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Iredell County Mooresville
The Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce's “Walk with the Stars” Business Expo 2009 will feature about 100 exhibitors from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and a Business After Hours with fare from at least a dozen caterers and restaurants from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Charles Mack Citizen Center, 215 N. Main St.
Admission is free. Details: 704-664-3898; www.mooresvillenc.org.
Lincoln County Denver
Owner/vintner Ken Baker plans to produce and sell about 10 varieties of wine at Sweet Vine Winery, the retail wine store he opened Aug. 27 in the WestPointe Shoppes retail center on N.C. 16, a mile north of N.C. 73.
Baker has made wine for years as a hobby at his home on Orchard Road in Iron Station, giving it away as gifts.
Using 100- and 300-liter stainless steel fermenting tanks at his store, he intends to produce 8,000 bottles a year of what he will likely call his Sweet Vine Winery label.
He will obtain fruit for his wines from local and other N.C. farmers. He produces wines using such fruit as strawberries, blackberries, peaches and apples.
Apples?
“I make a killer apple Riesling,” Baker said at his store last week.
He makes a cranberry Chianti, other Italian varieties such as Amarone and Valpolicella, and a dessert wine he calls Orange Blossom Special.
Baker said he hopes to have bottles of his various varieties available in November, when he will host an official grand opening, including tastings.
His store also sells national and N.C. labels preferred by local wine aficionados. Those labels include the Australian Lindemans label preferred by Lincolnton car dealer Sonny Abernethy, for whom Baker worked during part of his 15 years in the parts and service departments of GM dealerships in the region.
The store also carries Greg Norman wines, the Fess Parker label from Santa Barbara County, Calif, and Duplin from Rose Hill, N.C., among others. The wines sell from about $7 to $25 a bottle.
The store also sells wine accessories as well as prints by local artists, including of covered bridges and seascapes by Charlotte artists Larry and Judy Young. They are the parents of his girlfriend, Jennifer Young of East Lincoln's Westport community , who works in IT for Wells Fargo in Charlotte. She introduced him to area wine aficionados, did the interior design of his store and created its Web site.
Baker, 45, is the grandson of the late Wilkesboro farmers Zee and Callie Baker. His grandfather bootlegged to supplement the family's income, Ken Baker said.
Ken Baker, who grew up in Lenoir, recalls failing miserably when he and a couple of friends tried to make wine in his grandparents' basement when he was 14.
“Man, it was bad,” he said. “It was like vinegar. It was really terrible.”
His Sweet Vine Winery labels should be proof enough he's come a long way since.
Sweet Vine Winery: 751D N.C. 16 N.; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; 704-966-1030; www.sweetvinewinery.com; ken@sweetvinewinery.com.
Mecklenburg County Cornelius
After 20 years of teaching yoga in the Lake Norman area, Kelley Gardner is opening a yoga and wellness center called The Bindu at 11138-C Treynorth Drive, just south of Bailey Road off N.C. 115.
The Bindu will offer about 30 yoga classes and five tai chi classes a week. It will house practitioners of therapeutic massage, Reiki, pediatric mind/body consultations, Thai yoga massage and naturopathic medicine. The center will host regular educational seminars, specialty classes and workshops.
All yoga instructors at the Bindu are trained in the principles and philosophy of Anusara Yoga, Gardner said.
Local retailer Manipura Activewear will sell yoga clothing at The Bindu, and a coffee/tea lounge will offer wireless Internet.
The Bindu will open with free classes, talks and giveaways Sept. 25-27.
Details: www.TheBindu.com.
Joe Marusak
