Tilford Vineyard: raise a glass to good health!

by LeeAnna Tatum

An unassuming vintner, Robert Taylor is first and foremost a man of the land. Seemingly unflappable, he doesn’t see mistakes or misfortunes in farming or wine-making, he sees only opportunities to learn and to adapt.

In fact, Tilford Vineyard, the winery he named in honor of his father, got started because Taylor had grown grapes to be used by another winemaker who was unable to take them when the time came.

Left with an abundance of fruit, Taylor decided to try making the wine himself. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Taylor has been making wine with muscadine grapes for around 25 years - growing his own grapes and propagating his own vines - for a product that he personally oversees from farm to glass.

There’s no hurry to the process “time makes good wine” is the company motto afterall.

Vines are allowed to grow with little intervention other than some light pruning in the summer and a heavy pruning in the fall. No irrigation is used. But the plants receive plenty of personal attention from Taylor who walks the vineyard regularly to check in on the vines and speak words of encouragement.

“You have to come out and talk to each one of them,” Taylor said as he patted one of the thick mother vines. “They grow pretty fast. We don’t do any irrigation because we want them to go get their own water. If you don’t, the roots will stay up on top of the ground and they can get damaged. But if they’re going down and getting their own water, they know how much they need. They get some from early morning dew on the grass and the leaves. They’ll take in as much as they can.”

Thoughtful consideration has even been given to the posts that support the vines. Landscaping lumber was originally chosen, but the wood was quick to rot. Taylor read about the durability of wood from the locust tree and he had a source for it in his home state of Mississippi.

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“This is the locust tree,” Taylor said, putting a hand on one of the posts, “even though the termites are eating the bark, they can’t get into the wood. Locust posts last 65 to 70 years. So, it’s a good investment.”

Taylor doesn’t get too concerned about weeds. He’s no stranger to hard work, having grown up in rural Mississippi where he helped pick cotton in his younger days. He takes an active role in the market garden and the vineyard. Stopping to pull grass from around his young eggplants, he remarked that he spends a good bit of time on that particular activity.

But he’s not interested in taking short cuts with herbicides. Growing a healthy food that he can eat straight from the garden is his main priority. The garden at Tilford Winery is quite large and includes two hoop houses as well. It’s mostly through the garden that Taylor is able to reach out to his community. There, they host families or organizations that want to introduce kids to gardening and farming activities.

“We have some people who bring their kids out to see what’s going on and we try to get them to do a little of everything to show them they’ll have to bend their back,” Taylor said as he reached down to pull some more weeds.

They also host workshops to teach people how to grow their own small container gardens or start a backyard garden at home.

The garden also provides a source of fresh produce to the local low-income community through the health department and the WIC program. Additionally, they are open to the public for market days thereby providing their community access to fresh, naturally and locally grown seasonal produce.

Taylor always has an eye toward growing things that offer excellent health benefits. It’s the main reason that he is such a fan of the muscadine grape. Along those lines, he is currently propagating seedlings from his pomegranate trees with a plan of one day having about 30 trees to produce fruit for juicing.

Nothing is hurried on the farm. All the plants in the garden are started from seed, the vines and trees are from cuttings there on the land and nature is given the space and time it needs to create a healthy product.

Ashley, Jonathan and Carter Jones of Hinesville

The Jones family, currently living in Hinesville, visited Tilford Winery as I was wrapping up my interview. They were kind enough to share some of their experience with me.

Ashley explained that it was the couple’s anniversary weekend and she had specifically sought out the winery as a place she wanted to visit.

“I was researching black-owned wineries and vineyards and found that this was the only one in Georgia. I was like… we’re too close not to see this. Because we’re military, I didn’t want to leave here and not have that experience, so it was definitely a must-do!”