Morgan Ridge Vineyards first bottles going on sale

Morgan Ridge Vinery is set to open their new Tasting Room and winery. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

A wine rack in the tastng room at Morgan Ridge Winery. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Morgan Ridge Vinery is set to open their new Tasting Room and winery. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

The Tank Room at Morgan Ridge Winery. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Tommy Baudoin and his wife Amie takes a sample of Chardonnay wine out of one of the many barrels aging the wines in the barrel room. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Deirdre Parker Smith

dp1@salisburypost.com

Like fine wine, it takes time to build a vineyard and winery. For Tommy and Amie Baudoin it took 10 years of planning, planting, digging, spraying, harvesting, crushing, fermenting and finally, tasting, to open their Morgan Ridge Vineyards on John Morgan Road.

A ribbon-cutting today starts a new set of plans and goals.

Amie, standing in their barrel room, looks at Tommy and explains, “That’s how we met. We went out on his Harley and went to taste wine. After going to a few places and asking questions, we thought it was something we could do.”

Amie had the land on John Morgan Road, off Stokes Ferry Road, and Tommy had experience in restaurants and catering and a hunger to learn more about wine.

Amie is the farmer, caring for the vineyard, learning about all the bugs and fungi and molds and birds and other critters that like to eat grapes, grapevines and leaves.

Tommy is the alchemist, if you will.

“I got advice from as many North Carolina and Virginia winemakers as I could. I learned so many valuable things,” Tommy says. “I took courses through N.C. State, I did research on the Internet, and bought books. I’ve been a member of the N.C. Wine Growers Association for 10 years.”

The hard work, and it is continuous, has paid off in the form of seyval blanc, chardonnay, sangiovese, chambourcin, merlot and cabernet sauvignon, all bottled and ready to be consumed.

The seyval blanc is a crisp white with a citrusy flavor. The chardonnay, which sits in American oak barrels for a while, is buttery, or as Amie describes it, sort of like a caramel apple, though not that sweet.

The merlot is not as heavy as California varieties and not as tannic (define). It has a fruitiness, currents and black cherry, that blends with a slightily smoky flavor.

Cabernet sauvignon is a classic red,with more of that cherry flavor — sort of like cherry tobacco smells. It goes into Hungarian oak, and comes out with a smooth texture.

The classic Italian grape, Sangiovese, is fresh, fruity and great with Italian food. It’s often called a good starter red for white wine drinkers.

Morgan Ridge’s chambourcin will be remembered as the purple wine. An intense color carries flavors of white chocolate and raspberry. It’s a rich, but not heavy wine.

The chambourcin is a favorite for Tommy and Amie, and grows well in their vineyard.

Tommy says their 7-acre vineyard has a lot going for it. The vines grow on a sloping hill, facing east, so they get the morning sun. The elevation provides good drainage when the rains come. At the top of the hill are the whites, which will get afternoon shade before the rest of the varietals.

“We also train the vines so the whites are shaded by a canopy of leaves,” Tommy says.

“You don’t want sun scorch,” Amie adds, thinking about some very hot summers.

They call this year’s harvest ideal, because they had rain at the right time and plenty of warm days to sweeten the fruit.

“That’s how the whole process starts,” Tommy says. “The wine starts at the top of the hill and makes its way to the tasting room at the bottom.”

Their new building, which includes the tasting room and storage, was designed to make harvesting and crushing easier. The wine comes down the hill in bins on an all-terrain vehicle, where a forklift just half a level below helps dump the grapes into the destemmer and then the crusher. Convenient holes in the wall of the tank room allow the juice to be pumped directly into the stainless steel tanks, where the fermentation starts with the addition of yeast. Yeast, as you know if you’re a baker, eats the sugar from the grape juice and produces carbon dioxide, which helps make bubbles (just like rising bread) and begins to ferment.

Then Tommy tinkers a little bit, juggling time in the tanks and the barrels, whether to filter the wine, which can change the taste, how long to leave the grape skins in the red wines.

Making wine is as much science as art.

Tommy likes the old way of winemaking, and old-style wines. That means his wines don’t all taste the same. Big California vineyards try to get a uniform wine that will appeal to the masses, and make massive quantities.

This year’s harvest, which started in mid-August, is already in tanks and barrels.

“We harvest starting before sunrise, and are done by noon,” Tommy says, “Because the heat of the day can really affect the grapes.” Putting the warm juice in a tank increases the temperature. Then he lowers the temperature to 55 degrees and lets the grape skins impart color and tannin before adding the yeast.

The steel tanks range in size from 500 to 1,200 gallons; the harvest determines what varieties go where. Three tons or less goes into a smaller tank.

The storage room has large roll-up doors on either side that line up with another big door in the tank room, so they can easily move things in and out.

Their atmospheric barrel room is actually below grade, to keep the wines at a constant temperature. With a rounded roof and painted walls, it looks like an old wine cave. Lantern-shaped lights provide even more atmosphere.

Tommy uses American, French and Hungarian oak, because each one imparts a different flavor. The insides of the barrels are toasted, and come in medium, medium-plus, and heavy. Medium has some wood showing through, medium-plus has less, and heavy charred all the way around.

But the effect on the wines is opposite of what you expect. The heavy toast has the least oaky flavor, and more smokiness, while the medium tastes more of oak and less smoke.

The tasting room, with its walnut, pine and poplar bar, is large, about 1,200 square feet, with lots of windows and a brick patio that looks over a pond. A rocky waterfall makes a soft sound higher up the hill.

Their third arm, Vanita Edwards, helps in all aspects of the operation. She is a Maori from New Zealand who met her North Carolina husband on the Internet. “I love this place,” she smiles.

Behind the tasting room is a commercial kitchen. Tommy and Amie have been in the catering business for years, and once owned a restaurant.

Now, the kitchen is there for special events, such as parties and weddings.

“We already have folks who want to get married here,” Tommy says. “With the kitchen right here we can save them some money. There won’t be a need to transport food to and from” someplace else.

At this point, they have no plan for regular meals, just special events. They work with two chefs, Jason Nain and Alan Noble.

Tommy walks around the tank and barrel rooms, showing and tasting the wines in their various stages. It’s obvious he loves what he does, as he enthusiastically describes his techniques and how he expects the wine to taste.

Amy is excited because she’s worked out a successful spraying program that keeps insects and mold down and produces good, healthy fruit.

As they taste their wines, they smile at each other and Amie says, “We have so much to look foward to.

There will be a ribbon cutting at 3 p.m. today at Morgan Ridge, at 484 John Morgan Road, Gold Hill, off Stokes Ferry Road. The tasting room is open Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Wine tasting is $5 and includes a souvenir glass.

Contact information: 704-639-0911; website, www.morganridgevineyards.com; e-mail morgan.ridge@gmail. com.