Jack’s Tale

Jack's story has humble beginnings. He learned everything about hard work, gratefulness, and an appreciation for growing crops from his grandparents, Charlie and Ida. His grandma taught him to make wine, while he learned about other notorious mountain spirits from old characters where he worked in the old pool room. Those experiences had planted a seed, and after serving in the Korean War, he landed in California at the ripe age of 22, a short distance from Napa Valley. He found himself spending a lot of time there, learning more about vineyards, winemaking, and experiencing the early stages of their now world-renown wine culture.

Jack always longed to return home to the Blue Ridge Mountains. He made his start by moving to Charlotte, NC and marrying the love of his life, JoAnn. Together, they started a family and began successful janitorial business that serviced many of Charlotte’s downtown buildings, all the while making plans to return to the mountains. He’d go to up to the mountains each weekend, using any profits he made to purchase farms with planting fields of Christmas Trees on the mind.

In 1962, Jack planted his first crop of Fraser Fir Christmas Trees. Most people thought he was crazy for planting trees in such large quantities since that wasn’t a common practice at the time, but it made a way to move his young family home to the mountains. Now, present day, growing and selling large quantities of Christmas Trees is the livelihood of many families throughout the High Country, and Jack’s children and grandchildren continue his legacy of growing and selling Christmas Trees from the same farms he purchased in the 60s.

Jack's passion for cultivating and harvesting trees paved the way for him to do the same with his vineyard. In his mid-70s, he began growing grapevines on a farm in Linville Falls: one of the first farms he acquired when he had moved back to the mountains. It has beautiful Southeast-facing slopes with a mild microclimate that seems to resist heavy Summer storms. As the vines yielded their first crops he began to learn the grape varieties that thrived here in the Appalachian High Country.

In 2012, at the young age of 80, he opened Linville Falls Winery for business, fulfilling a lifelong dream. Now, he has the joy passing on this additional legacy to his grandkids, all while sharing the love of growing, hard work, and good wine with those around him. We welcome you to come share with us, too!