Quick. Prior to prohibition, what state led the nation in wine production? You win if you said North Carolina.
Home to Roanoke Island’s fabled Mother Vine, a 400-year old collection of magnificently intertwined roots, North Carolina offers an array of vintages. The Mother Vine herself produces Scuppernong, a variety of Muscadine. Before you turn up your European/Californian varietal nose at the native fruit of the vine hear out James McClanathan. He’s general manager and winemaker for Cypress Bend Vineyards in Wagram, NC, about 30 miles south of Fayetteville on US Highway 401.
“Muscadine wines…have a very ‘fruit-forward’ nose,” says the vintner. “It smells like the grape. A Muscadine is a very floral, wonderful-smelling grape. And if you make the wine properly, you maintain those characteristics. So many people try to make a Muscadine into something else.”
A good Muscadine carries more than a bold nose. It’s good for you too. Better than that beautiful Cabernet you’ve been storing away contends McClanathan. “The anti-oxidants, typically the resveratrol level, is just through the ceiling compared to with other varieties of grapes,” says McClanathan.
Muscadines do well in North Carolina’s Sandhills/Costal region. That’s because perhaps the biggest obstacle to growing grapes is something called Pierce’s Disease. “Muscadine grapes have pretty much a natural immunity,” he says. That’s because Pierce’s is a fungal disease that grows in high-humidity, high-heat climates.
Classic European and California varietals such as Chardonnays, Cabernets, Merlots “are very, very difficult to grow in the costal region of North Carolina – or in much of the South for that matter,” he says. “In the southeastern part of the United States, in the piedmont or central plains sort of areas, you have to get some elevation to get the humidity down.” That’s why Arkansas, Alabama, North and South Carolina and some sections of Georgia grow Muscadines. Because they are inherently native American grapes.
But that doesn’t mean North Carolina doesn’t grow some bodacious Eurovarietals. You just have to move a bit inland, and a bit higher, to find them. Travel to the likes of Mocksville, NC – 20 minutes west of Winston/Salem, and an hour east of Charlotte. It’s there you’ll find RayLen Vineyards and Winery, right off of Interstate 40.
Karyn Howard is chief of events and marketing for RayLen. There’s a myth out here that southern wines are all about Muscadine. Period. RayLen begs to differ. It produces Pinot Grigio, Viognier, Reisling, Merlot and Shiraz –some 10,000 cases of 16 different wines per year. Its 2005 vintage Category 5 Cabernet blend won Best in Show at he Mid-Atlantic Wine Competition.
Howard says convincing folks that great European varietals can be successfully cultivated in North Carolina is a perpetual battle.
RayLen isn’t alone in producing some excellent European/California varietals. Biltmore Estate Winery in mountainous Asheville serves up Chenin Blanc Sauvignon Blanc, and Chateau Reserve Claret among others.
None of these EuroCals spring from the Mother Vine. But she doesn’t mind. The four-century survivor of all that nature and mankind can throw at her merely asks is that you give her offspring their rightful due, and drink up.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Images: visitncwine, RayLen Vineyards)
