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By Sandra McKee
LEXINGTON, N.C. - For generations, farmers in the Yadkin Valley have grown tobacco. But the demand for that plant has dropped, so many are turning to another green, leafy crop - grapes. As in the wine-making kind.
And if the image of Tobacco Road morphing into Winery Way sets North Carolina stereotypes on their ear, consider this: The valley's biggest wine producer, a man who lives in a Tuscan-inspired estate, packs impeccable good ol' boy credentials.
Richard Childress, 59, once made early-morning moonshine runs, raced stock cars and owned NASCAR's most famous car, the No. 3 of the late seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.
Childress still owns one of NASCAR's best teams, but he also runs Childress Vineyards, producing 13,000 cases of wine this year - five premium varietals, three signature reserves and three house wines from his own vines - while helping support his Yadkin Valley neighbors by buying their grapes.
"I worked in tobacco as a kid," Childress said. "I know what's going on in that industry. I thought this vineyard and winery could make a difference as an alternative to tobacco and help our farmers. I'm hoping we can make a difference."
According to the most recent agricultural census taken by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, tobacco production in North Carolina dropped significantly from 1997 to 2002. Tobacco farms decreased from 12,095 to 7,850, a decline of 35.1 percent, while acreage dropped from 320,900 to 167,700, thus causing production to fall 49.8 percent.
"What we have seen is farmers looking for alternative crops," said Amy-Lynn Albertson, a Davidson County Agricultural extension agent. "They're looking at blueberries and strawberries for direct market sales, at cut flowers and, in our area, where property values continue to increase, a lot of tobacco farmers are deciding to sell their land."
But for those who want to remain in farming, the arrival of Childress Vineyards has offered another alternative. Grapes. Though expensive to get started - Albertson says the cost of planting an acre is almost $10,000 - three farms in Davidson County have begun planting small acreages and several farmers in other, nearby counties have planted their first vines.
"It is an option," Albertson said. "We're having a lot of inquires, and the farmers are watching what happens."
Childress Vineyards is encouraging the transition; it is eager and willing to contract with the planters to buy their grapes. Last year, Childress winemaker and general manager Mark Friszolowski said, Childress bought grapes from 17 farms. This year the number is expected to increase, though they don't know by how much until the grapes ripen and Friszolowski can inspect the quality of the produce being offered.
"We just planted for the first time last month," said Brandon Cheek, the 20-year-old son of a longtime tobacco farmer. "We haven't contracted with Childress Vineyards, but we hope to one day."
Cheek and his brother Jason, 22, have returned to the farm to work with their father. The family has 55 acres of its 250-acre farm planted in tobacco. They are also growing wheat and hay and raising chickens.
"Tobacco farming has always been our family business," Cheek said. "But ... with tobacco declining, we have to find other ways to make the farm more profitable."
Cheek said his father, David, is "pretty open to change" and the Cheeks planted three acres of merlot grapes and two acres of Chardonnay last April. They anticipate their first crop in three years.
Cheek has talked to Friszolowski several times about what grapes to plant and the finances involved. The winemaker, a consistent award-winner at Pindar Vineyards in Long Island, N.Y., and now president of the North Carolina Wine Growers Association, has also shown him how to build the high-trellis system that Friszolowski invented to keep the vines off the ground to prevent disease and rot.
"One reason I want to grow the grapes is because of the Childress name," said Cheek, whose farm is near Ashboro, about 40 miles from Childress Vineyards. "His name will sell better than any old vineyard."
The vision
Childress' appreciation of wine began when he was an underfinanced race driver in the 1970s. He'd ride cross-country with his team in the tractor-trailer that carried his race car. He'd share a hotel room with five or six of his crewmen when he got to the racetrack. It wasn't that appealing.
But on trips to Riverside, Calif., there was always the bonus of a ride up north to Napa Valley to tour the wineries.
"Napa wasn't very big then," Childress recalled. "They'd have free tastings, and you'd drink about as much as you wanted to. ... I thought, 'How cool!' And then it became a passion."
Today, Childress' European-style home sits atop a hill in the middle of his 250-acre farm. He looks out on nine varieties of European grapes covering 30 acres. Seven miles from his home, down winding Carolina roads and just inside the Lexington town limits, is Childress Vineyards.
You enter the winery on asphalt between two large golden stone posts with black iron gates. The view opens up to gently rolling hills that are covered with elevated green vines.
It is after 5 p.m. on this day, and the crowd inside the winery's tasting room is thinning. Only a few customers remain. One of them is Cheryl Dehn of Baltimore.
"I try to visit vineyards wherever I travel," said Dehn, who works in sales for a biotech company. "This is a gorgeous winery. When I came through the gate, it reminded me of the old Biltmore estate."
A long history
Grapes have a long history in North Carolina.
They were first planted here before the Revolutionary War, and by the time Prohibition came in the 1920s, North Carolina was the largest wine-producing state in the country. But over those Prohibition years, the vines withered and died. Moonshine became popular and grapes weren't planted again until 1972.
The increase in production was slow. According to the Heritage Tourism Office and the North Carolina Grape Council, there were 12 wineries in the state in 2001. Today, there are 45 that bottle wine. And there are an additional 350 grape growers.
Some of the wineries buy from other growers, but none has a capacity to match Childress, which can process up to 1,000 acres of grapes.
Bruce Younts, who was in corporate real estate before becoming a grape farmer and real estate adviser, has five acres of grapes growing on his farm in Walnut Cove.
"What people don't understand," said Younts, "is that our area has been devastated by the relaxation of the Chinese embargo on textiles and by the furniture industry leaving for the cheap labor over there.
"Combine that with the decline of the tobacco industry, and what Richard Childress is doing is very important. He's trying to build an industry. "
In Lexington, the operation already is making a difference.
"The vineyard has brought new life," said the city's mayor, Richard Thomas, 74. "We're rebuilding our town. ... We recently OK'd a housing development called Vineyard Estates, 250 units, some condo and single family homes. It's the first housing development inside the city limits in 30 years."
Moonshine runs
As a teenager, Childress worked in a gas station, operating the facility from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. And in the early morning, the men who ran moonshine would stop at his station to fill their gas tanks and talk.
One night, one talked to the boy running the place about making some deliveries.
"I made a lot of money doing that, and I was just a kid," Childress said. "I did it for a few years, and in 1962 or 1963, I bought a 1959 Chevy, and I can still hear people saying, 'How in the devil does a kid working at a service station do that?'"
Childress, sitting at his large desk, surrounded by original artwork depicting traditional Tuscan scenery, looks out on his fields of grapes, sips his wine and laughs.
"I would never, ever in my wildest dreams believed we'd have a facility like this. But racing has put me in position to pursue my dreams."
In the mid-to-late 1970s, Childress drove for his own team and was a Top 10 driver on what was then the Winston Cup circuit. Then, in 1981, he stepped out of the race car and concentrated on ownership, continuing to field the No. 3 car that became synonymous with the name Dale Earnhardt, and the two teamed for six of Earnhardt's seven titles.
Childress continues to field cars for multiple teams, including Top 20 drivers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, from his race shop in Welcome, N.C. The shop is so close to his vineyard - a 10-minute drive - that his organization has set up tours between the two facilities.
"North Carolina is a great place," he said, "and it has a great future. The soil and climate here are right for grapes. I thought we could do great things here and help our neighbors.
"I worked in tobacco, doing everything from picking to hanging the leaves to biting off the heads of the tobacco worms," he said, laughing at the last. "No, I'm joking about the worms."
Childress obviously has come a long way. Whenever he's home, which is about four days a week despite a grueling travel schedule that takes him to 36 races a year, he'll stroll into his wine-tasting room in the evening.
On this day, Childress heads for the far end of the wine-tasting bar, where a few people are expecting him.
He pours himself a pinot gris, leans on the marble-topped bar and smiles.
"I always thought having a winery and being able to do just this would be wonderful," he said. "And it is."
"I would never, ever in my wildest dreams believed we'd have a facility like this. But racing has put me in position to pursue my dreams."
In the mid-to-late 1970s, Childress drove for his own team and was a Top 10 driver on what was then the Winston Cup circuit. Then, in 1981, he stepped out of the race car and concentrated on ownership, continuing to field the No. 3 car that became synonymous with the name Dale Earnhardt, and the two teamed for six of Earnhardt's seven titles.
Childress continues to field cars for multiple teams, including Top 20 drivers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, from his race shop in Welcome, N.C. The shop is so close to his vineyard - a 10-minute drive - that his organization has set up tours between the two facilities.
"North Carolina is a great place," he said, "and it has a great future. The soil and climate here are right for grapes. I thought we could do great things here and help our neighbors.
"I worked in tobacco, doing everything from picking to hanging the leaves to biting off the heads of the tobacco worms," he said, laughing at the last. "No, I'm joking about the worms."
Childress obviously has come a long way. Whenever he's home, which is about four days a week despite a grueling travel schedule that takes him to 36 races a year, he'll stroll into his wine-tasting room in the evening.
On this day, Childress heads for the far end of the wine-tasting bar, where a few people are expecting him.
He pours himself a pinot gris, leans on the marble-topped bar and smiles.
"I always thought having a winery and being able to do just this would be wonderful," he said. "And it is."
"I would never, ever in my wildest dreams believed we'd have a facility like this. But racing has put me in position to pursue my dreams."
In the mid-to-late 1970s, Childress drove for his own team and was a Top 10 driver on what was then the Winston Cup circuit. Then, in 1981, he stepped out of the race car and concentrated on ownership, continuing to field the No. 3 car that became synonymous with the name Dale Earnhardt, and the two teamed for six of Earnhardt's seven titles.
Childress continues to field cars for multiple teams, including Top 20 drivers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, from his race shop in Welcome, N.C. The shop is so close to his vineyard - a 10-minute drive - that his organization has set up tours between the two facilities.
"North Carolina is a great place," he said, "and it has a great future. The soil and climate here are right for grapes. I thought we could do great things here and help our neighbors.
"I worked in tobacco, doing everything from picking to hanging the leaves to biting off the heads of the tobacco worms," he said, laughing at the last. "No, I'm joking about the worms."
Childress obviously has come a long way. Whenever he's home, which is about four days a week despite a grueling travel schedule that takes him to 36 races a year, he'll stroll into his wine-tasting room in the evening.
On this day, Childress heads for the far end of the wine-tasting bar, where a few people are expecting him.
He pours himself a pinot gris, leans on the marble-topped bar and smiles.
"I always thought having a winery and being able to do just this would be wonderful," he said. "And it is."
"I would never, ever in my wildest dreams believed we'd have a facility like this. But racing has put me in position to pursue my dreams."
In the mid-to-late 1970s, Childress drove for his own team and was a Top 10 driver on what was then the Winston Cup circuit. Then, in 1981, he stepped out of the race car and concentrated on ownership, continuing to field the No. 3 car that became synonymous with the name Dale Earnhardt, and the two teamed for six of Earnhardt's seven titles.
Childress continues to field cars for multiple teams, including Top 20 drivers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, from his race shop in Welcome, N.C. The shop is so close to his vineyard - a 10-minute drive - that his organization has set up tours between the two facilities.
"North Carolina is a great place," he said, "and it has a great future. The soil and climate here are right for grapes. I thought we could do great things here and help our neighbors.
"I worked in tobacco, doing everything from picking to hanging the leaves to biting off the heads of the tobacco worms," he said, laughing at the last. "No, I'm joking about the worms."
Childress obviously has come a long way. Whenever he's home, which is about four days a week despite a grueling travel schedule that takes him to 36 races a year, he'll stroll into his wine-tasting room in the evening.
On this day, Childress heads for the far end of the wine-tasting bar, where a few people are expecting him.
He pours himself a pinot gris, leans on the marble-topped bar and smiles.
"I always thought having a winery and being able to do just this would be wonderful," he said. "And it is."
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