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"Gentleman, start your shovels!" was the call from the crowd as NASCAR team owner Richard Childress and others broke ground on the Childress Vineyards complex Wednesday afternoon. Childress, president of Richard Childress Racing Enterprises in Welcome, and business partner Greg Johns of Greensboro are developing an approximately 60-acre tract at the intersection of Highways 64 West and 52 for a 34,000-square-foot winery set to open in the Fall of 2004.
About 25 acres of the tract will be planted in grapes, and another 15 acres will be available for a hotel, restaurant and retail shop space to be known as Vineyards Crossing. An amphitheater for concerts is also planned in the future. "I hope this is a big start for Davidson County," Childress told about 100 local elected officials and other community leaders and well-wishers who gathered at the site, which is at the western entrance to the city.
Noting that North Carolina was one of the top grape-growing states in the nation before Prohibition, Childress said he envisions this region, as well as the rest of the state, becoming the top wine-producing area on the East Coast. In December 2002, the Yadkin Valley became the first region in North Carolina to receive the federal American Viticultural Area designation, which makes the region's wines more easily identifiable to consumers and provides a boost to the state's burgeoning wine industry. The Yadkin Valley AVA 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.
Johns, owner of Johns Plumbing in Greensboro, said he was proud to be associated with the project and called Childress "a visionary." He noted there have been discussions with other wineries in the Yadkin Valley appellation about a wine trail in the region. "I think this is going to be the largest winery on the East Coast - if not the largest, the finest facility," Johns said, noting that Joyce Rigby, a consultant who has worked with many wineries in the state, helped specify wine-making equipment for the project. Johns said he is talking to several retail, hotel and restaurant developers, but nothing definite can be announced at this time. Childress said those developments will blend with the architecture of the winery, which features stone, stucco and a tile roof and looks much like a European villa.
"We're looking for shops that will complement the winery," Childress said, with Johns adding that, for example, something like a Williams-Sonoma kitchen store would be desirable.
As part of the ground-breaking ceremony, Childress also introduced Mark Friszolowski, the winemaker and general manager of Childress Vineyards, and Matt Chobanian, the vineyard manager. "Just as I've hired the best in the racing business, I've hired the best in the wine-making business," Childress said. Friszolowski is an award-winning winemaker who came here from Pindar Vineyard and Winery on Long Island, N.Y., the largest premium winery on the East Coast. Chobanian was vineyard manager at Ingleside Vineyard and Winery in Oak Grove, Va., before joining Childress Vineyards. Friszolowski noted that the winery will produce about 8,500 cases of wine in 2004 with grapes purchased from other vineyards. The 2005 vintage will be produced from a combination of estate-grown and purchased grapes. In addition to using grapes grown in the vineyard at the winery complex, Childress Vineyards will also harvest grapes from 25 acres planted at Childress' home in northern Davidson County near Clemmons and five acres near Johns' home in Summerfield. Within three years, the winery is projected to produce 30,000 cases of wine, he added.
Childress Vineyards will produce 10 different wines - chardonnay, viognier, vidal, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot, cabernet franc, sangiovese, syrah and malbec. Friszolowski said the wines will likely start at the $8 a bottle range and possibly go up to $50 as the estate grapes mature.
Friszolowski, who grew up on a potato farm on Long Island, noted that the area he is from transformed from traditional farming to "wine country" over the years and is now home to more than 20 wineries. He said Childress and other growers in the region see an opportunity to reclaim some of the area's agricultural heritage, which is disappearing as tobacco farms diminish in importance to the area economy. "As beautiful as this is going to be, it's still essentially a farm," he said.
The Long Island native said he was aware of the state's growing wine industry but decided to make the move after talking to Childress. "He is passionate about this," Friszolowski added. "His commitment sold me on it." Friszolowski, who has also taught wine-making courses with the State University of New York, said he is committed to the educational aspect of the winery and plans to establish a wine club and offer seminars. In his remarks to the crowd, Friszolowski also said he was proud to be associated with a company "where I can put my stamp on something that's made in America."
In his speech, Lexington Mayor Richard Thomas noted that, in addition to adding jobs and increasing the tax base, the winery complex adds a nice entrance to the city from the west. "You and Bob Timberlake are the gateways to our city and the center of our county," he said. Greta Lint, the executive director of the Lexington Tourism Authority, said she expects the winery to be a tremendous boost to the local economy.
"I believe this project will be the economic savior for this part of the state, because we're not only talking about bringing in tourists, but creating jobs and ancillary businesses," she said. Steve Googe, executive director of the Davidson County Economic Development Commission, said the winery complex will help with local tourism development efforts.
"It creates a destination," Googe said, adding that with existing tourist draws such as the RCR Museum and Bob Timberlake Gallery, as well as the David Fritts Outdoors store set to open soon in Welcome, there are a number of reasons to spend time in the county. "We've become a day trip, at least, if not an overnight trip"
(Photo Description)
Steve Shepard (from left), winemaker and general manager of RayLen Vineyards in Mocksville; Greg Johns and Richard Childress, business partners in Childress Vineyards; and Barb Shepard talk about the wine industry and sample RayLen wine following groundbreaking ceremonies at the Childress Vineyards site on Highway 64 West Wednesday afternoon. (Bobbie Jamison/The Dispatch)
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