Greenville is home to many activities, and now residents and visitors of Pitt County can add a vineyard and winery to the list of attractions.
Seven Pines Vineyard & Winery is the first and only winery in Pitt County located at 544 Seven Pines Road in Fountain, North Carolina. The vineyard and winery is co-owned by Philip Guy and his wife, Corinee Guy, who is an English professor at East Carolina University and president of Seven Pines. The business received its permits for winemaking three years ago and have not looked back.
"Homemade winemaking is a hobby of mine and our soils here at the farm grow wine grapes very well. I just decided that when I retire, I would turn my hobby into a business," Philip said.
According to Robin Ashley, the market manager of the Umbrella Market, Seven Pines Vineyard & Winery has made a name for itself within the community for the niche it has carved out. Seven Pines is a vendor in the Umbrella Market, and Ashley said the winery has been a pleasure to work with because of its ability to bring something new to the Greenville area.
"We are always supportive of a local business and especially a local business that is unique," Ashley said. "Seven Pines is extremely unique for the area because they are Pitt County's only winery."
The 14 different labels of wine Seven Pines offers can be found in numerous local shops such as Jarvis Street Bottle Shop, Village Point Market or Firefly Wine Shop. A bottle of wine from the Seven Pines Vineyard & Winery sells for anywhere from $12 to $18.
Seven Pines Vineyard is also "no-spray" vineyard, meaning the Guys do not use any pesticides on the grapes used for their wines.
"It's a very natural process to do production organically," Philip said. "Because we do not spray, you can eat our grapes right off the vine in September."
Philip said he has a special way of harvesting his grapes that is rare in winemaking today- he harvests all of his grapes by hands, not with machines. Philip said he does this to ensure all grapes going into the wine are completely ripe and no grapes are picked before they are ready.
"By very carefully harvesting only the ripe grapes, we think that it makes for a better tasting wine," Philip said. "We're very happy to make some handcrafted, boutique wine."
According to Philip, the start for Seven Pines was a trying process with the vineyard taking five years to grow to the point is it now. But the future of the vineyard and winery is very clear to Philip.
"Our biggest plan for the future is to open a tasting room right in the middle of our vineyard. We have a place where we are going to have a small building and that will be our tasting room where people can come out for a traditional tasting and tours," Philip said. "People can buy wine directly from us and have a brief tour of our vines and just enjoy being out here in the countryside."
Original source: http://www.theeastcarolinian.com/news/article_1b343ef0-68e3-11e8-a2d4-fff0dbc05dfe.html
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