Vino and a view at Ramulose Ridge Vineyards
At Ramulose Ridge Vineyards, take in the striking scenery with your Syrah
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
7. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
8. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
9. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area
10. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
Friday, August 2, 2013
If only they could bottle the view from the patio at Ramulose Ridge Vineyards.
Looking out over the Bedford County countryside, the rolling green hills, small lake shimmering in the sun, the outline of distant mountains and rows of neatly planted grapevines present a picturesque panorama.
It’s the perfect setting for visitors who want to relax and enjoy a cool breeze along with a glass of one of the nine varieties of wine that are produced, bottled, labeled and sold on site off Hendricks Store Road.
It was a stroke of good luck for vineyard owner Jim Ramaker and wife Sandi, both 56, when Jim got a job as chief executive officer at Virginia Candle Company in 2006. The couple moved from Hong Kong, where Jim was working, to Lynchburg. They were thrilled to be close to the 100 acres they had purchased as a getaway in Bedford County while living in North Carolina a decade earlier.
Things fell into place again years later. Jim Ramaker and son Mitchell, who co-owns the winery with his dad, were looking through the dictionary in search of a name for the winery they planned to open.
“They were looking for names that used Ramaker, and they found ‘ramulose,’ which means having many branches,” said Sandi.
Ramulose Ridge Vineyards opened Thursday almost 10 years after the first plants went into the ground. The opening brings the number of wineries in the SML area to six.
The couple could have used some of that serendipity when getting their business up and running.
“It’s been tough,” Jim said from the patio of the building that houses a tasting room and production facilities on the lower level and a 1,100-square-foot event space, for lease, that opens onto the patio on the upper level.
“We planted the vineyards during a drought and lost a lot of plants,” recalled Sandi.
“It took longer than we thought — there was [government] red tape, and the zoning took a while,” added Jim.
Last year, the first grapes were harvested.
What has seemed like never-ending rain this summer has not hurt the grapes or caused disease, although it’s important to keep them dry so the grapes don’t get too big, which can decrease the sugar content and interfere with the fermentation, according to Sandi.
She, Jim, Mitchell and Mitchell’s wife, Michelle, have learned to deal with the ups and downs of opening a family business, particularly one whose success depends in part on Mother Nature.
“It’s farming; we’d love to have rain and snow all winter and no rain in summer, but it’s farming,” said Sandi, the resident wine expert.
While she and Jim were living in Hong Kong, Sandi took online courses from the University of California-Davis, generally considered to offer some of the best wine-making educational courses in the country, she said.
Jim oversees the entire operation. Mitchell, who works full time in Roanoke, is most knowledgeable about the grapes; Michelle, who met her husband when both worked summer jobs at Pizza Pub at Bridgewater Plaza, is general manager and handles sales. They have three children ages 6, 4 and 2.
This year, Jim said, he expects a Viognier and a Vidal blanc, both white wines , and a Cabernet franc and a Syrah, both reds, to be the winery’s premium offerings. He said he hopes to eventually bottle 14 varieties, including some sweet wines.
The price for tasting the wine has not been determined. Neither have the hours of operation, although for now, it will be open Thursday s through Sundays from noon until 5 p.m.
Jim said he hopes the winery will become a destination for tourists and locals. The pastoral setting can’t hurt — neither can the almost-constant breeze that blows through the patio, a boon to growing grapes, according to Michelle.
“Air flow keeps grapes dry, and the mildew won’t get into them,” she said. “It can ruin your crop if it does.”
Just off the tasting room on the building’s lower level, a small brick patio with a swing and two chairs invites visitors to sip and take in another view of the Bedford County landscape. Although the view is different and not as grand as the one from the upper-level patio, Sandi said it’s a good place for visitors to kick back.
“After all, the point of wine is to relax and not worry about the rest of the world, right?”
Ramulose Ridge Vineyards and Winery, 3061 Hendricks Store Road, Moneta. 309-6374.
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
7. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
8. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
9. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area
10. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
THE ROANOKE TIMES
