At a recent wine tasting, exclusively North Carolina wines, I was excited to introduce guests to such unique (at least unique to North Carolina) wines as Roussanne, Tempranillo, Montepulciano, Vermentino, Zinfandel, and Tannat.
Before we ended with Old North State's gothic Tannat, I began where most wine enthusiasts first began their journey: With something pink. The tasting started with two blush-colored wines. While the white Zinfandel craze has faded and most Boomers long aged out of Mateus, there's still plenty of blush marketed, utilizing such well-known vinifera as Merlot and Pinot Noir.
Leading off were two different blush wines - Round Peak Vneyard's rose against Duplin Winery's Hatteras Red. I paired them to make a point: The War Between the Grapes continues, depending on if you hail from Down East (where Scuppernong, Carlos and Noble reign) or the western Piedmont (home to Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Viognier.
Round Peak's rose was crafted from Yadkin Valley Cabernet Franc, storied European vinifera also found in the finest Bordeaux. It was crisp, dry, refreshing - perfect picnic fare. Duplin's Hatteras Red was from the Muscadine grape family. It was jammy, sweet, riotously exotic aromas - and to hear some tell it, perfect picnic fare.
Polar opposites in style, yet each claims a distinct camp of camp followers. Duplin's Hatteras Red is likely the top-selling North Carolina wine in North Carolina, which helps explain why North Carolina has moved up to the 9th largest wine producer in the nation.
Traditional European vinifera and Muscadine will continue to vie and claim adherents. And when you throw in wines produced here from French-American hybrids (Chambourcin, Traminette), native Labrusca (Niagara), fruit wines (blackberry, strawberry) and "kit concentrate" wines, North Carolina's wine brand is best painted as abstract.
Katy and Dr. Dennis Torney are looking for help, specifically someone who likes laboring in the vineyard.
More specifically, their one-acre vineyard in Summerfield, home to Merlot, Viognier, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Petit Manseng and Chambourcin.
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And they're looking for someone eager to convert that sweat-of-the-brow labor into their own finished wine.
"We're looking for a hobby winemaker who likes control in the vineyard," says Katy Torney. "It's not for the faint of heart. It is a lot of work."
Yes, tending a vineyard means pruning, hedging, spraying, leaf pulling and myriad other tasks. There are days when the weather is cold or wet or blazingly hot and humid but still the vines beg attention. There are bugs and fungus to fight.
Blessedly, there's a deer fence around the established vineyard and the Torneys have netted their acre against birds.
For many years, the Torney's enjoyed a quid pro quo relationship with Scott Lawrence, an award-winning amateur winemaker who made headlines year after year in the Piedmont with some remarkable wines from Torney vines. He tended the vineyard and made wines, some of which showed up on the Torney table.
These days, Katy Torney says, Lawrence needs a break, though he's still willing to provide counsel and mentor the next wanna-be grape grower.
Katy says her husband is from California and missed seeing vineyards so he planted vines, first in north Greensboro and later near Pleasant Ridge and Carlson Dairy roads. "We just like watching things grow and putting it on our table. We live on a farm. We've raised our own cattle. There have been times when we've put on our own table our beef, our vegetables, our flowers - and a bottle from our vines."
So if you're a roll-up-the-sleeves-hard-core gardener who wants to learn growing grapes and craft that fruit into wine, here's an opportunity on a small scale. But I have to warn you: I've harvested an acre of grapes. And it really makes you appreciate how one acre is not that small.
If you think you got game, Katy Torney wants to chat. Call her at 336-644-6828.