High Country Magazine
December Issue
& Visitor Guide
Now Available Online!
Click On The Corresponding
Cover To View The Latest Issue
Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05
July 24, 2008 issue
The New Napa Valley—No, Really
High Country Winegrowers Association Forms, Develops Initiatives
Story by Sam Calhoun
The High Country is now wine country—at least that’s the concept supported by the newly formed High Country Winegrowers Association and a recent wine tourism study conducted for the NC Wine and Grape Council by professors at ASU.
Talk of new vineyards popping up across the High Country has been commonplace for years now, so it was only natural that local vintners, vineyard owners and wine business experts would organize at some point in hopes of establishing the High Country as the new Napa Valley.
Sounds like a stretch? Not if you listen to members of the High Country Wine Growers Association, who held their first meeting on Sunday at Creston Vineyards at Cherry Tree Farm. Thirty vineyard owners, winery owners and landowners from Watauga, Avery Ashe and Johnson counties interested in the future of vineyards, wineries and agri-tourism in the High Country attended the event.
The event coincided perfectly with the release of a wine tourism study conducted for the NC Wine and Grape Council by professors at ASU. The study polled 925 visitors to North Carolina wineries and shed an optimistic light on the boost to tourism that North Carolina wineries are bringing to the state.
High Country Winegrowers Association
“We’re doing something in the mountains now that they said we couldn’t do,” said Dr. Lucien Wilkins, owner of Spencer Mountain Vineyards, located off Isaac’s Home Road in Cove Creek. “We’ve found that this area is Bordeaux and we should be able to grow superior grapes up here.”
At its first meeting, the High Country Winegrowers Association established a mission statement for its organization that includes winegrowers and those interested in viticulture who live in the five counties of western North Carolina and one county in eastern Tennessee that have mountain peaks exceeding 4,000 feet. The mission of the High Country Winegrowers Association is to serve the needs of winegrowers, wineries and wine enthusiasts through education, information sharing, promotion of public awareness and fostering collaborative efforts in the western North Carolina mountain counties of Watauga, Ashe, Avery, Alleghany and Caldwell.
The first meeting included a tour of Creston Vineyards at Cherry Tree Farm, owned by Grace, Jimmy and Susanna Coan. Norm Oches, a steep slope and high elevation vineyard expert from ASU, conducted the vineyard tour. Oches spoke about the varieties of grapes that grow well in the High Country, how to choose a vineyard site, vineyard management and the harvesting of wine grapes. Oches has visited vineyards in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland and Portugal to determine the best grapes for planting in the High Country. His visits to Bordeaux, France have shown similarities in climate, elevation and other characteristics that are much like those in the High Country. Small vineyards, wineries adjacent to the vineyard and many high altitude vineyards are the norm in Europe, according to Oches. He indicated that vineyard and winery tours could boost tourism in the High Country and increase profits for wine grape growers.
Attendees also enjoyed a wine tasting of High Country wines and a potluck dinner. Dick Wolfe’s Banner Elk Winery and Dr. Dan Strickland, Sally and Joe Martin’s New River Winery provided wines for the tasting.
“Some of the wines were really very good and I was surprised at how excellent the wine was,” said Wilkins.
The association established a group email website and a group homepage for members, set the groundwork for an e-newsletter and agreed to develop a vineyard and winery map for the High Country. The group also made plans to apply for an American Viticulture Area (AVA) designation, or an appellation, for the High Country that will differentiate the wines made from High Country grapes from other appellations in North Carolina.
Oches informed the attendees that ASU has a viticulture and oenology program willing to provide free consultation to potential wine grape growers, and ASU has the only certified steep slope and high altitude viticulture center in the United States.
“Our wines have more flavor, aroma, color and antioxidants because of our unique mountain terrior,” said Wolfe. Terrior is a French term that means a “sense of place.” “Since great wines begin in the vineyard, High Country wines will have their own terrior no other place can achieve,” he continued.
As the meeting ended Jimmy Coan said, “The meeting was like a group of pioneers sharing the same pioneering spirit that has made the Carolina mountains what they are. People of like minds from varying backgrounds want to work together to bring the great agriculture heritage of the High Country into the future by planting vineyards.”
The group plans to meet again after the grape harvest in the fall, and Dr. Grant Holder, ASU chemistry professor, is arranging an educational trip to vineyards near Venice, Italy this winter for members of the High Country Winegrowers Association.
“We’re going to become an additional attraction to these mountains. We will become the North Carolina wine country—we already have great resorts and inns and restaurants and attractions to complement it all. It will add to the further enjoyment of the mountain experience,” said Wilkins. “And the wine grape industry is sustainable. It’s a way to renew the agricultural heritage up here, and people will come to this area and add to our tourism.”
Wine Tourism Study
On June 24, ASU released a study conducted for the NC Wine and Grape Council detailing visitor profiles to North Carolina wineries. The results shed an optimistic light on the future of North Carolina as a wine tourist destination.
“North Carolina has a thriving grape and wine industry,” said Margo Knight Metzger, executive director of the NC Wine and Grape Council in the article. “This report provides insights about the state’s wine tourists and why they visit a wine region in the state. This information is a valuable resource for the owners and operators of the more than 350 vineyards and more than 70 wineries in our state.”
Thirteen wineries representing distinct regions across the state distributed the surveys to visitors. A total of 925 surveys were completed. Dr. Carol Pollard, executive director of Appalachian’s Center for Applied Research on Emerging Technologies (CARET), presented the results of the survey on June 24 in Raleigh during the NC Wine and Grape Council’s 2008 Wine Industry Summit. Other members of the research team were Dr. Mike Evans, director of Appalachian’s hospitality program, and Holder.
“This is a landmark study for the NC Wine and Grape Council,” Pollard said. “It is the first of its kind to report on wine visitation in North Carolina and provides winery owners with much-needed data to help guide this exciting and growing area of hospitality and tourism.”
According to the study, visitors to North Carolina wineries in 2007 tended to be middle-aged, highly educated and female, and to have a higher-than-average household income. They spent an average of $176 per travel party. The study showed that wine tourists tend to be day-trippers who travel to an area specifically to visit a winery—53 percent were from in state and 47 percent came from bordering or East Coast states.
The majority of respondents were first-time visitors to the winery and most only visited one winery during their trip. In addition, visiting a winery was the primary destination for 40 percent of the travel parties, an indicator that the industry is becoming an important part of the state’s tourism industry.
Evans said that while wineries are doing an excellent job in their marketing efforts, opportunities may exist to package other activities, such as scenic drives, hiking or shopping as part of the winery experience—a sentiment shared by the High Country Winegrowers Association.
According to the report, 64 percent of visitors to wineries were women, 63 percent have a college degree and the average age was 47, although the range of respondents was from 20 to 92 years. More than one third reported incomes more than $100,000, and 23 percent reported incomes ranging from $75,000 to $99,999.
According to the study, the number of wineries in North Carolina has tripled since 2000 with the state boasting more than 70 wineries in 31 counties. The state is the 10th largest producer of grapes and wine in the United States. The industry has created more than 5,700 full-time jobs and $158 million in wages.