Lockport native Cynthia West-Chamberlain has spent the past 15 years in a high-tech, fast-paced work environment. Her job was to market some of the most cutting-edge products in the computer world.

But when she was laid off earlier this year, that changed.

Now, she’s trading the innovation of modern computers for a process that has been around since 6000 B. C. — making wine.

“I’m going from virtual servers to vines and wine,” she said. “It’s a complete change.”

But not an easy one.

Her business plan has been fine-tuned, and her planned Black Willow Winery is listed in brochures for the Niagara Wine Trail.

But there is no Black Willow Winery — and it could be some time before there is.

It began as a simple dream: owning and operating a winery. In many ways, now West-Chamberlain’s life hardly resembles what it was before her dream stuck.

She’s traded a job title for the label of intern at Leonard Oakes Estate Winery in Medina. She prunes vines, harvests grapes, tests the wine and bottles it.

It’s a long, complicated process from soil to bottle, she has learned. Even if she opened Black Willow Winery tomorrow, it would be years before vines would be ready for harvest and winemaking.

Instead, she has lined up assistance from Domenic Carisetti, a professional winemaker in Niagara County who acts as a consultant for

three other Niagara Wine Trail operations. He would make the wine off-site until Black Willow is ready to produce its own wine with its own grapes.

Carisetti admitted he was reluctant to oversee West-Chamberlain’s operation because she had no prior experience in farming, let alone running a winery.

“It’s not for everyone,” Carisetti said. “There’s so much more than throwing grapes in the ground, making some wine and selling it. What you see on the surface is a small part of what it involves.”

Taking classes

But West-Chamberlain proved her commitment. She has enrolled in classes for enology, or the science of winemaking, and viticulture, the science of growing grapes for wine.

Carisetti will help get Black Willow Winery up and running, but West-Chamberlain will take over everything once the grapes are there.

“Doing all this, I realize how much I’m getting myself into,” she said. “But I still can’t imagine not doing it. It’s my dream, and you don’t just give it up. You’ve got to earn it.”

But without any land to grow grapes, West-Chamberlain’s new skills can’t produce any wine.

She and her husband, Michael Chamberlain, have good credit and a solid business plan. But the economy isn’t ripe for a couple like them — a couple that wants to start a new business in a field in which they have no background.

Most winery owners along the Niagara Wine Trail had prior experience farming before moving to wine.

West-Chamberlain has talked to seven lenders, all who refused her 38-page business proposition.

“They said two years ago I’d have the money in a heartbeat,” she said. “But it’s a new start-up, and no one wants to risk investing in a start-up.”

According to the Federal Reserve, 75 percent of the banks surveyed said they had tightened their lending standards for small-business loans since late last year.

So with no start-up capital, there’s no land or vines.

Her dream property on Coomer Road, with two distinctive black willow trees, was sold last week to another buyer — after eight months of negotiations, soil tests and assessments.

Now, she’s back to square one. She has to find a new piece of property and rewrite her business plan accordingly.

“I’m devastated — this is a major setback,” she said. “We were hoping to have closed on property and open in October of this year. Now we’re looking to 2010.”

Tough business

West-Chamberlain’s obstacles aren’t unique. Breaking into the wine business is tough, but there’s no shortage of interested parties, both in Niagara County and across the state.

New York went from having around 130 wineries in 1995 to 271 today, according to the National Association of American Wineries.

Nationwide, the amount of wineries has increased fourfold in the past decade.

The Niagara Wine Trail USA — a 56- mile stretch nestled between the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario that runs from Niagara Falls to the Orleans County line — began in 2002 with two wineries. Now, it has a dozen wineries that all host special events year-round.

Ann Schulze knows West-Chamberlain can’t waiver in her commitment if Black Willow Winery will exist. Schulze founded Schulze Vineyards & Winery in Burt with her husband, Martin, three years ago and has offered guidance to West-Chamberlain.

Particularly, applying for state and federal licenses can be a drawn-out process, enough to hold up the opening date of a winery, Schulze said. The work behind the scenes — office work and logistical planning — can be frustrating.

“Anyone you ask on the trail here would tell you the same thing: It’s a huge undertaking,” Schulze said. “You have to just go for it if you have that passion and dream.”

Support on the trail is there for newcomers like Black Willow Winery. Several wineries are a bigger attraction than a small group. And on the Niagara Wine Trail, the wineries collaborate, meeting regularly to plan events that will benefit all of them.

It’s that support that keeps West-Chamberlain pushing, whether Black Willow Winery opens this year or farther into the future.

“There are times I’ve thought I’m biting off more than I can chew,” she said. “But with the support of other winery owners and my family, I keep going. The thought of not doing this is more devastating than anything.”