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Year… Again Area winery garners State Fair awards
By Frank Ruggiero
Vintner Dick Wolfe of Banner
Elk Winery harvests golden muscat grapes from the vine.
This variety of grapes is used in the winery’s award-winning
Banner Elk White wine.
Photo by Frank Ruggiero
Vintner Dick Wolfe has built a reputation for Banner Elk Winery.
Now, he’ll have to build some shelves to hold the growing
number of awards the young winery has accumulated.
The 2008 N.C. State Fair Wine Competition saw the two-year-old
winery win seven medals among six wines.
Banner Elk Winery won silver medals for its 2006 Chardonnay, 2007
Marechal Foch and 2006 Banner Elk Red, and bronze medals for its
2007 Seyval Blanc, 2007 Banner Elk White, and 2005 and 2007 Cabernet
Sauvignon.
“Every wine we make has won an award,” Wolfe said, referring
to previous State Fair competitions and this year’s Blue
Ridge Wine Festival. “It’s been a banner year –
again.” Wolfe attributes a fair share of the credit to area
grape growers who sell their harvests to the winery. Eleven farms
in the High Country sold grapes to Banner Elk Winery, some of
which were from inaugural harvests that netted between 300 and
400 pounds of grapes.
“It was their first harvest, and they were really proud to
have their first grapes win in the State Fair,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe fancies himself as a “Johnny Grapeseed,” introducing
farmers to viticulture, a relatively new cash crop for the High
Country that has grown in popularity as tobacco has waned. The
area’s altitude and temperatures are ideal, as both are akin
to those of the French wine country. Like so, Wolfe predominantly
grows French-American hybrid grapes – a category he’d
like to see in future wine competitions, like those for muscadine
and sparking wines.
French-American hybrids are cold-hardy grapes that can remain
on the vine longer than those at lower elevations, which Wolfe
said positively affects their sugar content.
Banner Elk Winery harvests its grapes in October, he said, whereas
wineries at lower elevations typically do so in August.
This means different grapes can grow in different regions, and
Wolfe hopes the High Country will become known for its French-American
hybrids.
“The Foch, Seyval Blanc and Steuben (used in the High Country
Rosé) are the three grapes I think this region will become
known for,” he said. “The French-American hybrids are
the kind of grapes we can really grow well at these temperatures.”
As for the Marechal Foch, named after French Marshal Ferdinand
Foch, Wolfe saw the same grapes grown in France, as well as New
York and Nova Scotia. “And Banner Elk’s now on the list,”
he added. “We oughtn’t to reinvent the wheel, but rather
use vines that will grow up here.”
In that sense, Banner Elk Winery’s products are more reflective
of the European style, as opposed to Californian. However, Wolfe
imposes a touch of his own style. As a chemist, he is accustomed
to experimenting, and the winery and surrounding vineyards accommodate
his scientific curiosity
A nearby vineyard at an elevation around 4,800 feet above sea
level is still sporting green vines, while those at the winery’s
relatively lower elevation have already turned brown from several
freezes. Wolfe is now determined to see how long grapes can stay
on the vine in cold weather.
“We learn something each winter,” he said. “It’s
a lesson in progress for us in these mountains.”
Banner Elk Winery is located at 60 Deer Run Lane (just off Gualtney
Road) in Banner Elk. For more information, call (828) 898-9090
or visit www.bannerelkwinery.com on the Web.
For more information on the 2008 N.C. State Fair Wine Competition,
including other winners, visit www.ncstatefair.org/2008/newsroom/releases/winecomp.htm
on the Web.
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