Vineyards are everywhere in California, but to see a vineyard in Western North Carolina is a rare sight. Yet, Senamore Vineyard is thriving in the Tellico region of Macon County. It took a while for the vines to produce, but for the past few years the grape harvest has been abundant enough to supply wines for Slanted Window Tasting Station in Franklin.
Located on the grounds of a former summer camp, the vineyard (and Slanted Window winery) is owned by Dion and Cathy Sena. Dion’s mother purchased the property in the 1960s. When Dion inherited the 28-acre property in 2009, he and his wife decided to try growing grapes and making wine. Currently, 41 rows of grapevines are established in the vineyard.
Wines served at Slanted Window are the direct result of the Senas finding in 2018 a knowledgeable wine maker: Jabe Hilson.
Overcoming challenges
According to Hilson, some grapes grown in this region tend to rot before they ripen. However, he found that through patience and practice, success can be achieved. He explained, first, that growing a vineyard in Western North Carolina takes patience and trial and error.
“With a vineyard, you’ve got four or five years invested in it before you start getting any fruit. And most vineyards should last a good 30 years – some last up to 100 years.”
The Sangiovese grape is Senamore’s mainstay. But because the grape clusters are tight and their skins are a bit thin, Hilson learned that adjustments had to be made in order to keep crops healthy.
“What we found works best for us is that at a certain right time in the season, we can go through and stimulate a growth change in the plant by removing leaves. When a plant is growing, it puts on leaves early that are generated through reserves of carbohydrates and everything else that the plant has stored up from the prior year. It’s working off of that to get green growth. Before it starts pulling out of the root system, it has to have some leaves in order for photosynthesis to happen. If we pull those first leaves that were the most important, the plant goes, ‘wait a minute, I need my leaves back.’ So, it’ll start shooting energy into growth again because it goes through a lag phase and so everything starts to elongate, including those little pre-clusters where the flowers are.”
The process essentially elicits a change in the plant that helps combat the grapes ripening too fast – before they are fully mature. Hilson’s efforts added at least two additional weeks of growth on the vine. Working toward the process of full ripeness, a grape’s color generally changes from green to purple and its sugar content can increase from around 8% to between 20-24% optimally. Longer vine time equals higher sugar content.
“For me as a winemaker, the sugar aspect isn’t as important as the flavor component or acid or tannin development, which are things you can’t cheat. We can add sugar to get a little bit higher alcohol if we’re looking for it. For me, flavor is more important. I can buy sugar; I can’t buy flavor,” Hilson revealed.
Regarding the difficulty with the Sangiovese grape, there is a saying in the wine industry: “You can grow grapes anywhere, but you can’t grow any grape everywhere.” A bit higher humidity in the Macon County region, compared to lower land to the south, can be problematic for certain grape varieties. But Hilson has learned that is not always the case.
Continuing education
Senamore is currently growing four types of grapes: St. Vincent, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chambourcin. Regarding the St. Vincent, Hilson relayed, “It is a hybrid grape variety and I’ve worked with hybrids a lot. They can be a bit different in understanding how to get what you want out of them. It is a new grape to me and I feel like last year was the first year that I finally hit upon exactly my style for that great variety. We’re actually taking any spots that we have in the vineyard and filling them with St. Vincent.”
Hilson relayed that Senamore has a wine to be released in late August that is a combination of its Cabernet Sauvignon and St. Vincent grapes. The wine will be named Tahlequah (Cherokee for “rare peace”).
Despite all his experience and all he has learned from other growers, Hilson acknowledges that each grape is unique. He continues to learn as he goes in order to master an understanding of creating desired flavor profiles, grape by grape.
“Information I learn has to be applicable for our site; I have to understand our site first before I can even talk to anyone else,” he admitted.
Hilson uses a French term, “terroir,” to describe a concept that all natural elements and human factors specific to a vineyard’s location, including climate, soil, topography, and even farming practices, contribute to unique flavor and character of the wine produced there.
Regarding production, Senamore averages between seven to eight tons of grapes each season and Hilson described the process as: growing, picking, crushing, and fermenting, which involves adding yeast and possibly sugar or acid to change end results. The fermentation process can run from around four to 10 days. Because Senamore does not incorporate some equipment and industrial scale methods other wineries use, Hilson advised that timing is important for harvesting.
“I’ve worked in wineries where there are a lot of temperature controls in place – glycol systems, jacketed tanks, all that sort of stuff. We don’t have any of that. What we mostly try to do is harvest as early in the day as possible so we get our grapes in when they’re really cool, before the sun’s gotten on them and heated them up too much,” he said.
All grapes start out green and eventually change colors. Typically speaking, wines are referred to as red or white.
“The grapes grown in a vineyard for making white wine are usually more of a golden color,” said Hilson. “Pinot Grigio is considered a white wine. The grapes are actually like pink or bronze, almost.”
Hilson added that fermenting a white grape with the skins on will result in an orange-like color. Along the same lines, if a winemaker is looking to make rosé, he takes red wine grapes, crushes and presses them, and then ferments them.
“A limited amount of contact with the skins and you get the pinkish juice, and you ferment it,” he said.
Conversely, for red wines, the skins remain longer during the fermentation process and that is where the color comes from, as well as tannins, and other structure, flavor, and aroma components – all of which are stored in a grape’s skin.
Aging a wine can take anywhere from six months, for a really young wine, up to two years. Aging does not necessarily equate to higher alcohol content; Hilson revealed the opposite is true. If any change occurs in alcohol content, it is actually reduced.
No matter how long he has worked in his craft, Hilson admits he is still not convinced he knows enough and continues to hone his skill and knowledge.
“For me, this is a craft and how does a craftsman get better at what he does? He just keeps doing it. You can learn every day if you want to; you have to be interested in trying to see what you can learn.”
The art of grape growing and winemaking, like so many other crafts, is comprised of many steps, and Hilson revels in the fact that every day working in the vineyards and making wine at Senamore is different.
“There are always challenges, always something new to do, and I feel like there is an opportunity to be better every day.”