In the rolling hills of western North Carolina, farming the land is a family business. You don’t have the massive hog or tobacco farms you see down east but rather much smaller establishments. Land is passed from generation to generation.
In Polk County, southeast of Asheville and hugging the South Carolina border, you’ll find plenty of families who can trace their ancestry back to the pioneers forging their way into the wilderness in the early years of the our country’s history.
Some 200+ years later, Alvin Pack is continuing that pioneer spirit at Green Creek Winery , and literally reinvented one of the most popular varietals of wine. A 7th generation Polk County resident, Pack says some of his ancestors came before James K. Polk was even president, and many were even illed by Cherokee natives.
The road that brought Pack back to his hometown was full of adventure just as Packs in the past may have known. Alvin headed west, working in real estate near San Francisco before returning to Polk County to start his winery on land that was a vineyard until prohibition. By reinventing his career, Pack was even featured on NBC’s Today Show a few years back.
But reinventing himself wasn’t enough. A few years ago, Pack had an idea to add some color to one of the most popular varieties of white wine: Chardonnay.
In 2007, he told his winemaker to try and make a red Chardonnay. Knowing the process to make red wine, any winemaker worth his grapes would know you can’t do that. The red color of wine comes from the skins of the grapes pressed into the juices (most grape juice is naturally clear). Chardonnay grapes don’t have color even in the skin, but another grape does: the French-American hybrid, Chambourcin.
In fact, Chambourcins, which grow great in North Carolina, have red pigment naturally in the juice. That means you have skins left over after fermentation, unlike other reds. Pack’s idea was to use the leftover Chambourcin skins and press it into the Chardonnay. The result was the world’s first red Chardonnay.
We didn’t get to taste it during our quick visit, because all 120 cases sell out within hours of release. Pack told Kate and I it tastes exactly like a Chardonnay (Wine Spectator did a double blind taste test) but looks red. This isn’t simply red juice mixing in (you don’t get any of the Chambourcin taste), so Pack stumbled upon a bona fide hit.
News about his little winery in the foothills has spread across the country and around the globe. There have been articles about it printed as far as Australia, Italy, and Germany. But all that exposure doesn’t seem to go to this down-home Carolina boy’s head. Pack still gives tours of the 10 acre vineyard on his golf cart to anyone who buys a glass of wine. There are also little signs of Pack’s sense of humor ranging from the wine-derful (kitschy wine-related pins printed out on his office computer hanging everywhere) to the weird (a label on the handsoap in the bathroom that says ‘Not For Feet’).
Kate and I did the tasting of a Cabernet Franc, a semi-sweet Chardonnay, and a sweet white for $3. Unfortunately, despite the international interest, they don’t have a web site, but if you’re ever driving along U.S. 74, it is worth it to stop there and some of the other Polk County wine spots, and hopeful you will get the pleasure to speak with Alvin like we did!
CabSavvy 