A Master Mixer: Blend of owners, vineyards challenges winemaker

Many winemakers work for just one winery and one boss.

But Kent Smith, the winemaker at Yadkin Valley Wine Co. in Hamptonville, makes wines for seven different North Carolina vineyards, all with different owners who have different tastes.

"When you're making over 40 wines for seven vineyards, any time you think you're caught up you're forgetting something," Smith said.

"It's difficult, but it's exciting, too. I don't get bored at work."

The Yadkin Valley Wine Co. is a joint venture formed in 2007 by Kim and Benny Myers, the owners of Laurel Gray Vineyards, and Chuck and Jamey Johnson, the owners of Shadow Springs Vineyard.

They built the winery not only to make their own wines, but also to be available as a custom-crush winery for small wineries. Custom-crush wineries are common in California, but new to North Carolina.

Smith, 42, is the company's first and only winemaker, having arrived in February 2007 from Georgia, his native state.

In addition to Laurel Gray and Shadow Springs, Smith also makes wines for Flint Hill, Divine Llama, Brandon Hills, Dobbins Creek and Laurel Ridge, which has not opened yet.

The biggest challenge is juggling so many wines. "You have to keep great rec­ords. I'm always worried I'm forgetting something."

And then there's the challenge of pleasing so many different bosses. "If I'm getting merlot grapes from seven different vineyards, I have to make them all taste wonderful -- but different."

Winemaking is Smith's third career. He was a weather forecaster in the Navy for about five years, then he worked as an aircraft mechanic for Delta Airlines for 10 years.

But Smith has always loved science, particularly chemistry. And he became fascinated with a particular chemical reaction when he started making beer as a hobby in the early 1990s.

"I love fermenting things. I learned you could add yeast to anything and it would ferment," he said. "I started culturing yeast. I had little test tubes in my refrigerator.

"My girlfriend at the time would get mad at me for fermenting the Coca-Cola or Hawaiian Punch. Nothing was safe in the house. "

His switch to wine came during a trip to Napa Valley, Calif.

"We were in the Silver Oak tasting room trying their cabernet (sauvignon), and that was an ‘aha' moment. I was like, ‘Wow, I gotta do this.'"

Smith quit his job with Delta and sold his house to enroll in the enology program at California State University at Fresno. While there, he worked in the school's winery and helped conduct viticulture research.

"Some of it was hard, monotonous work, like cutting open individual grapes and counting all the seeds," Smith said.

"But while I was at school, I wanted to get as much experience as I could."

The school offered Smith a job at its winery after he graduated in 2004. "But I wanted to get back to the South. I knew there was a growing industry here."

Smith had short stints at a couple of Georgia wineries before he saw a posting for the job at Yadkin Valley Wine Co.

Chuck Johnson said he was impressed that Smith already knew a lot about the Yadkin Valley. "He had the knowledge, and he seemed excited about the possibilities," Johnson said.

Benny Myers said that Smith brings a broad background to the job.

"He's young, but he's not someone right out of college," Myers said.

"He had tried a lot of other jobs, but went back to school late because he wanted to make wine. So he's not afraid to try new things. We liked that."

Myers and Johnson said that the willingness to experiment is key, because the wine industry here is still young and there's still so much to learn -- about the best grapes to grow and the best ways to treat them in the winery.

"One day we tasted a red wine with chocolate and it tasted so good," Johnson said. "We said we wish we could have something like that. And Kent said, ‘Why can't we?' If we didn't have someone willing to experiment, we wouldn't have Dark Shadow (Shadows Springs' blend of red wine with actual chocolate), and that's our No. 1 seller."

Of course, most of what Smith makes is regular wine with vitis vinifera (native European) grapes. He has had particular success with viognier, which he has made for Flint Hill and others.

He now sees potential in merlot. "People forget about merlot, but it can be a great wine," Smith said. "I'm discovering that it can be inky black and full of flavor in North Carolina in the Yadkin Valley."

Some people may wonder about one winemaker making wine for several vineyards that compete with each other. But the vineyard owners don't seem worried.

"People ask, ‘Aren't you afraid that your wines are going to taste like so-and-so's wines?'" said Tim Doub, an owner of Flint Hill in East Bend. "But we're really one big family. And I think (Smith) treats our wines just like he would his own."

Tom Hughes, a co-owner of Divine Llama in East Bend, agreed.

"Our wines won four medals at the State Fair, so that was a validation of the wines Kent has made for us," he said. "And we're not worried that our wines are going to taste like someone else's because our barrels are different, the grapes are coming from different places, and we're using different yeasts. There are so many variables."

Managing all those variables -- using the giant chemistry set that is the winery -- is what makes winemaking challenging and fun for Smith.

"Right now, what I want to do is make the most complex wine I can make," he said.

"It's like listening to music: I want a wine that's like an orchestra playing, where no one part stands out and overpowers it, where the whole orchestra is playing and it's rich and complex."

mhastings@wsjournal.com



727-7394

Kent Smith

AGE: 42

HOMETOWN/BIRTHPLACE: Atlanta, Ga.

EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in enology, with a minor in chemistry, from California State University at Fresno.

EXPERIENCE: Assistant winemaker, Chateau Elan, Braselton, Ga., 2005. Head winemaker, 1810 County Inn and Winery, near Augusta, Ga., 2006. Head winemaker, Yadkin Valley Wine Co., Hamptonville, since February 2007.

FAMILY: Single

QUOTE: "Right now, what I want to do is make the most complex wine I can make. It's like listening to music: I want a wine that's like an orchestra playing, where no one part stands out and overpowers it, where the whole orchestra is playing, and it's rich and complex."