Grape harvest begins

By VIKKI BROUGHTON HODGES
The Dispatch

Along the rolling hills of Hampton Road in northwest Davidson County, the sight of a tobacco field is not uncommon.

But across the road from one tobacco field is an unexpected vision – a large home atop a hill surrounded by about 25 acres of grape vines being harvested by a little more than half a dozen people.
Monday was the first day of harvest at NASCAR team owner Richard Childress’ Estate Vineyard. The vines at his home were planted two years ago.

Mark Friszolowski, general manager and winemaker of Childress Vineyards, said the eight to 10 tons of grapes being picked from the estate will be used to produce the first vintage from Childress’ 35,000-square-foot winery at the intersection of Highways 52 and 64 West in Lexington, which will open this fall.

The grapes from the 25 acres of vineyards surrounding the winery were just planted this spring, so it may be a couple of years before that harvest takes place. A third source of grapes for Childress Vineyards will be Gianni Vineyards in Summerfield near the home of Greg Johns, who is Childress’ business partner in the winery.

The winery is expected to produce about 12,000 cases of wine this year, including five premium varietals, a red blend and three house wines.

The rest of the grapes for the 2004 vintage are being purchased from vineyards in Asheboro, Mt. Gilead, Lewisville, Pinnacle and Walnut Cove, among others.

“We have close to 170 tons contracted this year,” Friszolowski said, adding that the winery is purchasing grapes from about eight or nine growers who have vineyards ranging in size from three to 20 acres.
But Friszolowski said the harvest at the Childress estate vineyard will grow to about 80 tons next year.

“It’s actually very unusual to get any grapes the second year,” Friszolowski said, noting that it takes three years for vines to fully mature.

He and Matt Chobanian, vineyard manager for Childress Vineyards, both pronounced 2004 to be a very good year.

“I’ve been in this business 22 years, and the last best year was 1997, but I think this is going to be another one,” Chobanian said. “I think it’s going to be the best of the best.”
They said the combination of warm weather and just the right amount of precipitation made conditions nearly ideal for an early harvest this year.

Not that they didn’t encounter some challenges – such as birds that like to eat the grapes. “Bird cannons,” small devices set among the vines that make the sound of cannon shots at timed intervals, helped scare some of them away.

“The birds don’t eat them unless they’re ripe,” Friszolowski noted. “They’re really your first indication it’s time.”
He explained that other, more scientific gauges that measure the sugar level of the grapes, as well as other factors such as acidity, let them know when it’s the right day to start picking. The grapes at the estate vineyard includes merlot, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, chardonnay, viognier, vidal blanc and chardonelle, a cross-breed of chardonnay and vidal.

In addition to birds, unpredictable weather can be a challenge to grape growing, Chobanian said. Too many late afternoon showers can make the water-absorbing clay soil too moist, he noted, especially in low-lying areas. Early morning frost in low-lying fields in the winter is another challenge, but a tall wind machine in one of the fields helps take care of that.

Chobanian noted that he employed a unique trellis system, about two feet higher than most, to give grapes longer “hang time” to fully ripen and improve the flavor profile at the end of the growing cycle.
As he discussed purchasing grapes from other vineyards to meet production goals, Friszolowski said he would like to see more vineyards in Davidson County. As he looked across the road at a tobacco field, he said, “I’d love to see that planted in vidal.”
Friszolowski said he believes more vineyards will develop locally as demand for grapes grows due to the Childress winery and other wineries in the Yadkin Valley.

“I think once the winery opens, you’re going to see a lot of people wanting to plant grapes,” he said.

Amy-Lynn Albertson, horticulture extension agent with the Davidson County Cooperative Extension Service, confirmed that the interest is growing. She said her office has offered annual seminars each year about what it takes to operate a vineyard, with about 40 people attending in 2002, 65 in 2003 and 70 this year.

“I’ve probably done 20 site evaluations just in the past year,” she said of visiting possible vineyard sites to determine their viability.
Albertson said there are now four small vineyards in the county, but the oldest one is only four years old and the only one producing grapes yet, noting the typical three years it takes for vines to mature.

“It’s definitely a long-term investment and very expensive to get into,” she said, noting that she recommends budgeting $10,000 per acre to get a vineyard off the ground. “It’s also labor intensive. All that pruning and harvesting is by hand.

“There’s a lot of romance to growing grapes – I try to dispel that,” she said, noting that most of the seminar attendees are not from an agricultural background. “You can’t be a weekend farmer. But even after the budget talk, people don’t walk out.”

Albertson said some former tobacco farmers, especially in Yadkin County, have been successful in switching from the golden leaf to grapes, but she noted “it’s not the easy money tobacco is.”
“I don’t agree it’s the new tobacco,” she said. “I’m not sure we’ll ever see a golden crop like that again. But it can be an alternative for some people.”

Albertson said the Piedmont is actually well-suited for vineyards, especially the northern part of Davidson County, because of its soil type and elevation.

“We have great soil and good climate,” she said, noting that the number of wineries in the state has doubled in the past four years.
“That has made a lot of people think about grapes that hadn’t before,” she said. “And I think it’s great that Childress Vineyards is open to the idea of buying local grapes. We’re really excited about the new winery.”

70-acre complex at intersection of Highways 52 and 64 West would boost Lexington tourism

By VIKKI BROUGHTON HODGES
The Dispatch
January 14. 2003

Will the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina become as well-known as the Napa Valley in California?

Don’t laugh. A lot of people in the area believe that if you build wineries and vineyards in the area, the tourists will come. And one of those people happens to be Richard Childress, president of Richard Childress Racing Enterprises in Welcome. The NASCAR team owner, along with business partner Greg Johns of Greensboro, plans to develop a 70-acre tract at the intersection of Highways 64 West and 52, just west of Lexington, for an approximately 25,000-square-foot winery, a hotel, restaurant and gift shop, leaving about 25 acres of the total for a vineyard.

“I know a lot of people would say, `Why grow grapes in North Carolina?”‘ Childress said in his Welcome office Monday afternoon. “But before Prohibition, North Carolina was one of the top grape-growing states in the nation.” North Carolina already has 25 wineries and 224 vineyards that produce more than 500,000 gallons of wine annually, according to the North Carolina Grape Council. Nationwide, North Carolina is ranked 12th in wine production and 15th in grape production and acreage. “I just think it’s an exciting business, and an exciting time to be in the wine business,” Childress said. Just last month, the Yadkin Valley became the first region in North Carolina to receive the federal American Viticultural Area designation, which will make the region’s wines more easily identifiable to consumers and provide a boost to the state’s burgeoning wine industry.

The designation – which means the area has the right soil, climate, topography and sun exposure for growing wine grapes – becomes official Feb. 7 and covers 1.4 million acres of land in the Yadkin Valley, which includes all of Surry, Wilkes and Yadkin counties and parts of Davidson (the northwest quarter), Davie, Stokes and Forsyth counties.

There are already six bonded wineries in the Yadkin Valley AVA, including Shelton Vineyards in Dobson, the largest and the one that filed the request for the designation, RayLen Vineyards in Mocksville, Westbend Vineyards in Lewisville, Hanover Park Vineyard in Yadkinville, Rag Apple Lassie Vineyards in Boonville and Windy Gap Vineyards in Ronda. “I’d put Shelton, RayLen and Westbend wines up against some grown in the Napa Valley,” Childress said. “We’re really excited about it. I can envision, one day, people taking a tour of the Yadkin Valley wine trail. I’d like to see 25 wineries throughout the Yadkin Valley.”

What Childress envisions in Lexington is a state-of-the-art winery that has regular wine tastings for tourists, maybe a cheese shop or deli, and a gift shop that sells a variety of wine accessories, such as glasses. He said he and Johns are negotiating with hotel chains and restaurants for those developments on part of the property closest to the highway interchange. Also, he said they have discussed a small amphitheater for concerts and a special events building for parties and weddings, as well as walking trails through the property.

“We’ve got a lot of things on the drawing board,” he said. “But it could make a real economic impact on the community. It will bring some jobs and should boost tourism. … If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right. It’s going to be a place Davidson County can be proud of.”

Childress said the initial investment in the complex should be from $6 to $8 million and could be up to $10 million with expansions. He said he didn’t have a specific number in terms of jobs that would be created, but said the winery alone would likely employ at least 20 people initially. At this point, he said, it would be hard to calculate how many people a hotel, restaurant, gift shop and other services might employ, not to mention other businesses that would gain from an increase in tourism.

Childress said construction on the winery could begin this year but grapes will not be planted until April of this year. In addition to the 25 acres at the winery site, he said he is having 30 acres of eight varieties of grapes planted on the property where he lives off Hampton Road in the northwestern section of the county. Johns is planting about 10 acres of grapes on property he owns in Summerfield, just north of Greensboro.

“We’ll be buying grapes from other vineyards, too,” Childress said. While it will likely be the spring of 2004 before the winery opens, Childress noted, “I’ve been known to get on that fast track before.” If the winery is ready before the grapes are, he said, they can buy from other vineyards to get started and probably will have to anyway as the winery business grows.

Childress Vineyards wine will likely sell for between $12 and $30 a bottle, he said. “It has to be something I’d enjoy myself,” he said. “If you make a quality product, then the return business will do well. And if we’re going to put our name on it, it’s going to be quality.”

Childress acknowledged that it might seem ironic that someone from the world of NASCAR, where the stereotypical fan is a beer-drinking “good ole boy,” would be interested in the wine business, but he noted that more people are drinking wine socially and less hard liquor. In addition, many race fans are women, who tend to drink wine. He also noted the rise of large wine superstore chains such as Total Wine, which recently opened stores in Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

“That tells you about the growth of the market,” he said. Childress said he is already in the tourism business through his RCR Museum and Gift Shop in Welcome, which is undergoing a major expansion and will open this spring. The new complex includes a major section devoted to the late Dale Earnhardt’s career, including the display of more than 30 No. 3 race cars.

Childress said the current museum draws close to 50,000 visitors a year now, and he expects that number to at least triple when the new one opens. He also anticipates having a shuttle run between the museum and the winery. “I want it to be a place where people have fun,” he said of the winery. He said he and Johns and their wives have visited wineries in California and New York before or after NASCAR races and always enjoyed the experience.