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CHARDONNAYS AND CHEVROLETS
Childress brings wine to NASCAR with N.C.-based vineyard
By DAVID NEWTON
Senior Writer
LEXINGTON, N.C. — Richard Childress leans back in his chair and looks out the office window at his empire.
But he is not looking at his Nextel Cup shop for Kevin Harvick, who drives the No. 29 car. Or the No. 30 shop of Jeff Burton. Or the No. 07 shop of Dave Blaney.
He is looking at grapes.
Acre after acre of grapes.
Childress doesn’t have to go to Sonoma, Calif., where NASCAR’s top series races this weekend, to visit some of the top vineyards in the country.
He walks out of his back door into the 65-acre farm that looks like a picture from the California countryside, with a 35,000-square-foot stone and stucco winery as the centerpiece.
It’s hardly the scene one would imagine on these rolling hills of red clay where stock-car racing was born of moonshiners and good ol’ boys.
“Hopefully, we can convert some of the good ol’ boys that like their beer into trying wine,” Childress said.
NASCAR and wine seem to go together like George Strait and the Metropolitan Opera House. But here in this sparsely populated corner of Davidson County, a few miles from the race shop where Childress won six Cup championships with the late Dale Earnhardt, chardonnays and Chevrolets are blended into one.
“That’s one of the neat things I wanted to do when we embarked on this,” said Childress, whose winery opened in 2004. “We wanted to make wines for the connoisseurs, but we also wanted to make wines that the first-time wine drinker would say, ‘Hey, this is pretty neat. I can really drink this.’ “
To own a vineyard has been Childress’ dream since he first saw the vineyards near the track at Riverside, Calif., in the 1970s. He never dreamed it would turn into a winery and a wine club, “The Fast Track Wine Club” in which defending Cup champion Kurt Busch and Rusty Wallace are members.
In the beginning, Childress drank wine because he liked the taste and could get it for free on trips to the West Coast. Over time he began his own collection.
Around 1997, he purchased six cases of an expensive wine for himself and six for Earnhardt. Some of Childress’ favorite times with the seven-time champion occurred late in the evenings when Earnhardt called to ask if he had finished one of the bottles.
“I’d say, ‘No,’ “ Childress said. “He’d say, “Well, grab a glass and come over here and let’s talk.’ He always knew I liked it, and he was getting into it and he liked fine wines.
“He would be proud of what we put together here. It saddens me he can’t see it.”
Just as he built his race team, Childress hired the best to start his winery. He began with Matt Chobanian, a vineyard manager who was somewhat of an expert on growing grapes on the East Coast.
He then brought in Mark Friszolowski, a nationally acclaimed winemaker who was with one of the top wineries in Long Island, N.Y.
Friszolowski suggested Childress should build his winery in New York or California, not on North Carolina soil where tobacco was king. But the more Friszolowski saw Childress’ passion for building the winery near his shop in Welcome, N.C., the more convinced he became that it would work.
“You’ve got to have a passion for both (racing and wineries),” Childress said. “I enjoy when somebody comes up and says I really enjoyed your winery. It makes me feel good when a race fan comes up and says thank you for what you’ve done for the last 25 years in racing.”
Childress said there is a common thread between building a successful race team and a winery.
“They’re both very expensive,” he said.
But Childress’ wines aren’t. Prices range from $8.99 to $69 a bottle, although some have gone for more than $3,000 in auction benefits.
“Some wineries cater only to the high-end wines, but in NASCAR we have so many people that haven’t had wine, and they don’t want to dish out fifty or sixty bucks for a bottle,” Childress said.
Several of Childress’ dozen wines recently won silver and bronze metals at the Los Angeles County Fair.Childress spends about 10 hours a week at the winery, leaving most of the work to the experts.
He is not the only person in NASCAR involved in wine. Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon is coming out with a high-end wine in the fall through his connection with Briggs & Sons Winemaking Company in Calistoga, Calif.
“The way I look at it is it’s all about people,” Childress said. “I’ve got great people at my winery. I’ve got great people at my race shop.”
Childress doesn’t see a day when he will leave racing to focus full time on his winery. He does see a day, perhaps four or five years from now, when he goes to 20 races instead of 36 and spends more time at the winery.
“My goal is to get these teams back to where they need to be and winning weekly,” said Childress, whose three teams have combined for one win — Harvick at Bristol this season — during the past year and a half.
When he does win, he has a special wine waiting for the celebration.
Reach Newton at (803) 802-2091 or Sportsscribe01@aol.com
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