By james art The American Wine Society (AWS) will open its 57th National Conference on Friday, November 1, at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
It will run until Sunday, November 3. Registration is $675/person, which will include a welcome reception catered by 36 North Carolina wineries on Friday night, a wine showcase on Saturday night and a grand banquet on Sunday night.
Exhibitions and sessions are spread over the three days, with pre-conference winery tours scheduled for today and Friday. There are planned competitions for commercial and hobby winemakers, two WineSmarts classes and training for the three-year Wine Judge certification program.
You can see the full schedule at the bottom of this story.
This is the third time the convention has been held in North Carolina, a fast-growing wine industry that, according to WineAmerica’s 2022 economic survey, includes nearly 190 wineries that help generate nearly $6.1 billion in total economic activity.
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Like most East Coast states, both numbers are likely to have increased since the study was released.
Other places along the East Coast have certainly carved out spots nationally as destinations for wine drinkers, from Long Island and the Finger Lakes in New York to Loudon County and the Charlottesville area in Virginia to places in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland that have gathered manufacturers who emphasize quality.
That AWS again chose North Carolina is significant and confirms the growing profile of the state’s wine industry, which stretches from producers around Asheville, including Biltmore Winery, through several appellations in the Yadkin Valley northwest of Winston-Salem to the coast.
Dean and Becky Muhlenberg opened Haze Gray Vineyards in Dobson, North Carolina in December 2019.Sam Dean
Dan McLaughlin is one of the founders of the Fine Wines of NC organization, who along with his wife, Kathy, will host a Sunday session detailing their documentary, Healthy Hope, about muscats and their health benefits.
“The Fine Wines of NC organization is thrilled to have the American Wine Society here in Winston-Salem, the gateway to the vineyards,” he said. “We know people will be blown away by the quality and breadth of wines produced here in North Carolina. … Many of our members support and will be both attendees and sponsors.”
Jay Raffaldini, founder and owner of his namesake winery — Raffaldini Vineyards — in Ronda, Wicks County, said AWS last held its convention in North Carolina in 2014, near Charlotte. This was seven years after the first AWS convention in the state, in Winston-Salem.
“What’s so important about this is twofold — after less than 10 years, they’re back here and they’ve chosen the much smaller city of Winston-Salem to host,” he said. “Winston Salem is in the heart of the wine region here and they recognized that NC is a growing force in the wine industry outside of the West Coast that is getting recognition.
Nathalie Dippenaard, AWS CEO, echoed those sentiments on Wednesday.
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“This may be the first time in nearly 40 years that we’ve returned to the same destination,” she said. “I would say the reason we come back is that the North Carolina wine industry has grown phenomenally since we were last here, both in the number of wineries and the quality of the wine. There’s so much exciting news coming out of North Carolina, we just had to come back to experience it, and so far we haven’t been disappointed.”
She said the American Wine Society, which has more than 7,000 members, typically chooses venues near wine regions that allow attendees to tour and explore. The Friday evening reception will offer them a chance to meet more than 35 of the state’s wineries, which will complement the three pre-conference winery tours – each visiting three nearby wineries – that have been organized.
The farm where Stony Knoll Vineyards is located in south Surrey County was first planted in 1896. The vines went into the ground in 2001.Paul Vigna
During the conference, there are 42 sessions with topics from Europe to South Africa and from Texas to New Jersey, and there are also a number of presentations on North Carolina wines and winemaking techniques from local winemakers, even one comparing Old World vs. New Sagrantino world and another about the health benefits of Muscadine.
They also put together a 35-minute video that combines visits to multiple North Carolina wineries in addition to interviews with the owners and winemakers.
“Our members have responded enthusiastically and we are almost sold out, with close to 600 in attendance,” Diepenaar said.
The wineries that will be participating are equally enthusiastic and believe that they will benefit in the long term from this type of exposure. Then there are additional benefits that they may not even consider right now.
Raffaldini said he gave a presentation in 2014 about the Appassimento drying process “and two different families from opposite coasts of Florida from that big session seemed very impressed with what I was doing. Fast forward to now and they both sold everything, moved and bought land near Raffaldini Vineyards. Both have vineyards and use the Appassimento process. Such is the power of what is happening here.