Meet the Family....
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Barry Nichols |
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I spent 33 years in the aerospace business, mostly at the Kennedy pace Center in Florida. before retiring as a Chief Information Officer. I’ve made wine since 1969 and knew that I could make some really great wines here in North Carolina. In 2001 we planted our first four acres of grapes, with ten more the following year. We are in year 8 or our ten year business plan, and at the completion of year ten we should have our own winery built. Next door to the tasting room. I have three or four things I’m proudest of: I’ve been married for over 40 years to a great woman, have a wonderful family of wife and mom here on our estate; a son, daughter--in-law, grandson in Atlanta; and a daughter in Key Largo, Florida; and my faith in God is strong. |
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Kathy Nichols
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Kathy has 37 years teahing, with master’s degrees in K-12, early childhood, supervision and administration, and specific learning disabilities. She leaves for school before 7 am and rarely gets home before 7 pm. She brings work home and takes it to the tasting room so she can help out with tastings and work with customer’s needs and get some school work done too. Her family helped start the Indian River Citrus industry on Merritt Island, Florida just after the civil war, so I guess growing things on the land is in her blood. Her family were also the last keepers of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. |
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Marge Nichols |
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At 87 years of age, Marge is amazing; She maintains the vineyard floor spraying program to keep it free of weeds, takes painting commissions, and crafts some of the most exquisite ceramics in her own studio amid her kiln and molds. She has her private pilot’s license and has lived in Europe and Japan. On her 83 birthday she rode in a dragster at 150+ mph in 7 seconds and on her 87th birthday she went for a glider ride. She runs full speed at 100 miles and hour with her hair on fire and is an inspiration to meet. |
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History
Misty Creek’s vineyards and tasting room lie between the communities of Huntsville and Farmington near the Shallow Ford of the Yadkin River, an area used for centuries by Native Americans as a meeting ground and natural fish trap. Later the Shallow Ford served as a safe place for travelers, wagons and stagecoaches to cross the Yadkin River on the Great Wagon Road (known locally as the Colonial Pike) from Philadelphia to Augusta, Georgia. A thriving community developed at the ford to serve passing wagon trains, and the deep cut of the Great Wagon Road is still evident today on both sides of the Yadkin River. By 1770, a road cut from this area to Mulberry Fields (near Wilkesboro) later became known as the Daniel Boone Trail, named after Daniel Boone who married and built a cabin on the Sugar Creek, approximately two miles east of Farmington, in 1756. On October 14th, 1780 during the American Revolution a large group of Tories crossed the Shallow Ford to be defeated by Whig forces. Fourteen Tories were buried in a small plot west of the crossing, and almost immediately the brash colonials built a pig lot over their final resting place to commemorate forever this event. Later in 1781 Lord Cornwallis crossed the Shallow Ford in pursuit of General Nathaniel Green's "Green Mountain Boys", the two forces meeting at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in Greensboro. After the war in 1792, Charles Hunt purchased 250 acres and began to lay out 111 half-acre lots to establish the city of Huntsville. Local history suggests that Huntsville narrowly missed being the state capital for North Carolina. In April 1865 Union General George Stoneman’s cavalry crossed the Shallow Ford and routed the Confederacy’s Yadkin Home Guard, subsequently ransacking the town of Bethania and looting the town of Huntsville as one of the last acts of the Civil War.
The Nichols family purchased this land in early 2001, naming it Misty Creek after the natural spring that bisects the property. We immediately began a series of improvements that included a lake, roads and irrigation, and planted our first four acres of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Chambourcin. The following year an additional 10 acres were planted, and Syrah was added to the vineyard. Finished in June 2009, our tasting room sits directly on the site of a pioneer cabin originally built in 1800 as a mule barn, and overlooks the old road bed. The deep well and original entry road are very evident in our topography, and we continue to find hand made bricks, pottery shards, spear points and other evidence of long habitation.
Misty Creek Vineyards are located in Davie County, named for William R. Davie who was a revolutionary war leader, minister to France and later governor of North Carolina.
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