Lesbian Peg Raley opened the only winery in Delaware in 1987. (Photo courtesy of Nassau Valley Vineyards)
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KATHERINE VOLIN
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
When Peg Raley and her father decided to start their own Delaware winery just outside Lewes in 1987, it was, technically, illegal.
“There were no other wineries in Delaware because the state prohibited [it] by law,” Raley says. “We had to get the law changed to let me do what I wanted to do.”
Liquor licenses in Delaware operate on a three-tier system — manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers — and prior to Raley’s intervention, no single entity could hold more than one license.
“What I wanted to do violated the three-tier system twice over,” Raley, 38, says.
Raley, a lesbian, and her father, Bob Raley, started making wine from the vines they had planted in 1987.
“There were so many people who said it couldn’t be done,” Raley says about part of her motivation to make wine. “There was no logical reason. The more people who said you can’t grow grapes in Delaware, you can’t make wine in Delaware [the more] it became a challenge.”
Although changing the law allowed wineries and breweries to open in Delaware, Nassau Valley Vineyards remains the only winery in the state.
ALTHOUGH SHE GREW up in Delaware, Raley never intended to return after she left for college.
“It was a real fluke thing,” Raley says. “I just sort of inadvertently fell into it. I was a drama major with a Spanish literature minor. I swore I would never come back here. Anything to do with agriculture was the last thing I wanted to do.”
It was while Raley was writing for wine magazine “Les Amis Du Vin” that she developed a love for wine.
“I inadvertently fell hopelessly in love with the wine business,” Raley says. “The whole process of growing grapes is kind of magical in its own right. Every season is completely different, so every year is going to warrant a different wine. I have a friend in the business who likes to say that wine is liquid geography. Wine’s really the only thing that allows you to capture time in a bottle. Every drop of rain and every minute of sunshine that fell in that particular vineyard on that particular summer is captured there, and it’s suspended.”
Nassau Valley Vineyards produces 3,000 cases of wine a year, and currently carries 13 wines. Blueberry wine, the latest non-grape fruit wine, has taken two medals in competition. Raley proudly notes that the wine is made of 100 percent fermented blueberries — most blueberry wines are augmented with other fruit juices.
“Unlike states like Virginia with very large wineries, the state doesn’t have its own competition and there are no regional ones,” Raley says. So when Nassau Valley wines compete, they compete on a national or international scale.
“ To garner medals in those … says that we have stood with the best and we have won,” Raley says.
ASIDE FROM MAKING wine, Nassau Valley also houses an art gallery and a wine history museum and tours of the complex are available six days a week.
“The whole history of wine is kind of fascinating,” Raley says. “People don’t realize it has a whole beautiful, very rich, almost 8,000-year history.”
The art gallery recently hosted a classic rock art show.
“It was artwork from everyone from the Beatles to Jerry Garcia,” Raley says, adding that the gallery also often shows art by local artists.
Nassau Valley Vineyards also hosts Wine, Women & Song, a party hosted by lesbian party promoters Ladies 2000 over Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends.
“It’s 120 acres of ground where we can play the music loud and not disturb anyone and it’s just the perfect setting,” says Diane Lusk, co-owner of Ladies 2000.
The event, which draws an average crowd of 1,000 women, has been hosted there since 2004.
“She’s wonderful to work with,” Lusk says about Raley. “She’s a jazz singer and a former sommelier. She’s a dynamic personality, very attractive and she’s one of us.”
The parties will continue, despite the initial reluctance of Raley’s father, still her business partner for the vineyards.
“He went a little up in arms at the first one, but he’s mellowed out,” Raley says. “He can’t argue with the fact that they’re well-attended.”
Wine, Women & Song, which draws a cross-section of women from ages 21-70, helps break down age barriers among lesbians, Raley says.
“It’s been really neat,” Raley says about the melding of women at the parties. “You see those divisions from time to time in other areas in our community and you just kind of want to shake them and say, ‘There are enough people in this world that hate us, we don’t need to create divisions.’”
Raley says she also works to support her local Delaware community by hosting fundraisers for Planned Parenthood, cancer patients and hospice services, among others.
“It runs the gamut, but you won’t find me hosting any right-wing Republican groups,” Raley says. “That you can be sure of.
Your intolerance is not tolerated here.”
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