By Noelle Edwards
nedwards@salisburypost.com
Darin Griffin moves around behind the counter at Old Stone Winery, picking out wine after wine for out-of-town visitors to taste on a Friday afternoon.
He answers their questions from his knowledge as a long-time wine lover and the crash course he’s gotten since buying Old Stone Winery in July.
Griffin and his wife fell in love with the wine industry when they lived in the Rhine River Valley region of Germany in the late ’90s, he said.
But he had never made wine commercially.
“There’s been absolutely a learning curve,” he said.
This is right about harvest time for the vineyards, which Brown still owns, and he said coming in at one of the busiest times of year has been a challenge.
“Harvest isn’t going to stop because I’m not ready for it,” he said.
Griffin came to the wine business from big industry. He worked for SABIC Innovative Plastics, formerly GE Plastics, as a supply chain manager.
He said he had pretty much reached the point that he would have to move locations to move forward in his career or quit.
He and his wife, Naomi, liked the area and didn’t want to move their two sons, Kenlee, 5, and Sander, 2. So he started looking for work opportunities that kept the family here.
Mark Brown’s winery was up for sale.
For Griffin, it was the perfect situation.
It was his own business, and it was related to what he loves.
Some people would be wary of leaving an established company to own a small business.
But Griffin said sales have been consistently good for the winery.
“Due to the product, demand hasn’t really been down,” he said.
The winery sells a variety of types of wines and does wine tastings, so Griffin said the business attracts a lot of different people.
“Personally for me, the timing was right,” he said.
Although Griffin bought the winery several weeks ago, repeat customers wouldn’t necessarily know because he hasn’t changed much.
“My plans for the future are sort of to keep it on the same course,” he said.
Brown is staying on for at least a year as the winemaker, Griffin said.
Griffin has some small changes in the works. A new Web site is due out in the coming months. Griffin said he wants to get into e-commerce.
He plans to expand marketing toward Charlotte and build greater name recognition for the winery.
Old Stone wines are now sold in seven counties, but Griffin wants to expand that, too, as far as he can.
Griffin plans to relaunch the wine club around the time the new Web site launches. Old Stone used to operate a wine club, Griffin said, but it’s been gone for awhile.
Old Stone sells 19 different wines and, like past years, will add a 20th for Christmas.
The store also sells wine accessories and home winemaking supplies.
People sometimes ask Griffin’s advice for their home winemaking ventures, and he shares his knowledge.
The winery uses grapes bought from Old Stone Vineyard, on site, and from other vineyards nearby. Griffin said he tries to buy grapes from Rowan County as much as possible to keep the whole production local.
Muscadine grapes grow well locally, Griffin said, because they are native to North Carolina and the Southeast.
European varieties require more work, he said, but they still can be grown in the Piedmont.
Old Stone’s Sweet Muscadine won highest honors in two categories in the commercial division of the 2008 N.C. State Fair Wine Competition.
Griffin said he wants to give back to the community with his business. One way he plans to do that is through a donation in October to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
His mother died of cancer in 2006, and he said doctors suspected breast cancer was the culprit.
He plans to donate 10 percent of Wild Horse sales to the foundation. Wild Horse is the winery’s blush wine, and pink is the traditional color of breast cancer awareness and advocacy.
Griffin wants to be as hands on as possible; he said given the small size of the winery, his involvement is sort of unavoidable since the staff size is limited.
Griffin said he has worked more hours here than in his previous jobs but he loves what he’s doing more, too.
That is the key in owning a business, Griffin said. Business owners spend so much time working they’ll get burned out unless they love what they do.
Fortunately, Griffin does.