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By TOM SORENSEN - The Charlotte Observer
The man stands on the hardwood floor of the only 35,000-square foot Italian villa in greater Lexington and drinks at the marble bar. His dark blond hair is cut short on the sides but hangs long and free in back. He wears a shirt with cut-off sleeves and the message "Live hard, ride easy."
The man brings the glass from the marble bar to his face and takes a powerful sniff. Then he takes a delicate, almost respectful, sip.
NASCAR fans sure do love their Reserve Cabernet.
We have written about Childress Vineyards, the stunning winery about an hour northeast of Charlotte that belongs to race team owner Richard Childress. We have written about NASCAR fans.
But have we written about NASCAR fans who drink wine? We have not. Finally, the story can be told.
The reason the story has not been told is that nobody would have believed it. So make the drive up I-85 to Childress' tasting room. At noon Thursday, here's what you see.
You see a room full of fans. They wear Dale Earnhardt regalia, Harley-Davidson regalia, Tony Stewart caps and Richard Petty Driving Experience T-shirts. They belly up to the bar and, in some cases, over it.
"Wine was the drink of the common man," says Childress winemaker Mark Friszolowski, who will subsequently be referred to as Winemaker Mark. "Then it became caught up in that European mystique."
There is no European mystique in the room or the parking lot, which is packed with U.S.-made trucks and cars. Yet there is this.
"Wine is like racing," says Winemaker Mark. "Once you get one foot in, you can't get out."
Dan and Laurie Shively get out with 60 bottles of wine. They drove down from Clare, Mich., where he's a motorcycle mechanic and she's a nurse. He wears a Dale Earnhardt T-shirt and drives a car that is a ringer for Dale's famous black 3, except for the 60 bottles of wine in the trunk. Earnhardt and Childress were a legendary team.
"People think of race fans as rednecks," says Laurie, 43. "You'd be surprised. Most of our friends drink wine."
They own 300 bottles, all of it with the Childress label.
Laurie has a dream. Her dream is for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to drive for Childress. If he does, what kind of Junior wine would you like the winery to market?
"I don't care, we'll drink it," she says.
At Lowe's Motor Speedway this Bud might be for you, but at Childress this whimsical yet profound Chardonnay is. The quiet tasting room is full of quiet wine drinkers, most of whom wear loud race car shirts. Many drove here directly from Childress' race shop and museum, one freeway exit and six miles away.
Rolland Acord and his wife, Pam, came from a greater distance -- Coshockton, Ohio. They need to replenish their supply. They brought two bottles back last year, drank one and saved the other for New Year's Eve.
Pam, 52, was at a party when a woman knocked the bottle onto the floor and broke it. Alas, not even a pit crew could save it.
"There are three kinds of race fans," the Acords say. "There are tent race fans, RV race fans and hotel race fans. We're hotel race fans."
Hotel race fans can buy the Git `R Done package, which, for $29, includes a bottle of red, a bottle of white, a corkscrew and a keepsake bag.
They can buy the limited edition Fine Swine Wine, made specifically to accompany barbecue. You want Kevin Harvick Victory cuvée? You come here.
They do not sell Mullet Merlot or Motor Oil Muscadine. They do sell the good stuff. The Signature Reserve Chardonnay and the dry yet manly Rose of Cabernet Franc are enough to make you make the hour drive up 85.
Individual bottles range from $10.99 to $39. You can also buy a box set of six for $450. You can lose yourself here.
The grounds are magnificent. As close as you are to the freeway, it feels miles away, and the more you drink, one presumes, the farther away it feels. What freeway?
Richard Childress watches from the veranda with business partner Greg Johns. Childress became interested in wine on race trips to California in the early 1970s, and began to collect wine in 1989. Wine has pervaded his sport.
Winemaker Mark remembers going to the race in Sonoma, Calif., and seeing cases loaded onto the team haulers for the trip home. The only reason the wine was packed in cases is that it doesn't come in vats.
Say, does Dale Earnhardt Jr. drink wine?
"I think I sent him some," says Childress.
Git `R done.
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