Like a new vine shoot, life unfolds one leaf at a time.

People often ask if the winery was a lifelong dream of ours. Well, yes, it did start with a dream. Not for a winery, but for a log cabin in the woods. In 1985, early in our marriage, we found a quaint wooded lot surrounded by farmland. At that time, Prairie Baptist Road was a gravel road, one of the last remaining in Hamilton County. The property was pleasantly remote from the developing cities. We both felt called back to the country, to our families’ farming heritage.

For many years we worked on house plans and groomed the woods, adding many native trees and shrubs. Finally the log home emerged in 1992. But we were busy with our “regular” jobs (Brian in natural gas engineering and Becky in graphic design) and sadly took little time to enjoy our realized dream. We would soon be challenged by a lesson from the grapevine.

In the first cupped leaves of a new shoot, what might look like a tiny cluster of grapes takes shape. However, this is not fruit; rather each tiny sphere opens as a flower needing pollination. The little “cluster” inspires both a hope for the future and a responsibility for the fragile process ahead.

As life unfolded, we purchased a $40 winemaking kit in 2003. Instantly inspired, we were planting grapevines the following spring in the back acreage of our existing property. Our plans grew to include a winery and an event venue. We witnessed for ourselves how the pollinated flowers drop their petals and gradually swell into grapes. Each season the new shoots grew in length toward the sun gathering nutrients for the cluster and the vine. The lesson of the grapevine (only one of many) was to have a dream, yes, but more importantly to savor life as it unfolds, one leaf at a time.

Ours was not a lifelong dream but it has become one of long life. It is the idea that having a vineyard will keep us active and healthy into our later years. Country Moon Winery provides us the opportunity to welcome visitors from all over the world. We are happy to share our property as people stroll through the vineyard or have a glass of wine in the shade of our humble log cabin. You can share also with us the world as you have seen it. This is the rich fruit of our labor, the true harvest.