Greenvale Vineyards
Location: 582 Wapping Rd, Portsmouth, RI
Website: www.greenvale.com
Established: 1982 (first commercial vines planted)
Ownership: Nancy Knowles Parker and the late Cortland Parker, Nancy Parker Wilson, Bill Wilson
Total acres in vine: 26
Red varieties planted: cabernet franc, merlot, malbec
White varieties planted: chardonnay, vidal, cayuga, pinot gris, albarino
Total annual wine production: 3500 cases
Satellite image: http://goo.gl/PqoXt
Current releases: 2007 Cabernet Franc; 2007 Elms Meritage; 2010 Greenvale Chardonnay; 2009 Select Chardonnay; 2010 Greenvale Vidal Blanc; Skipping Stone White; Rosecliff Pinot Gris.
This beautiful property on the banks of the Sakonnet River has been in the Parker family since 1915, but it wasn’t until until 1983 that the first chardonnay vines were planted there, and the fruit sold to a nearby winery. Soon after, Long Island viticulture consultant Larry Perrine, hired to improve their amateur vineyards, convinced became convinced that the quality of fruit produced there was such that it could provide the basis of a series of estate wines. The encouragement was enough to convince Nancy Parker Wilson, who had been overseeing operations on weekends, to close her Boston community relations office and turn her attention to Greenvale Vineyards on a full-time basis.
Richard Carmichael, who earned his degree in oenology at the University of California, Fresno, will vinify his 17th Greenvale vintage in 2013. His chardonnay is 100% barrel fermented and matured in (mostly) French oak . The Select label, which contains a higher percentage of fruit from Greenvale’s older chardonnay vines, gets a higher percentage of new oak. Pinot noir, planted in 1988, was replaced by cabernet franc in the early 1990’s.
In 2012, vineyard manager Hever Ortega planted an acre and a half of albarino. Carmichael expects a small crop to be available for winemaking in 2015.