Epicure
T
his is the tale of two men
from the same southern
city: Lexington, North
Carolina. The little town,
population less than 20,000,
is best known as the Barbecue
Capital, but also boasts two world
famous entrepreneurs. The two
residents manage global businesses
from their hometown. Pretty
impressive, I’d say.
Richard Childress owns a NSCAR
racing team as well as a prospering
vineyard, and Bob Timberlake ranks
as a top American realist artist and
marketing genius. Both men support
the community in numerous ways,
especially the annual Lexington
Barbecue Festival held every
October. I was most fortunate
to meet both of them during a
recent visit.
Childress started as a race car driver
in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in
. e recorded six top five and
top
finishes in
starts.
However, he decided to retire as
a driver in mid
, naming ale
Earnhardt to finish the season in
his car. Childress’ real success came
from building race cars and teams
and sponsoring Earnhardt. Their
legendary partnership continued
until Earnhardt’s tragic death on
the last lap of the
aytona
hampionship.
Childress continues to run his
racing business and displays many
of the famous cars and memorabilia
from that enterprise in the RCR
Racing Museum, located in nearby
Welcome, NC.
In
, ichard hildress fulfilled
a longtime dream when he opened
Childress Vineyards. His passion
for wine began back in his early
days of auto racing in California.
He visited many estates and
became absorbed in fine wine.
Although he considered building
a vineyard in California and New
York, he chose to grow his grapes
in hometown Lexington. The
terroir, with its combination of
humid climate, long growing season
and gravely, red clay soil are key
natural features of the vineyards.
The estate house at Childress
Vineyards is a commanding
,
s uare foot building,
reminiscent of a Tuscan villa and
features state-of-the art wine
operations, educational tours, lunch
at The Bistro, a seasonal concert
series, and elegant ban uet and
meeting rooms.
Like his RCR Racing team, Childress
employs top personnel and the best
e uipment at hildress Vineyards. e
lured award-winning winemaker Mark
Friszolowski and put him in charge
of the winery production. Childress
Vineyards was recently selected
as one of merica s top
tasting
rooms by Wine Enthusiast magazine.
he tasting room offers two choices
to help customers learn and select
wines. The Cellar Select Tasting
offers predominantly off dry wines
and the Barrel Select Tasting
features dry full bodied wines.
Both tastings includes eight halfounce pours and a souvenir glass.
I took the Barrel Select Tasting and
sipped Sauvignon Blanc, Reserve
Chardonnay, Sangiovese, Pinnacle
(a Bordeaux-style red blend), Merlot,
Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Three
Red (the vineyard best seller named
after the famous race car number)
and a Finish Line Port. All were
superb but my taste buds preferred
the Reserve Cabernet. A special
appearance by Richard Childress,
himself, was a most unexpected
and delightful surprise. He was
totally charming.
BELOW
RCR Museum
The gift shop sells wine related
products and Childress vintages
are generally priced between
per bottle the special
select 2010 Richard’s Red goes
for
a bottle.
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