It’s Harvest Time at Greenvale Vineyards

Greenvale Vineyards is located in Portsmouth along the beautiful Sakonnet River. On what used to a be an award-winning dairy farm now is an award-winning vineyard. Greenvale Farm and Vineyards, built in 1863 by John Barstow, the present owners’ great-great-great grandfather, is on the state and national registers of historic places and is poised for the 21st century!  

Greenvale has 24 acres planted with grapes and produces 3,500 cases of wine per year. I spoke with Nancy Parker Wilson, one of the co-owners of Greenvale Vineyards, about the vineyard’s new and popular wines.

Nancy said,  “We just released our first Albarino from the 2014 harvest. It is  bold and bright and incredibly popular. We think that there are two reasons for this: one, the wine consumer has become accustomed to brighter and more crisp wines and two, the wine was incredibly refreshing on the hot humid days of summer. Our best seller continues to be the slightly sweeter Skipping Stone, but the Albarino novelty was truly appreciated.  

“Meanwhile, we are bracing for harvest and are presently in the middle of a five-day rain deluge. The grapes will be completely different after all this rain, but we have found in our 33 years of growing grapes that there is always something.”

Carolyn Horan (Motif): What events are going on in the vineyard?

Nancy Parker Wilson: In the tasting room, our 16th annual jazz series continues from 1pm to 4pm every Saturday through December 12. We have a great group of musicians; every week it’s a different vocalist and often a different keyboardist. Rick Wells on drums and Dick Lupino on bass are always here and are the program’s incredibly talented back bone. Dick Lupino organizes the entire season. Mike Renzi played here very frequently until last year when he became the keyboard player and music director for the Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga tour. He was here for the month of August and was, of course, terrific!

CH: What events do you have coming up?

NPW: Other events include our Harvest Festival from 1 to 4pm on Saturday, November 14 (though we may not be done picking). And then our Warm Up for the Holidays event happens from 1 to 4pm on Saturday, December 12.

CH: I heard that something special took place here recently. Can you tell me about it?

NPW: The icing on the cake this summer was that Greenvale was chosen as one of the locations for a movie starring Donald Sutherland and Blake Cooper. The movie, titled The Measure of a Man, will be released in 2016.

Greenvale Vineyards is open from 10am to 5pm Monday through Saturday and Noon to 5pm on Sundays. Public tours are daily at 2pm. 582 Wapping Road, Portsmouth  

Last month, when I introduced you to 10 wineries in Rhode Island, I had not heard about Dan Ribeiro’s Purple Cat Vineyard and Winery in Chepachet, which has been open for about nine months. Their winery includes a coffee and tea shop, a restaurant that specializes in comfort food, a local theater, and of course, wines. For now they are buying their grapes from Aquidneck Island while they wait for their grapevines to mature.

The Purple Cat is located in a 11,500 square foot post and beam building. Their handcrafted wines are available for tasting and purchase in the tasting room. 

Check out their website at purplecatwinery.com or for up-to-the-minute info check out their Facebook page. 11 Money Hill Rd, Chepachet, 401-566-9463