THE SEARCH CONTINUES...IN CHARLOTTESVILLE,VA.
Charlottesville seemed like the next logical place for us to explore. Here was a place with all sorts of magnets.....Montecello, University of Virginia, and at the time it was listed as one of the top 5 places to live in America by a major news magazine. It was prime for the tourist traffic we needed to sell our wine, and had just enough rural atmosphere combined with modernistic fare to make it attractive.
As in the previous episode, we put our faith in a local realtor to help guide us in our selection process. We needed someone to help sift through the numerous real estate listings so that when we raced down there we could get right to the business of fine tuning the searches and visiting the best properties with the highest potential.
She was a petit realtor. All piss and vinegar with a non-stop gift of gab, and 3 cell phones in the car ringing all the time. Her reasoning was that she was all over the counties and some phone services had better reception in some areas than others. With my limited experience with providers I can agree with her assessment, though it was annoying to be carrying on a conversation with her while she fielded what seemed to be a never-ending stream of incomings.
There was no doubt that she was successful. If it wasn't for her horses and her farm, her second love had to be running around looking at real estate (which provided her the funds to support the farm). She even had hired a special assistant to field calls, set up appointments, and put together fact pages so she didn't have any paperwork to do herself. A real machine.
Which provides all the background one needs to understand how the process went on. Though it was done in what appeared to be a pure volume approach, it did lead to a couple of serious offers being made which I'll get to in a moment. She took my criteria, basically ignored most of it, and bombed me with 20 to 30 to 50 listings for me to review for each trip that I had planned to make to the Charlottesville area. I must have visited the area 4 or 5 times. My basic response was to review them, all of them, ask enough questions so that I could trim the list down to maybe a half dozen or so (which I thought the criteria I had provided would do), and then schedule a trip down to Charlottesville for a day or two of running around. Pictures are deceiving, as well as the brief descriptions that are in the MLS listings, and more times than not a quick look while passing in a speeding car was all that was needed to rule out a property. It comes down again to a realtor not taking my time seriously by checking into some of these properties first. It's the "let's jam as many properties down their throats" scenario and maybe one of them will grab if for no other reason than it will wear them down and desiring to get something positive for all the effort spent.
But this was no normal expedition. It is one that'll have to be right for the next 40 years, or for that matter work well with our plans and dreams. It is not a nice place that we will live in "close to work and schools" that'll last us maybe a half dozen years and then we move on.
We saw properties that were fully wooded, where it would take thousands of dollars just to clear. We saw land absolutely destroyed by loggers, with old decaying tree stumps clogging the landscape, costing nearly just as much to clean up before we could start. We saw beautiful pieces of property where a square was carved out of the middle for a small property spin-off by the previous owner. We saw once again those infamous power lines going right through the middle of the property with all their right-of-ways. We saw land hidden so far back in the woods that vines would never see the light of day, excepting maybe from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
But we did see 2 properties that were interesting enough to make bids on, and this is where the repeat trips and bidding process began. Usually I would screen a property, and if I got really excited (Diane has a scale she measures my excitement with to decide if she should get involved herself), the 2 of us would go down to Charlottesville together for a 2nd look, and ultimately an offer to be made. Of course these trips resulted in a minny vacations.....going to see where Jefferson spent his time, or a drive through of the UVA campus. Trips included visiting many of the other wineries where we participated in tastings, or going out to eat at the many restaurants that were in the area.
The first property was down in Nelson County, about 30 minutes just south of Charlottesville. It was a nice piece of land....no buildings, rolling hills with a blend of wooded acreage and cleared land being used to raise cattle. It was out in the middle of no where, and unfortunately many of the rural homes that one had to drive by to get to it were not right up on top of the attractive scale (we were concerned about first impressions of visitors, as well as the ease to get there from the city). At this time we had intentions to build a restaurant, and have a B & B , which as time has moved on we have adjusted our way of thinking.
The realtor managed to schedule a meeting with the owner, who apparently lived near Newport News (hours away) working in the ship building trade. It was a property left to him by his father, one the wife never had any real attachments to, so it was his to price and sell "to the highest bidder". And that is what he thought we were. We gave him what we believed was a fair price. He differed. My interpretation of his side of the negotiation was that (a) the area had been cited as a best place to live, and therefore justified a premium, (b) developers had driven up the price of land based on this best place annoitment, (though none of them were interested in land within 10 to 20 miles) (c) it had some timber on the property and it was priced to reflect the additional income stream that we would get from the land, and (d) we were Yankees so because all Yankees are rich he should get a piece of that pie. Hmmmmm, not a great middle ground for buy-sell negotiations. He was unyielding, and there were just enough things that made us uncomfortable that we moved on. Oh well.
And then there was the 2nd property we really liked. Picture a long driveway with gorgeous trees lining each side of it, from entrance to the circa 1800's home at the end. On each side of the driveway there were cleared fields, currently being used for hay to feed 3 Arabian horses back in the stable (that came with the sale I might add). It was a very nice property with only one big problem.....for some reason the owner wouldn't show us the inside of the house !
We did eventually decide to put a bid on the property, but being refused entrance put a big kabosh on this one. I can't understand what they were thinking, and my normally aggressive realtor couldn't figure it out either, though she stated that they had a set price (regardless ?) that they weren't going to move from primarily because they had no initial plans as to what they were going to do once the house was sold. They had a business in an neighboring town, and they needed a certain amount of cash to make the move, whatever that means to a buyer. It was a beautiful spot, but time wasted.
Diane and I were now frustrated beyond belief. We saw the clock ticking, all these wasted trips leading to no where (though we did taste some very good, and not so very good, wines in western Virginia). Every trip that went by got us further away from starting our dream, not to mention the difficulties in timing our vineyard purchase with the sale of other real estate we owned in Massachusetts. We had a buyer up there who was getting itchy for a Close, but whom I kept putting off until we found the right land to purchase. It was a tense time.
But then Diane came up with a despiration hail-Mary suggestion.......why don't we look in eastern Virginia ? You gotta be kidding......inexpensive farm land closer to the ocean and populated areas ? It made no sense, but as I said, out of complete frustration, what was there to lose....
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
THE SEARCH BEGINS (Really).....
Asheville, North Carolina was our first "port of entry" so to speak. Home of The Biltmore, east of the Great Smokey Mountains. It met our geographical restriction being halfway down the eastern region of the United States. We firmly believed that the tourist trade was going to be our main customer base for our new winery, and at the time we also thought about having a small restaurant and an inn tied in with the vineyard and winery.
The Biltmore had a significant draw for this type of customer, and they had their own winery too which proved to us that it was a viable choice for what we wanted to do. And of course there was our own vacation appeal to go down and check it out.
But before we went I tied into a local real estate agent and explained to him what we wanted to do, i.e. develop a vineyard with all its amenities. Within short course I was deluged with all sorts of properties that "met this criteria", maybe 20 or so. It took some time to thump through them, but I was able to narrow it down to three that appeared to have some potential. I felt this was the right way to go about it, that is getting a local realtor who "knew the area", zip down and spend a few hours to give an initial check, and then decide the next move. In theory this is great, in actuality it became an utter disaster.
I asked my realtor to personally look at the properties and provide feedback, and told him that we would dedicate 4 to 6 hours driving around and looking at the properties. When you are judging distance looking at a AAA road atlas, this seemed a fairly reasonable request.
A few weeks later Diane and I were introduced to the mountains. We arrived as planned, checked into the hotel, contacted the realtor and confirmed our morning's appointment at 9, and settled in for what we thought was a well executed plan. I'm not sure what I pictured the realtor to look like when we met, but what I got was someone who looked like Mr. Brady from the Brady bunch.....a tall guy with a full head of curly hair and black horn rimmed glasses. Sorry, it didn't give me alot of confidence to begin the day. We were soon off to check Property #1 of 3 in his small blue sedan with uncomfortable seats and questionable shocks.
We drove off down the road and he started to look at some hand written directions to the land. This was before GPS became the big thing, and obviously the first time he had come this way. In fact, he hadn't visited any of the properties, and the input we had gotten during previous discussions had apparently been the best foot forward via MLS descriptions. Think "beautiful views of the mountains, clear water stream and pond for swimming and boating, perfect building site, ready access to State routes....." and you can see how I was able to narrow the search to 3 gorgeous sites.
Well, we couldn't find the first property right away. The car was hot, we were basically lost without a clue even though we knew the property was on that road somewhere. After an hour of going back, and forth, and back, and forth our realtor finally stopped at a trailer home overlooking the small back road and knocked on the door to see if THEY knew where the property was. He tried calling the listing agent too, and between the two we were able to find the well-hidden entrance down a ways. It was the starting entrance for some developer's plans for several upscale homes, with a fairly large chunk of land (with what appeared to be a concrete block 2-story barn) off in the corner. Yes, it did have a pond which I'm sure from one direction or another might have been picturesque, though not from where we entered from. The biggest boat for the size may have been a canoe or rowboat. Its farm land was overgrown and over-rated, and after the turmoil to get this far, we were ready to move on. The clock had been ticking faster than our progress; we were already half-way through the allotted time we had set aside, and we had 2 properties more to go, with a realtor who really had no clue where they were. Not good for the experience.
I don't even remember the 2nd piece of property, but the third one made a deep imprint on me.
If anyone knows the Asheville area well, they know of Lake Lure. Maybe 10 or 15 miles away from Asheville proper, it is a vacationer's vacation spot with an attractiveness much like Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. With all the water sports available for your entertainment, a place to go and just have fun, nestled in the surrounding mountains, it is just a nice place to escape.
We may not have taken the fastest way to get there, but we sure took the most direct way. A 2-lane road (hey, at least it was paved !) winding down a steep mountain side, first turning left, mandatory braking, then turning right, more braking, meandering our way down to the base of the steep incline until we reached the bottom. From there we drove just a little ways and found what appeared to be a cul-de-sac in the middle of no where. The car drove in, pausing in front of any visible sign, looking for the proper real estate ForSale sign for us to declare some sort of quiet victory. And there it was, a small driveway going into the piece of land for sale, and at the very end of the short driveway was a 2 story white house that was a handyman's dream (assuming he had nothing else better to do !)
The 3 of us got out of the car with some warped sense of enthusiasm, but like all abandoned properties we used a bit of caution as we approached the house. We gave it a circle, saw the screened in porch on the back, and immediately identified it as uninhabitable until it was given a major overhaul. Windows and doors were broken, junk all around; it gave abandonment a new meaning. We continued our tour, and as in all future real estate reviews Diane and I talked out loud on the positive things we felt about the land (Southern facing slopes are a good thing for a vineyard), and held off saying too much negative until we were alone and could vent.
We learned that to have land in the Asheville area required one leg shorter than the other.....it appeared that you were always on the side of a hill or mountain somewhere....no big pastures anywhere. And we were told U.S.40, the main Interstate in and out of there, was closed several times each winter because it iced over and trucks slid off the road not expecting the sheet of ice suddenly appearing on the occassional freezing night. Not a good sign. With this we also felt that if anyone had a little too much wine during a wine tasting, that we had better have great liability insurance, for they were sure to die in a car crash either going or returning from the winery. It was a tense enough trip being tired and sober, let alone a bit tipsy.
But one of the things you learn on these early reviews is what each of us didn't like, and Diane hated high tension power lines ! Not that I loved them, but what we found in future properties was that there seemed to be a large number of properties for sale with electrical power lines and their liens and right of ways going right down the middle of otherwise nice farming land. It's too bad I guess and I wish I had a solution to this eyesore but I don't. Maybe if I wasn't going to invest heavily in vines, posts, trellising, and wire it wouldn't matter. But since I am, it did.
You would think that was the end of this tour, but the finale was about to unfold. As we went back to the house and started towards the car, I looked at the front door of the house and saw that it had a stapled sign on the front door. What could it be ? I assumed a real estate sign, or maybe even a condemned sign after having taken a walk around the house. However, on closer inspection it turned out to be a posting by the DEA saying that there had been arrests there for drug manufacturing, and that they couldn't guarantee that during their sweeps they got all of the contraband out of there. If this wasn't an incentive to run clear, I don't know what is. Asheville was crossed off the list, and from here we were Charlottesville bound......
Asheville, North Carolina was our first "port of entry" so to speak. Home of The Biltmore, east of the Great Smokey Mountains. It met our geographical restriction being halfway down the eastern region of the United States. We firmly believed that the tourist trade was going to be our main customer base for our new winery, and at the time we also thought about having a small restaurant and an inn tied in with the vineyard and winery.
The Biltmore had a significant draw for this type of customer, and they had their own winery too which proved to us that it was a viable choice for what we wanted to do. And of course there was our own vacation appeal to go down and check it out.
But before we went I tied into a local real estate agent and explained to him what we wanted to do, i.e. develop a vineyard with all its amenities. Within short course I was deluged with all sorts of properties that "met this criteria", maybe 20 or so. It took some time to thump through them, but I was able to narrow it down to three that appeared to have some potential. I felt this was the right way to go about it, that is getting a local realtor who "knew the area", zip down and spend a few hours to give an initial check, and then decide the next move. In theory this is great, in actuality it became an utter disaster.
I asked my realtor to personally look at the properties and provide feedback, and told him that we would dedicate 4 to 6 hours driving around and looking at the properties. When you are judging distance looking at a AAA road atlas, this seemed a fairly reasonable request.
A few weeks later Diane and I were introduced to the mountains. We arrived as planned, checked into the hotel, contacted the realtor and confirmed our morning's appointment at 9, and settled in for what we thought was a well executed plan. I'm not sure what I pictured the realtor to look like when we met, but what I got was someone who looked like Mr. Brady from the Brady bunch.....a tall guy with a full head of curly hair and black horn rimmed glasses. Sorry, it didn't give me alot of confidence to begin the day. We were soon off to check Property #1 of 3 in his small blue sedan with uncomfortable seats and questionable shocks.
We drove off down the road and he started to look at some hand written directions to the land. This was before GPS became the big thing, and obviously the first time he had come this way. In fact, he hadn't visited any of the properties, and the input we had gotten during previous discussions had apparently been the best foot forward via MLS descriptions. Think "beautiful views of the mountains, clear water stream and pond for swimming and boating, perfect building site, ready access to State routes....." and you can see how I was able to narrow the search to 3 gorgeous sites.
Well, we couldn't find the first property right away. The car was hot, we were basically lost without a clue even though we knew the property was on that road somewhere. After an hour of going back, and forth, and back, and forth our realtor finally stopped at a trailer home overlooking the small back road and knocked on the door to see if THEY knew where the property was. He tried calling the listing agent too, and between the two we were able to find the well-hidden entrance down a ways. It was the starting entrance for some developer's plans for several upscale homes, with a fairly large chunk of land (with what appeared to be a concrete block 2-story barn) off in the corner. Yes, it did have a pond which I'm sure from one direction or another might have been picturesque, though not from where we entered from. The biggest boat for the size may have been a canoe or rowboat. Its farm land was overgrown and over-rated, and after the turmoil to get this far, we were ready to move on. The clock had been ticking faster than our progress; we were already half-way through the allotted time we had set aside, and we had 2 properties more to go, with a realtor who really had no clue where they were. Not good for the experience.
I don't even remember the 2nd piece of property, but the third one made a deep imprint on me.
If anyone knows the Asheville area well, they know of Lake Lure. Maybe 10 or 15 miles away from Asheville proper, it is a vacationer's vacation spot with an attractiveness much like Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. With all the water sports available for your entertainment, a place to go and just have fun, nestled in the surrounding mountains, it is just a nice place to escape.
We may not have taken the fastest way to get there, but we sure took the most direct way. A 2-lane road (hey, at least it was paved !) winding down a steep mountain side, first turning left, mandatory braking, then turning right, more braking, meandering our way down to the base of the steep incline until we reached the bottom. From there we drove just a little ways and found what appeared to be a cul-de-sac in the middle of no where. The car drove in, pausing in front of any visible sign, looking for the proper real estate ForSale sign for us to declare some sort of quiet victory. And there it was, a small driveway going into the piece of land for sale, and at the very end of the short driveway was a 2 story white house that was a handyman's dream (assuming he had nothing else better to do !)
The 3 of us got out of the car with some warped sense of enthusiasm, but like all abandoned properties we used a bit of caution as we approached the house. We gave it a circle, saw the screened in porch on the back, and immediately identified it as uninhabitable until it was given a major overhaul. Windows and doors were broken, junk all around; it gave abandonment a new meaning. We continued our tour, and as in all future real estate reviews Diane and I talked out loud on the positive things we felt about the land (Southern facing slopes are a good thing for a vineyard), and held off saying too much negative until we were alone and could vent.
We learned that to have land in the Asheville area required one leg shorter than the other.....it appeared that you were always on the side of a hill or mountain somewhere....no big pastures anywhere. And we were told U.S.40, the main Interstate in and out of there, was closed several times each winter because it iced over and trucks slid off the road not expecting the sheet of ice suddenly appearing on the occassional freezing night. Not a good sign. With this we also felt that if anyone had a little too much wine during a wine tasting, that we had better have great liability insurance, for they were sure to die in a car crash either going or returning from the winery. It was a tense enough trip being tired and sober, let alone a bit tipsy.
But one of the things you learn on these early reviews is what each of us didn't like, and Diane hated high tension power lines ! Not that I loved them, but what we found in future properties was that there seemed to be a large number of properties for sale with electrical power lines and their liens and right of ways going right down the middle of otherwise nice farming land. It's too bad I guess and I wish I had a solution to this eyesore but I don't. Maybe if I wasn't going to invest heavily in vines, posts, trellising, and wire it wouldn't matter. But since I am, it did.
You would think that was the end of this tour, but the finale was about to unfold. As we went back to the house and started towards the car, I looked at the front door of the house and saw that it had a stapled sign on the front door. What could it be ? I assumed a real estate sign, or maybe even a condemned sign after having taken a walk around the house. However, on closer inspection it turned out to be a posting by the DEA saying that there had been arrests there for drug manufacturing, and that they couldn't guarantee that during their sweeps they got all of the contraband out of there. If this wasn't an incentive to run clear, I don't know what is. Asheville was crossed off the list, and from here we were Charlottesville bound......
Sunday, August 16, 2009
SO YOU WANT TO BE A WINEGROWER
I'm beginning this story a few years after its inception so that after you read a dozen or so entries you will be well on your way to understanding the trials and tribulations of taking this (insane) dream of having a vineyard, accompanied by a winery and restaurant, to reality. Hopefully I'll keep it in some form of chronological order, but I suspect that I will regress at times as I remember something seemingly important, or maybe entering specific data to technically support an entry so if you are really serious in following suit you can use the facts instead of dealing with only passing generalities.
I certainly will make at times some brash comments and conclusions, most of which would make a wine scholar's skin crawl, but so be it. You see, even someone who studies everything they need to study to begin a venture like this, and who asks a gazillion questions to all the experts out there , is going to find out that there isn't just one way of doing this. And most likely they are going to have to make a decision, since no one else will, to just get the whole project moving. You can nit-pick to death and never get moving, or just do something and learn from one's findings or mistakes.
IN THE BEGINNING.........
The decision to set up a vineyard and winery (I'm not sure which really came first, but most likely the winery) was way back in 2004. Sure, I tinkered with grapevines in my backyard a good 20 years prior, but I think it took the realization that retirement was in the not too distant future and my wife and I had to come up with a plan .
My wife Diane and I have been married for over 35 years now (that's alot of dog years !) and during this time, after going through numerous job changes and trying to learn what we both enjoyed doing together, we settled on drinking wine as something that made both of us smile just thinking about. We had tried cycling, but knees hurt, then we tried scuba diving, but the thought of all that water above us seemed generally hazardous. We were both qualified to sail 43' vessels, but sailing around the Boston Harbor over and over in a rental became rather boring after awhile.
I took up flying; even went so far as to get my instruments license. But entering another recession with a kid in college put the kabosh on that expensive hobby, not to mention never having a plane available when we needed it.
I took up running marathons, but after a fractured leg mid-way through the Wine Glass Marathon (Corning, N.Y.), building up again to run Boston which I eventually qualified for and ran on one of their hottest marathon days ever, I was pretty much limited from then on to short distances. My legs had been spent. And this kind of exercise didn't appeal to Diane anyway; it is a lonely sport.
All of this eventually led me to doing a financial review. Our kids were both out of college and more or less on their own. We had our house, and my business(think Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate"), and some funds we had invested in. I came up with a number and with this, my mind spun with ideas on what to do for the 2nd half of our lives.
One of the reasons our marriage has lasted so long is that Diane and I have an unwritten rule in our house. It is the power of veto over whimsy ideas. We both have been "granted" this power, but I have to conclude that I seem to have more whimsy ideas, and hence more vetos, than Diane.
I made a proposal. Sell everything, buy a 40' yacht, and sail around the world for the rest of our lives (after up front boat expenses, it only costs around $15,000 per year to maintain this lifestyle), OR purchase land and start a vineyard, with the idea that a few years later we would build a winery and restaurant next to it. Even in hard times we would always have food and wine......what else do you need ??!!
Diane opted for the winery. She believed eating all that seafood would wear thin after awhile, not to mention having only me and maybe a stupid little dog or cat to talk to for weeks at a time might be a tad grueling. And besides, to find the right land to purchase would take some time, and maybe another great idea might replace it. Also, I was never one for vacations so to go on this land hunt gave us an incentive to pack our bags and travel.
2004 -2005 The Land Search
Our inital search for possible vineyard sites was focused on the mid-Atlantic. There were a few reasons for this. One, we didn't really want to be too close to any relatives. Far enough for a visit, not too close for continual path-crossing. This is probably more my idea, since half of Diane's family lived in the mid-West with the balance in New England in various townships. 2/3 of my family lived near Daytona with 1/3 on Cape Cod. Our kids were also spread apart, and were fairly independent, so no one needed hand holding. For this the mid-Atlantic states seemed like a good compromise. Take this with the fact that no one in my family truly enjoyed the snow and ugly winters , and tie it with the thought of an extended growing season as you traveled South, and the decision seemed a natural. Now it was time to zero in on a spot.
Needlesstosay my resident social chairman had thoughts on our first jaunt, to go to Asheville....
I'm beginning this story a few years after its inception so that after you read a dozen or so entries you will be well on your way to understanding the trials and tribulations of taking this (insane) dream of having a vineyard, accompanied by a winery and restaurant, to reality. Hopefully I'll keep it in some form of chronological order, but I suspect that I will regress at times as I remember something seemingly important, or maybe entering specific data to technically support an entry so if you are really serious in following suit you can use the facts instead of dealing with only passing generalities.
I certainly will make at times some brash comments and conclusions, most of which would make a wine scholar's skin crawl, but so be it. You see, even someone who studies everything they need to study to begin a venture like this, and who asks a gazillion questions to all the experts out there , is going to find out that there isn't just one way of doing this. And most likely they are going to have to make a decision, since no one else will, to just get the whole project moving. You can nit-pick to death and never get moving, or just do something and learn from one's findings or mistakes.
IN THE BEGINNING.........
The decision to set up a vineyard and winery (I'm not sure which really came first, but most likely the winery) was way back in 2004. Sure, I tinkered with grapevines in my backyard a good 20 years prior, but I think it took the realization that retirement was in the not too distant future and my wife and I had to come up with a plan .
My wife Diane and I have been married for over 35 years now (that's alot of dog years !) and during this time, after going through numerous job changes and trying to learn what we both enjoyed doing together, we settled on drinking wine as something that made both of us smile just thinking about. We had tried cycling, but knees hurt, then we tried scuba diving, but the thought of all that water above us seemed generally hazardous. We were both qualified to sail 43' vessels, but sailing around the Boston Harbor over and over in a rental became rather boring after awhile.
I took up flying; even went so far as to get my instruments license. But entering another recession with a kid in college put the kabosh on that expensive hobby, not to mention never having a plane available when we needed it.
I took up running marathons, but after a fractured leg mid-way through the Wine Glass Marathon (Corning, N.Y.), building up again to run Boston which I eventually qualified for and ran on one of their hottest marathon days ever, I was pretty much limited from then on to short distances. My legs had been spent. And this kind of exercise didn't appeal to Diane anyway; it is a lonely sport.
All of this eventually led me to doing a financial review. Our kids were both out of college and more or less on their own. We had our house, and my business(think Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate"), and some funds we had invested in. I came up with a number and with this, my mind spun with ideas on what to do for the 2nd half of our lives.
One of the reasons our marriage has lasted so long is that Diane and I have an unwritten rule in our house. It is the power of veto over whimsy ideas. We both have been "granted" this power, but I have to conclude that I seem to have more whimsy ideas, and hence more vetos, than Diane.
I made a proposal. Sell everything, buy a 40' yacht, and sail around the world for the rest of our lives (after up front boat expenses, it only costs around $15,000 per year to maintain this lifestyle), OR purchase land and start a vineyard, with the idea that a few years later we would build a winery and restaurant next to it. Even in hard times we would always have food and wine......what else do you need ??!!
Diane opted for the winery. She believed eating all that seafood would wear thin after awhile, not to mention having only me and maybe a stupid little dog or cat to talk to for weeks at a time might be a tad grueling. And besides, to find the right land to purchase would take some time, and maybe another great idea might replace it. Also, I was never one for vacations so to go on this land hunt gave us an incentive to pack our bags and travel.
2004 -2005 The Land Search
Our inital search for possible vineyard sites was focused on the mid-Atlantic. There were a few reasons for this. One, we didn't really want to be too close to any relatives. Far enough for a visit, not too close for continual path-crossing. This is probably more my idea, since half of Diane's family lived in the mid-West with the balance in New England in various townships. 2/3 of my family lived near Daytona with 1/3 on Cape Cod. Our kids were also spread apart, and were fairly independent, so no one needed hand holding. For this the mid-Atlantic states seemed like a good compromise. Take this with the fact that no one in my family truly enjoyed the snow and ugly winters , and tie it with the thought of an extended growing season as you traveled South, and the decision seemed a natural. Now it was time to zero in on a spot.
Needlesstosay my resident social chairman had thoughts on our first jaunt, to go to Asheville....
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