping into each other while working at the same school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ritter teaches law enforcement to high school students at Upper Bucks County Technical School, while Reshetar is an educator with Workforce Development at Bucks County Community College.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As part of her job, Reshetar visits high school students to teach about career readiness and was assigned to one of Ritter\u2019s classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two hit it off, discussing their passions and competing in duathlons and triathlons before deciding to build a business together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s like my best friend, and it\u2019s weird, now we can almost finish each other\u2019s sentences,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cWe\u2019re like the yin and yang.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reshetar said she and Ritter are both passionate about their work with students and their creative pursuits. While they don\u2019t see eye to eye, they\u2019re committed to building their brand and rooting its foundations in Bethlehem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LIFESTYLEBAUMANPROFILEWINECOUPLE101925.jpg\")
Original artwork by Mary Reshetar fills the gallery-style walls at Unwine Vineyards Bar & Art Emporium. Reshetar, who has been an artist for more than 30 years, creates each piece using resins, stones and botanical elements. (Alexandra Bauman\/ B&W Staff)<\/p>\n
Ritter said they chose Bethlehem because it\u2019s an energized, up-and-coming area. He enjoys seeing people from different backgrounds come in and enjoy themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After growing up in the Southern Lehigh region, he began his career in South Bethlehem as a police officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s like coming back home,\u201d Ritter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To the couple, their business feels like their baby.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ritter said he feels like he\u2019s been making wine forever, and it\u2019s something he\u2019s always enjoyed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said if his wine was good enough for friends and family, it was good enough for the public. So he stopped cutting hay at his property in the Finger Lakes region in New York and planted grapes instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2012, he received his license to make wine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ritter said he prides himself on offering a \u201cwinery without the snobbery,\u201d but acknowledged that he had to play the game to enter certain industry circles. He took courses, some affiliated with Cornell University, which helped him enter the wine business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said it takes about seven to eight years to grow high-quality grapes. The Finger Lakes region relies on heavy snowfall from Lake Ontario because it insulates vines from freezing temperatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said on the East Coast it\u2019s nearly impossible to grow grapes organically because growers must fight mold, mildew and pests. Rather, the drier West Coast climate produces grapes with higher sugar content that results in stronger, richer wines.<\/p>\n
Ritter also said it\u2019s often easier to buy grapes from another grower and focus solely on the winemaking process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond the technical side, Ritter said the experience he creates for others is what matters most. He said Unwine offers customers the chance to purchase an original painting and enjoy a glass or bottle of wine without an expensive price tag.<\/p>\n
He said he wants the shop to feel like family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel that when people come in, you become part of our family, (and) that we\u2019re sharing a bit of us with them,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been geared toward trying to be part of something bigger than us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reshetar has been an artist for more than 30 years. She\u2019s sold her work widely, ran galleries and worked for an art collector whose collections included works by Jerry Garcia, John Lennon and other musicians.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reshetar was involved in art throughout highschool and college, attending Mansfield University and spending weekends on scholarship at the Moore College of Art and Design. Her undergraduate internship then sent her to Arizona to student-teach art on a Navajo reservation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout her life, she said art has been her therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what makes me feel calm and have less anxiety, and functioning in this world that\u2019s pretty chaotic,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reshetar primarily works in abstracts, working with resins and earth elements and mixing stones with botanical inlays on top of paintings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reshetar creates all the art in the shop but said she\u2019s open to featuring other artists if their work aligns with the store\u2019s mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pair originally opened an art and wine shop in Easton in 2019, but closed it due to COVID. They were supposed to sign a long-term contract for the storefront, but decided the location no longer made sense for the business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A friend who works in real estate introduced them to the landlords of apartment buildings in Bethlehem, which helped them land in the South Side.<\/p>\n
When customers walk in to Unwine, music is playing, candles are burning and artwork fills the gallery-style space.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reshetar is also an herbalist, selling magnesium sprays, non-toxic candles, loose-leaf teas and infused salves made with essential oils \u2014 all organic, biodegradable and sustainable. She makes everything from scratch.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LIFESTYLEBAUMANPROFILEWINECOUPLE101925-2.jpg\")
Handcrafted candles, teas, sprays and herbal goods line the shelves at Unwine Vineyards Bar & Art Emporium. Co-owner Mary Reshetar makes each item from scratch, offering customers organic and sustainable products alongside the shop\u2019s wine selection. (Alexandra Bauman\/ B&W Staff)<\/p>\n
As a mother of three, she said she was inspired to start selling the products because they helped her cope with her life\u2019s demands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maria Goicuria, a Bethlehem resident and friend of Reshetar, said when she first visited the Easton shop, Reshetar greeted her and treated her like family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have that instant connection with someone that you feel like you\u2019ve known them your whole life, maybe lifetimes \u2014 that\u2019s how I felt with her,\u201d Goicuria said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Goicuria said their connection wasn\u2019t about business \u2014 it was about community, family and shared interests. She fell in love with the place and keeps returning because it felt like home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reshetar said she hopes customers leave feeling inspired to return and bring their friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hope that people leaving say, \u2018I have never experienced a winery art place like that. It was unique, eclectic and special,\u2019 \u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Joel Ritter and Mary Reshetar met, Ritter had the wine and Reshetar had the art. It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[854,153,155,154,1197],"class_list":{"0":"post-36613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-6-minute-read","9":"tag-bethlehem","10":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","11":"tag-bethlehem-news","12":"tag-feature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}