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5 Minutes With ...: Mary Ann Hardman, Co-owner, Persimmon Creek Winery
Wine from a North Georgia vineyard is showing up on the finest tables across the country.
June 1, 2008
A
tlanta Woman : Why did you and you husband start Persimmon Creek Vineyards?
Mary Ann Hardman: Well, I must say that the vineyard was first totally my
husband's idea and passion. I was a bit distracted with twin boys, now age 9, in 1999 when we
bought 10 acres (we now have 110) specifically for the purpose of a
vineyard.
He wanted to grow vitis vinifera (the European wine grape) out of a real love for
horticulture. Really it is viticulture ... but it was the love of growing something that could have
a taste of a place, a taste of the Persimmon Valley.
AW:
Why did you select Rabun County?
Hardman: My husband Sonny's mother grew up in Rabun County, and her family lineage
goes way back into Rabun County lore. Our land is just not a random piece of land we paid for
and acquired like a brand new car. We bought more than land; we bought a reconnection to a place
that was Sonny's family tree. We chose Rabun County because of the roots there already ...
the old schoolhouse that my mother-in-law attended is about three miles from our
vineyard.
Her mother, Icie Dixon Wofford, is buried around the bend from the schoolhouse. Our land is
a place for us with meaning.
AW
: Why a vineyard?
Hardman: Sonny is an Emory University School of Medicine-trained
dermatopathologist, and I think he wanted to have an outlet from the rigors of practicing medicine,
an outlet from the microscope. The vineyard was seen as something rewarding and fulfilling in a
more tangible, earthy way.
AW
: How does one start a vineyard?
Hardman: Well, that could take all day and all night and a trip to the therapist
to explain! It is spelled W-O-R-K. Endurance. A vineyard is agriculture, pure and simple. In order
to start a vineyard, you need the following – one heaping cup of aspiration, three heaping cups of
perspiration, a dash of ingenuity, a rounded tablespoon of determination, insanity, and love. And
that is before you even have wine in the bottle to sell – or try to
sell.
There are so, so, so many details. You have the "what to plant"... which variety of vines to
plant is not enough to know. It goes further than that. You have to know which clone of each
variety, which rootstock you'd like to order. You don't call up "1.800.grapevine" and just order
"Riesling."
AW
: What's next?
Hardman: You then have to make the "where-to-plant" decision. Mangroves do not
grow in North Georgia well, and neither will some varieties of grapes. The variety of grape chosen
must agree with the climate. And soil. Our climate is cold climate. Because our growing season is
short, we must choose grapes that are both late budding as well as early ripening within the
growing season that we have.
AW
: That's it?
Hardman: It gets trickier. Within a vineyard, there are microclimates. For
example, by the creek the temperature is 4 degrees cooler than on top of the hill ... well, who
cares? As a farmer you care desperately when it is April; there is vineyard bud break, and the
temperatures are looming at 32 degrees and 28 degrees outside, and your crop, your grapes, could
freeze.
AW
: What about planting?
Hardman: Then there is the "why" of the trellis system. How much stress do you
want to place on the vines? How much yield per acre do you want? How close are you planting the
vines? What sort of vigor and stress are you looking to create on the
vines?
Textbooks are written on this subject, gray hairs are created and lost, but on the other
hand – beautiful wines that have a taste of their soil are grown every day all over the world.
Truly, the world of wine is flat. Good, real wines are coming from unexpected places – India,
Israel, Japan, and yes, even from Georgia. We need to embrace "local" to not just include "plow to
plate" but to also include "fork to plate to wine glass."
AW
: What wines do you grow?
Hardman: We grow riesling, cabernet franc, seyval blanc and merlot because they
are cold climate grapes, which match our elevation and climate. We are in Georgia, but the climate
in Rabun County is way different than in Atlanta. Always at least 10 degrees cooler and the seasons
come in differently.
Those varietals match our soil, climate, and microclimates. We have seyval blanc planted by
the Persimmon Creek, as it is the most cold hardy of all the grapes we grow. Everything is planted
according to microclimates within the vineyard itself. Nothing is just random. Sonny chose only
four varieties to plant because he figured he could be most effective on fewer options ... more
focus on each in order to yield better quality.
AW
: How do you brand and market the wine?
Hardman: Our wine is unique because it is grown in Georgia. Our logo is a
butterfly. We try to tell people about Persimmon Creek with grace and gratitude. We write
handwritten notes, sometimes in calligraphy with the envelope sealed with the butterfly embossed
wax. And, the gratitude is not after the order, it is after every appointment, even if no order is
placed. I want our brand to stand for integrity, quality, service, and genuine
hospitality.
AW
: The wine is served in several exclusive restaurants and hotels, including the Ritz-Carlton.
How were you able to get your product in such a tight market?
Hardman: Passion. I really do not see our wine as a "product" that I am
"selling." It is our vineyard in a bottle. I think I convey that love, that attachment to our soil,
our place. I bring leaves from the vineyard, prunings in winter, grapes during the growing season.
My job is to bring the vineyard to the person I am calling on. The quality of the wine is why it is
served in San Francisco at Quince, in New York at Apropos, at The Cloister at Sea Island, even at
Augusta National. I am just a messenger.
AW
: What was the most difficult part of starting and succeeding in your business?
Hardman: Getting people to understand that good wine does not just come from Napa
or Bordeaux. Stereotypes are hard to break. Also, juggling homes, children, marketing, delivering
and mothering is at times very daunting.
AW
: What did it feel like to order your wine from a restaurant for the first time?
Hardman: Incredibly honored, like getting your child into a really good
school.
AW
: Do Georgia vineyards get the same respect as wines from other states?
Hardman: Not yet, but especially outside of Georgia, the global wine trade is very
interested in our viticultural efforts here in Georgia. The general public here in Georgia,
however, on a large scale is very receptive to learning about and trying homegrown wines. The tide
is beginning to turn. It takes time to change perceptions and stereotypes.
AW:
What is your favorite wine?
Hardman: I look to history, as I love the fact that wine is reflection of a
time, a place. I am a huge Thomas Jefferson fan. HUGE. Thomas Jefferson loved wine so much that he
grew grapes at his home in Paris as well as trying to at Monticello. I think it is wonderful we can
still buy wines today that he savored in Bordeaux and bought for Washington and Adams as well as
for his own presidential cellar.
Château d'Yquem of course is one of the wines he enjoyed. It is an iconoclastic and graceful
wine, made now only when botrytis cinerea (noble rot) is present in the grapes....Château d'Yquem,
of course, is very expensive nowadays (as it was then), but I love the fact he bought it from a
female proprietress as well as the wines from Château Rausan- Ségla (now $50 a bottle). Imagine
that! For $50 in 2008 you can drink wine from the same château that Thomas Jefferson purchased
wines from.
AW
: Why are you expanding into a hospitality center?
Hardman: We are building three farm cottages. We are building them to give people
"a taste of our place" as an escape. There is peace, utter tranquility, and natural unadulterated
beauty on our property. They will be ready in early fall.
AW
: Tell us a little about yourself?
Hardman: I am a mother of three boys. The oldest runs his vineyard room on wind
and solar power. He is running our tractor on biodiesel and $28 a bottle olive oil (until I found
out)! He grows heirloom pumpkins every summer. Last year's profits yielded a new Apple Computer. He
is 14.
The twins, age 9, have professional-grade lawnmowers that they cut our grass with. They are
growing heirloom tomatoes, inspired by their older brother.
I am a mother, a surrogate one, to these Persimmon Creek wines. It is my job to find them
good, loving homes.
