Living the Wine Life

Filed in archive Wine Making on October 15, 2006

Growing grapes, even if they do eventually get magically turned into bottles of tasty vino, is akin to any other sort of agricultural work. It's hard, but it can be very rewarding as well.

In a series of articles about the wine life, The Daily Journal talks with Bill Crawford, owner of McDowell Valley Vineyards, about his life, his work, and making wine:

"It's a great way of life, a great place to raise a family, but it's risky," Bill Crawford, owner of McDowell Valley Vineyards said when asked about his chosen profession.

In fact, it's gotten even more competitive over the years, said the winemaker and grape grower -- who calls himself a "winegrower" -- currently in his 37th harvest.

"We have almost 300 acres of grapes, which amounts to about 1,000 ton of grapes per harvest, on average," he said of his family ranch, purchased by his father, also Bill Crawford, in 1970, a year before he died in a plane crash.

And while he grows enough grapes to produce about 100,000 cases of wine a year, Crawford, who now works on a much smaller scale, has been there and done that.