our venues: DOVE RIDGE VINYARD
August Expectations
By MEL W RHODES
92
A
Romance is alive and well at a
local venue, both on the vine and
at the altar
bout halfway between Weatherford and Azle, in the
rough, rolling country where the Grand Prairie gives
way to the Cross Timbers, some 5,000 grapevines and
dreams of wine are maturing. After years of experiment-
ing with winemaking kits and countless visits to various
vineyards, it’s what Ron and Janan Benefiel decided they
wanted to do. Make wine. Sound romantic? Yes, but … .
“There’s just such a charm about the industry itself,”
Janan said. “But it’s hard work. We just got to know a lot
of people in the industry and really felt like it was some-
thing we wanted to start doing.” They confirmed this by
following advice and working in friends’ wineries for a
while. “In this industry, people often think it’s romantic,
so often times people in the business will say, ‘Now,
before you do this, why don’t you work with us a while
and see if you really want to do it!’ That’s funny, because
now I tell people the exact same thing.”
Fortified in their vision, the Benefiels bought 56 acres