CBJ: For poilitcal vets, wine as an ‘encore career’

Tucked away on a hillside just north of Lovingston amid fields of apple orchards, sit five acres of grape vines growing in more than 3,500 recycled blue milk cartons.

The crop was planted in late April and is part of Democracy Vineyards, Nelson’s newest addition to its winery trail. It is owned by Jim Turpin and Susan Prokop, a couple from Arlington who decided to try their hand at wine making as a second career after spending most of their lives in the political arena.

Prokop, who works for The Paralyzed Veterans of America, said the idea to start a vineyard came slowly to the couple, who started visiting wine festivals and wineries on dates more than a decade ago.

“We started going to wine festivals, which were fun,” Prokop said. “They’re all over the place and we enjoyed the wine.”

After getting to know winery owners, they decided to make winegrowing their ‘encore career.’

“[Winery owners] had bought some land, built a house, planted a few grape vines and next thing they knew, they were making a few gallons of wine,” she said. “So we thought, OK, if these people can do it, maybe we can try it.”

The name Democracy Vineyards came from their love of politics and Turpin’s collection of political memorabilia that dates back to 1840.

“It’s museum-quality stuff,” Turpin, who is the vice-chair for the Democratic Party of Virginia, said. “That’s what we’re decorating the tasting room in. Part of that also, and this is sort of our overall philosophy too, is that we want our wine to be approachable and for people to have a good time with it.”

The name Democracy will extend the names of the wines the vineyard produces, as well. The first two wines available are named Declaration Reserve, a blend of white wines, and Velvet Revolution Reserve, and blend of red wines.

Prokop said they want to inject a little history lesson with each of the wines. Declaration was named for the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Velvet Revolution was named for the anniversary of when the people of Czechoslovakia, where Prokop’s ancestors are from, overthrew the Communist government in 1989.

Their next blend of red wines will be named Forum, referring to the Roman debate forums.

“We drive along the road and think of new names,” Turpin said.

The planting of the crops and releasing two types of wine are just the first steps in Democracy’s growth into a full-fledged winery, Turpin said.

The vineyard will release another wine, Village View Gold, made from ginger gold apples, in the fall.

The couple also plans to clear more of the 45 acres of orchards they purchased to plant more grape vines and build a winery on the property by 2012.

Turpin said the next immediate step is to start a tasting room in Lovingston and expand the number of retail locations in the area that carry their wines.

Democracy Vineyard wines are available now in Nelson County at retail outlets such as Basic Necessities in Nellysford and Blue Ridge IGA in Nellysford.

“We’ve been extraordinarily gratified by the help that we had from various experts in the area,” Prokop said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better place than Nelson County. There are some really good people here.”

For more information, visit http://www.democracyvineyards.com.