“It’s a learning experience,” says Colleen Bannerman of the winery she and her husband Scot opened in 2003. Although Bannerman Vineyard has been in the grape business for decades, making wine is a completely new agri-business for this coastal North Carolina farming family.
Founded in 1973 by Marilyn and Cliff Bannerman, Bannerman Vineyard is one of the oldest commercial Muscadine vineyards in North Carolina and highly recognized in the grape growing community. For most of its existence, Bannerman Vineyard was strictly a fresh market vineyard, selling top quality Muscadine grapes to the public and to the state’s growing wine industry.
“I knew nothing about farming,” says Colleen of when she first came to work at the vineyard in 1992. “My background was business and offices. I didn’t even know how to drive a tractor, but I was very fortunate to have worked with Scot’s dad, Cliff, and he taught me a lot.”
