Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507240012
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Long
Founded in 1978 as Woolwine Winery by William Morrisette, the Floyd County company was renamed and incorporated four years later. Son David Morrisette, now 35, moved in as company president and has taken the small vineyard to a full-scale winery with a 120-seat restaurant and retail and wholesale operations.
The company's steady growth accelerated in the 1990s and has topped 30 percent in each of the last five years. Morrisette attributes that to "good wines, increased awareness of our product, repeat and word-of-mouth business, marketing and public relations."
Sitting on a hilltop just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in the southern tip of Floyd County, the winery has become a popular destination for Roanokers hungry for a gourmet brunch or North Carolina neighbors attracted to the winery's summer jazz festivals. The food and music create a backdrop to showcase the wines.
The company's Wine Club members number 3,000, and their Grapevine newsletter mailing list exceeds 20,000.
"We're the biggest customer little Meadows of Dan post office has ever seen," said winemaker Bob Burgin.
Morrisette won't release sales figures, but the family owned business produces 25,000 cases of wine each year, making it the third-largest winery in terms of production of the 43 in Virginia.
While thousands enjoy their wines throughout the year, work behind the scenes never ends for the 45 full- and part-time employees.
Grapes are harvested on and off from August through October. For white wine, the fruit is pressed into juice and begins fermentation. Grapes for red wine begin fermenting in their skins for color and flavor.
Fermentation for white wines takes four to 12 weeks; for red wines, about 30 days. At the end of this process, "musical barrels" commences, with the wine being moved between oak barrels and stainless steel tanks to remove sediment that forms naturally in the bottom. This is done three times at six-week intervals.
Then there's blending, clarifying, chilling and a host of activities to ensure the quality of the wine. Most wines are bottled in spring and summer, but, depending on the aging process, the winery can be bottling during any month.
Meanwhile, at the vineyard, a crew is examining the vines. Chateau Morrisette maintains two vineyards a few miles and more than a thousand feet in elevation apart to provide various grapes for their 10 types of wine.
A rough pruning of the vines is started in January and can take up to two and a half months; a second pruning is done just before the buds break open in mid-April. With a total of 30 acres, this translates into 18,000 vines and zillions of grapes.
"The wine business is different from other agriculture-related businesses," Burgin said. "We have the same risks as other farmers, but once our crop is harvested, we carry it through a whole other process in which there is additional risk."
It's one of the rare businesses that both creates the raw product and processes it into the consumable product, then markets, sells and ships it.
The staff that does all this is both experienced and educated. Morrisette and Burgin have degrees in oenology and viticulture from Mississippi State University. (Oenology comes from the Greek word oinos which means wine. Viti comes from the Latin word vitis which means vine.)
Assistant winemaker Donna Wilkinson is a graduate of the oenology program at Fresno State and worked at the Gallo Winery in California before moving east.
Le Chien Noir, the upscale restaurant at Chateau Morrisette, is open year-round and serves entrees like sauteed loin of rabbit, baked oysters Bienville and grilled buffalo flank steak. It was expanded last year to serve around 80 guests inside and 40 or so more on the deck overlooking the mountains and valleys to the west.
The front exterior of the main building is being dressed up this year, primarily to mask the new 2,000-square-foot kitchen and create a more pleasant appearance. Plans are under way to build a new wine production facility on the property. It will be "a substantial building," according to Morrisette, and will house state-of-the-art winemaking equipment, most of which has already been purchased.
There are no plans for more vineyards because the climate on the Blue Ridge Parkway can be quite cold. "There can be problems if the temperature drops to five degrees, and last year it hit minus 45," Morrisette said. He plans to contract with grape growers in Virginia as the winery continues its growth.
About half of all wine sales are made at the winery. Wines are distributed wholesale only in Virginia and North Carolina.
Gift sales including books, wine accessories, and clothing and glasses with the Chateau Morrisette name and logo account for one-fourth of retail sales. Seventy-five percent of those sales are the winery's T-shirts.
And then there's the love affair with the black dog. He's in the logo. Le Chien Noir is "the black dog" in French. There are Black Dog Jazz Concerts and Black Dog red wine and Black Dog Blanc.
The resident black dog is 2 1/2-year-old Nicholas, a sleek, very happy, very handsome mascot. His paw print can be found on the newsletter above the title "editor." And one can only wonder if he's ever participated in a wine tasting.
by CNB