THE FLAG- September 8, 2017

 

 

This week's program was a very interesting presentation from the Red Door Vineyard, a ministry of The Church of the Epiphany in Oak Park. 

 

Vince Castellana and John Harbourne were our speakers.  Both are founding members of the Red Door Vineyard, which is a fully functioning wine- making operation started on church property to support the ministry of The Church of the Epiphany.  The winery was started at the behest of the Bishop's Seeds of Hope program, and the program's founders decided the best use of the church property was to grow wine grapes.  

 

Vines were first planted about seven years ago, and currently there are about 400 grape vines of eight different varieties. The vineyard takes up less than one acre of space and waters with reclaimed water.  The vines are harvested, processed, aged and bottled on site by members of Red Door.  Currently Red Door produces 50-100 cases of wine each year.  Wine is not sold.  Rather, interested people become members of Red Door and sponsor a vine.  At the end of the year each member gets their proportionate distribution of wine made.  

 

Looking toward the future, Red Door would like to offer it's wine making equipment to the community so others can process and bottle other types of wines.  All Rotarians are invited to become members.  Further information can be found at reddoorvinyards.org and also in the brochure that was distributed at the meeting.