Wine flows near Haw River

This is the 11th story in our "Open Road" summer series, which looks at unusual spots across the state. Look for it every Tuesday.

MEBANE - Debbie and Gene Stikeleather didn't intend to start a winery.

They really just wanted to preserve an abandoned, 60-acre tobacco farm in Mebane from becoming another subdivision in this bedroom community just west of Hillsborough.

The couple - he a gate company owner and she a former textile worker and office manager - planted grapes to get the land in a voluntary agricultural district and keep bulldozers away.

But for Debbie Stikeleather, growing and selling a crop wasn't a challenge. In 2000, she enrolled in the maiden viticulture program at Surry Community College in Dobson.

"Until we had this farm, we did not drink wine at all," she said.

Now, they have eight acres of grape vines, including merlot, viognier and sauvignon blanc, and they make 10 wines, plus two fruit wines.

Last year, their vineyard, The Winery at Iron Gate Farm, named for a set of pre-Civil War gates Gene Stikeleather had found, became part of the newly created Haw River Valley Appellation, a federally recognized grape-growing area.

They hope the designation puts them and the Piedmont on the state winery map.

Vintners band together

The Haw River Valley Appellation sweeps through five counties and includes six wineries: Iron Gate, Benjamin in Graham, GlenMarie in Burlington, Grove in Gibonsville, Wolfe Wines in Snow Camp and SilkHope in Pittsboro.

Four of the vintners had created the 50-mile Haw River Trail five years ago, but they wanted to find other ways to entice tourists and applied to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for the appellation designation, according to Robert Cox, director of the Alamance County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"If they all work together, they get more for their money," Cox said.

The group meets once a month, sometimes at Cox's office, but other times they rotate vineyards.

"The wine community is very close," Stikeleather said. "We've found out if we don't work together, we are not going to survive."

Fruits of their labor

To get to Iron Gate from Raleigh, exit off Interstate 40 onto Buckhorn Road and wind your way through downtown Mebane, past Huey's Oyster Bar, the A&M Grill, the old White Furniture factory and head out N.C. 119. Iron Gate's sign on Lynch Store Road sits among church signs pointing the same direction.

Across from Craig Hall Taxidermy on the left is the vineyard, with Carolina blue bird netting over the grape vines. It's not quite Tuscany, but Debbie Stikeleather has moved the earth to make the farm an orderly, Martha Stewart-perfect landscape with roses at the ends of the vine rows and an heirloom tomato vine at the tasting room entrance.

This month is harvest time in the wine business. At Iron Gate, the whites were harvested last week, and the reds,heavy and pregnant on the vine, are getting picked as we speak.

During harvest, Debbie Stikeleather works from sun up into the wee hours of the next day, seven days a week.

The vineyard has become their life. The Stikeleathers were married on the bank of the farm's pond on Aug. 3, 2002. They spent their honeymoon picking the first grape crop for wine production. A year later, they produced their first bottle and opened the tasting room in 2004.

In 2005, their cabernet won the North Carolina Winegrower's Cup.

The Stikeleathers hope their vineyard can revitalize downtown Mebane. They host concerts every Sunday at the vineyard, an annual art show and a farm day . This year, they will open a holiday store at the new Tanger Outlets six miles from the vineyard and provide shuttle service from the vineyard to the outlets and downtown Mebane.

"We want to reach a whole new set of people who don't know about us," she said.

On the vineyard trail

Gene and Loren Schlesinger of Greensboro enjoyed a day off work last week tasting Iron Gate's varietals and blends. Gene Schlesinger was partial to the Pack House Red, a mix of sangiovese, merlot and chambourcin grapes with tastes of smoke, leather and cinnamon.

"We like going out wandering to see what we can find," said Loren Schlesinger.

Since Iron Gate opened, other Piedmont wine pioneers have followed.

In 2008, Floyd and Barbara Wolfe opened Wolfe Wines in Snow Camp.

The couple made fruit wine for 33 years; blackberry was their specialty. A friend told them to go professional.

So the Wolfes built the winery and now make five grape wines plus blackberry, kiwi, cherry and raspberry wines.

"A lot of people see fruit wines and think sweet, but we make dry, semi and sweet wines," he said, adding they grow most of the produce on their farm, including the kiwi.

In 2001, Nancy and Andy Zeman gave up their lives as a microbiologist and chemical engineer to open the Benjamin Vineyard, named for her late father. The vineyard has five acres of 16 different grapes and offers "paddle dinners" where guests begin with a guided canoe tour on the Haw followed by dinner and wine at the vineyard.

"It was a hobby that got out of hand," Nancy Zeman said.

Sitting at an annual N.C. Winegrowers meeting, they overheard the Stikeleathers talking about building their vineyard. It was a lucky coincidence because the couples have worked together to bring in tourists.

"We hope we're bringing recognition to the Piedmont," Nancy Zeman said. "We want people to know we have wine, and it's good wine. They don't have to purchase wine that comes from half way around the world."