Saturday, September 7, 2013

The 67-cent felony: A veteran winemaker runs afoul of the ABC

09/07/13

Long before vineyards became agriculture du jour in Virginia, Mike Bowles planted grapevines in 1977,  and he claims he's Albemarle's first farm winery operator. Thirty years later, he wanted to be a pioneer again and hop on the craft-distillery trend to make the Italian spirit grappa from his chardonnay grape leftovers. Instead, he's earned a more dubious distinction as possibly the first person to get busted while applying for a federal distillery license. Under Virginia's Alcoholic Beverage Control regs, that could cost him his license to make wine at all.

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