Published On: 11.29.23 | 

By: Susan Swagler

Novi Vineyards is taking a new approach making wine in Alabama

NoviVineyardsFeature

Lee and Lisa Moffett own and operate Novi Vineyards and Winery with their family. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama News Center)

Novi means new, and there’s a lot of newness at Novi Vineyards in Alpine.

For one thing, owners Lee and Lisa Moffett are taking Alabama wine in a new — dry — direction. (This wine is not sweet, y’all.) It’s also worth mentioning that creating this place took their lives — and those of their family — in a new direction, too.

That actually was the point of it all.

Their delicious wines — especially the bright, citrusy Blanc du Bois and a fruity, bold red made from the American Norton grape — allow the rest of us to share in this new adventure, too.

“We are a small … boutique winery in Talladega County, in Alpine, Alabama,” Lee said. “We make wine from French hybrids; it’s all dry wines. We started about nine years ago. I planted 1,500 vines in 2015. And it takes five years for the vines to get to maturity. We got our winery license in ’20, and we opened for business the day after Labor Day in 2021.”

In addition to the French-hybrid grapes they grow and ferment into wine, the Moffetts also bottle and cellar Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon and rose, and Lee is currently working on a rich, complex dessert wine made from Lenoir grapes. They did grow Noble and Carlos muscadines but didn’t make wine from them, and now they are replacing those vines with more French hybrids.

“The one I am most proud of is the Blanc du Bois,” Lee says. “When I drank it for the first time, I was really surprised: ‘Hey, you can grow this here!’ Now, there is a following of folks that really like the Norton, and I’ve grown to develop a taste for the Norton, too. The Blanc du Bois is very similar to a Sauvignon Blanc. A little more floral on the nose. And then when you taste it, it’s going to have a citrusy taste to it, a little grapefruity, a little lemony. … The Norton, it’s very fruity on the nose. Very fruity. It has been oaked, so you’ll get hints of woodsy. Something about it is a little smoky. I’ve had people describe it as ‘bourbon-y.’”

Novi Vineyards, in a little valley at the foot of the Appalachians, was once a hay field. Now, a beautiful tasting room overlooks 10 acres of vines sheltered by towering pines with Riser Mountain just beyond. Inside the tasting room, you can enjoy wine flights, wines by the glass and lovely charcuterie boards. The Moffetts offer a tour of the back room where the fermentation takes place, and they can walk you through the vineyard. A covered patio with handmade Alabama rocking chairs and lots of other outdoor seating scattered about invite visitors to sit for a while.

Lisa is delighted when customers realize the place touches all their senses. “There is the taste of a good glass of wine. There is beauty that can be seen. You can smell the scents around here, whether it’s wine fermenting in the back or the scent of a candle that smells like grapes or even walking through the vineyard right before harvest time when the grapes are ripening.”

Lisa’s hospitality is gracious, and her comfortable, cozy style is on display throughout the tasting room with its original art, sweet-smelling candles and curated antique furnishings. If visitors want a sweeter wine, she’ll even make some sangria for them.

“I love the beauty of this place that we have created,” she said. “I also love the fact that we have customers that are regular and come back, and they want to spend time with us with their wine. They enjoy being here. They bring friends to experience this. I see the fruits of my desire to foster community. I see that every weekend when our regular customers keep coming back and when new ones come and tell me there’s something different about this place.”

This winery is a second act for the Moffetts and their three grown children.

The name Novi, Lisa says, is meaningful in a couple of ways. “Yes, it’s a new business … but the real meaning was that our family got a new breath from working in this place and being here together.”

“We needed something that, I don’t want to say that would bring us together because we weren’t apart, but there was a common sense of purpose that we had here together. We had also come through some pretty major health issues when we first started, and we were weary. All five of us were weary. We needed some good. And putting the vines in the ground and each of us helping in our own way together really breathed that fresh breath into us.”

The idea for the winery was born during a trip to another winery in North Georgia. No doubt lots of people with a glass of delicious wine in hand and a beautiful vineyard view in front of them, might muse: “Wouldn’t it be nice if this were our life?” Far fewer people act on that thought.

The Moffetts were at Crane Creek Vineyards in Young Harris, Georgia. This winery was once a farm, and the old farmhouse is now the tasting room. Lee says the place reminded him of his grandparents’ farm. His life was in transition at the time with a job change and health issues. “It just took me back to that spot,” he says. “And I don’t know, I told my wife, ‘I think I’m going to do a winery and vineyard.’ That was the genesis of it. That was 2014. I went into it full speed.”

“It scared me to death,” Lisa says, “because we are just normal people. We don’t do crazy things. And to me, this was in that category of ‘crazy things.’ I kind of let it flow off me and thought he wasn’t really serious. But that next summer, when he put in the 1,500 vines, and he was doing chemo at the time, I realized that he was serious. That’s when I started to get on board with it. And that’s when the change started happening. I realized that, for him, working the ground and having land to walk and to take care of brought about a change in him. I feel like God used it as a means of beginning of healing for him. And so that is the special part of this story.”

Novi Vineyards has established a wide array of wines in two years. (Susan Swagler / Alabama News Center)

The decision might have been sudden, but good wine takes time.

“In 2015, we planted 1,500 vines,” Lee says. “You get your first fruit in three years, but the vine doesn’t mature until five years. It takes a year to make the wine. We opened the tasting room a year after we got our license.”

Novi just celebrated its two-year anniversary.

But before they started growing grapes and filtering, processing and bottling the wine, Lee hired a consultant to help him understand viniculture. He also did his own homework because growing French-hybrid vines in the Alabama heat is no easy task. They had to be selective about the grapes.

People have developed French-hybrid grapes that do well in the American South—meaning they have some resistance to the infamous Pierce’s Disease, which keeps most Old-World vines out of our area. “The Norton is the most hardy,” he says. “The Norton is the original American grape. It was propagated in the early 1800s up in Richmond, Virginia, by a physician named Norton. Then, the Blanc du Bois, it’s a grape that was propagated at the University of Florida back in the early 1970s.” … The Lenoir, he says, is also known as “Black Spanish.” Its lineage is not as definitive, but some speculate that this grape was brought to the New World by Spanish monks.

You can buy the wine at Novi, of course, and order it online; Lisa delivers local orders herself. The wines are available at Classic Wine Company in Homewood and on the menus at Helen in downtown Birmingham, at Habitat Feed & Social in The Grand Bohemian in Mountain Brook, and at Freddy’s Wine Bar on Birmingham’s Southside.

Both Lee and Lisa say they are happy to be creating something that makes other people happy, too.

“Just sitting down with people as they come out,” Lee says is one of his favorite parts of owning a winery and vineyard. “This is a relaxing atmosphere. It’s quiet, remote and peaceful. Just visiting and getting to know people. Listening to their story and you tell a little bit of your story and just fellowshipping with the folks out here. … That brings a sense of joy.”

Lisa says, “My desire that I had when we first started talking about doing this was to provide a little peace, a little rest, a good glass of wine, and to foster community. Whether it is with your husband, your best friend, a group of friends. For us, it’s just a place that is away from the busyness of living in a big city. Just a place to come out and enjoy.

“Ten years ago, if you had told me that I would be spending 24/7 with my husband all day long, every day, together, I would have probably run, but …. It’s been good. We’ve become closer. We’re doing something together. And so, that’s the part of the journey, I think, that has been the sweetest,” she says.

“I’m so proud of my husband and the work he has done as far as making the wine. … I think (it’s) the best in Alabama, for sure,” Lisa adds. “And we love for our customers to experience it. When I see their faces experience that joy on their palate, it just fills me.”


A bottletree decorates the patio at Novi Vineyards. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama News Center)

Novi Vineyards
6361 Risers Mill Road
Alpine, Alabama 35014

https://www.novivineyards.com/

hello@novivineyards.com

Follow on Facebook and Instagram.

The tasting room is open Friday and Saturday noon to 6 p.m. If you are bringing a group of five or more, it’s best to let them know ahead of time.