Duplin Winery, billed as the “oldest and largest winery in the South,” is set to open in Panama City Beach this summer.

Duplin co-owner Jonathan Fussell told the Panama City News Herald he expects the PCB location on the Panama City Beach Parkway to open in May or June. The original timetable called for the winery to open in December, but that date has been pushed back multiple times due to staffing shortages for both the contractor and the winery itself.

“We are having a tremendously hard time hiring folks,” Fussell told the newspaper. “Our contractors are having the same issue. They’re dealing with the same thing we are, and because of that, they’re showing up at a job that needs 20 people (with) only four.”

Once open, the Duplin Winery’s Panama City Beach location will be the third, following Rose Hill, N.C., and North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

It will feature five tasting bars, a retail shop, wine slushy bar, fudge bar and a 13,000-square-foot pavilion. The winery is expected to employ more than 60 people once fully staffed.

According to the company, the winery is being built on property once occupied by the Hombre Golf Course, which closed in the wake of Hurricane Michael in 2018.

In 2020 Duplin purchased about 70 acres of the former golf course to build its $15 million facility. More than 20 acres of the property will be “dedicated to conservation and preserving the land’s natural beauty,” according to the company.

Duplin Winery, founded in the 1970s, is listed as the 36th largest winery in the U.S. by Wine Business Monthly Magazine and is the largest muscadine winery in the world.

Duplin grows its own grapes in North Carolina, and works with over 60 farming families to buy grapes in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi.

It plans to plant an additional 100 acres of grapes in the Panhandle region to support the new Panama City Beach location.