By Gary Pitts
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-995651.mp3
Paris, TN – As you may know, wine is one of the region's fastest growing industries. Just within the reach of this radio signal, there are seven operating wineries in southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and western Tennessee. According to Kentucky Wine dot com, this region has an excellent climate for vineyards, and prior to the prohibition era, wine was one of the state's biggest cash crops. In recent years, the wine industry has been making a comeback with the number of wineries in the state more than tripling in the past five years. But now that we have entered the cold of winter, what do winemaker's do? Do they just sit around and wait for the sun to come out again? WKMS's Gary Pitts visited the Paris Winery in Paris, Tennessee to find out.
GARY: As you drive south of Paris on Highway 641, you'll come upon fields with vines weaving through wood posts across the rolling hills of the Paris Winery. A number of buildings stand clustered in the center of the property, and signs direct you toward the tasting room and restaurant. It's there that I meet up with owners Lisa and Ruggero Ciarrocchi.
Entering the winery
RUGGERO: "Well here we are. This is the, well, what we call the American vineyard because Concord and Muscatine are American grapes."
GARY: The Ciarrocchi's started planting the vineyard here around eight years ago because they said it reminded them of Tuscany. And they opened for business in 2008. It's cold, but it doesn't look like the place is getting ready board up and shut down. Lisa is in the tasting room, which she says stays busy year round.
LISA: "We do wine tasting all day, every day. We have 26 wines to choose from. We usually like to do 6. That's enough to try and not get too confused."
GARY: That's a nice way of saying drunk. Lisa says this time of year, many customers like to have holiday parties at the winery. And as far as wine sales go, she says they're busier during the holidays than any other time.
LISA: "You know we do a lot of gift baskets. It's like the gift everybody loves to get."
GARY: And Ruggero says it doesn't matter what kind.
RUGGERO: "It really depends on what you like. We tell people, you know, they say drink white wine with fish. But if you don't like white wine, drink red wine. I drink red wine with basically everything."
GARY: Making those reds and whites continues throughout the year, no matter the temperature outside. And in preparation for the holidays, Ruggero stays busy making a spiced apple holiday wine.
RUGGERO: "There's a lot of different things that go into the apple wine. Besides the flavoring of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg. You have the wine itself, the amount of sugar for sweetness. We are in the south. Everybody likes it sweet. We probably sell over a thousand bottles."
GARY: The spiced apple is just one of many wines in process. So the wine making never stops. But, since it's cold outside, and there are no grapes on the vine, at least the work they do is in a warm place and not out in the vineyard, right?
RUGGERO: "We got the grass cut real short. And we got it all cleaned up. And we get these rolls of fabric that's a weed block or grass block."
GARY: Theses lengths of fabric are about four feet wide and stretch the length of a football field. Ruggero says by laying them out, he can keep the grass from growing which not only cuts out grooming labor during the Spring and Summer, but it's also good for the grapes. He says if there's no grass, the grapes get all of the nutrients. So now all he has to do cover ground underneath the nearly 10,000 vines with the fabric. And then there's pruning.
RUGGERO: "That's a long process. It takes us about four weeks if every day is beautiful weather, which never has happened yet. So it usually takes us two months. And then the cold is a definite factor because January and February are the coldest month, and it gets to be pretty hard on the hands. "
GARY: So other than being one of the busiest seasons as a party venue, and the busiest season for sales, and continuing to make wine, and grooming the fields, and pruning the vines, all with a small staff, running a winery sounds pretty easy, right?
RUGGERO: "They like the wine, and that's, for me that's everything. Otherwise I'd go and work a forty hour a week job like everybody else. It's easy."
GARY: So the next time you sit back and relax with a glass of wine, here's hoping the people who make it for you have time to do the same.
Song playing out