Walnut Ridge Vineyard

Walnut Ridge Vineyard is family owned and operated. Our mission is to produce high-quality wine grapes in harmony with nature. We’ve been growing grapes since 2000 and have been certified sustainable since 2005. It’s hard work and it has its share of risks, but we love it. Take a look at our site and you may understand why. We’ll provide periodic updates as each growing season progresses so check back often. We hope you find our site informative and entertaining.

Walnut Ridge Vineyard is certified sustainable by LIVE and has been awarded the Salmon-Safe designation since 2005. What does this mean? First, it means we don’t try to dominate nature but rather work with it to maintain an equilibrium that provides room for wildlife, native plants, abundant insect populations and quality wine grapes. When you look at our vineyard, you don’t see a manicured, monoculture landscape. You see a vineyard alive with flowering native plant species, beneficial insects keeping less desirable insects in check, birds and bats, cats and mice.

We have planted our vineyard on grafted rootstock. By using a native American grapevine for the rootstock, our vines are naturally resistant to Phylloxera, an insect found worldwide that damages and kills wine grapevines. We try to keep everything in balance and prevent any one species from dominating. Second, we expect to have some crop losses. We just plant a little more so there is enough for all. We do have our vineyard surrounded with a deer fence to limit our risk of deer damage, but we also maintain undeveloped spaces where deer are free to roam.