Discovering NC Agriculture is a year-long series focusing on twelve N.C. grown, raised, caught, and made commodities. Tune in each month to see how an N.C. commodity is grown, harvested, packed for consumer use and more. Learn nutritional value, find fun recipes to try, hear from local chefs who use that product, and other unique commodity facts throughout the series. We look forward to helping you better understand some of our N.C. commodities and how they impact your everyday lives!
Much like barbecue or sweet tea, muscadine wine is a staple in the South. In fact, the Scuppernong grape, a variety of muscadine, is our state fruit. Throughout North Carolina’s history, muscadine grapes have grown well for farmers and vineyards. In 1972, Jonathan Fussell’s father and uncle planted their first 30 acres of muscadine grapes not realizing how far the name Duplin Winery would span in the years to come.
Growing up in Rose Hill, Jonathan Fussell, owner and operator of Duplin Winery, was no stranger to growing muscadine grapes. In fact, the home office of Duplin Winery remains in Rose Hill today, although they have many winery locations across the United States. “All throughout my youth, our family winery was small,” Jonathan said. “In 1984, we built the production facility that we have today. Shortly after that, though, our family ran into some financial trouble and lost everything except the winery.” During this time, muscadine farmers across the state were struggling to find a stable market for their crop, so Jonathan’s family partnered with fourteen other wineries in the state to buy their grapes and continue making Duplin wines. “As a young boy watching my dad work hard and struggle to keep the winery afloat, I vowed I wouldn’t come back to own this place,” Jonathan said. “However, once I got to college at the University of Chapel Hill, I learned about the nutritional power of muscadines and that changed my outlook on the business.” When doctors and nutritional experts began to realize that muscadine wines hold 10 times more antioxidants than other wines, the word got out and Duplin Winery began to expand in popularity. From then to now, Duplin Winery has not only grown in popularity, but also in wine variety types, locations and more!
In 2015, Jonathan and his brother officially took over Duplin Winery from their parents. Jonathan operates the marketing and consumer side of the company, while his brother manages the production side. “We grow about 300 acres of muscadines at the vineyard,” Jonathan said. “In the mid-90’s, we also started working with 57 contract growers to buy their grapes, which totals about 972 additional acres of muscadines.” With tourist locations in Myrtle Beach, SC, and Panama City Beach, FL, as well as their home facility in Rose Hill, Duplin Winery turns out a lot of wine each year. In fact, in 2023, they produced 3.1 million gallons of muscadine wine! This year, they plan to produce over 500,000 cases!
Bottling begins at Duplin Winery every June and lasts through the next June, except for harvest time when the facility takes a break to pick muscadines. “Harvest typically begins around Labor Day weekend in September and will last for 17 days,” Jonathan said. “That’s the only time all year our bottling facility is not operating.” Once the grapes are harvested, they are brought into the production facility to be deskinned, seeded, and squeezed. “We sell all of our muscadine skins and seeds to a medicine company that uses them to produce a variety of prescriptions,” Jonathan said. “From there, we use all of the muscadine juice, which totals about 52% of the full grape, to make our wines.” The grapes are fermented for 4 to 8 weeks, depending on the variety, before the juice sits for a few months to settle and separate. “Many people don’t know that there are actually anywhere from 70 to 312 varieties of muscadine grapes, which is why the fermentation time can vary between them,” he said. “We are very blessed that these grapes are native to North Carolina and easy for farmers to grow.” As stated above, bottling begins in June of each year with multiple bottling lines in the facility producing a variety of Duplin Wines. The fastest line can produce 9,000 bottles in one hour!
Today, Duplin Winery offers 45 varieties of muscadine wine, including Carolina Red, Midnight Magnolia, Scuppernong Blush and Queen Anne’s Revenge. “Muscadine wines can sometimes get a bad reputation for being super sweet across the board,” Jonathan said. “However, I tell our female customers that wine is just like kissing a guy. You have to try a lot to find the one that you like!” With nearly fifty varieties of wine to choose from, Duplin has a range of flavor profiles, from sweet to dry, for customers to enjoy. “All of our wines are fruit forward, so they will be sweet on the front end,” Jonathan said, “but we do have wines that produce a dryer flavor on the backend for customers that don’t like a full-sweet taste all-around.” The top two best-selling wines at Duplin are the Carolina Red, which is made with a James muscadine grape and presents a full-sweet flavor, and Midnight Magnolia, which resembles the flavor profile of a Reisling. Bottles from Duplin Winery can be bought on-site at any of their three locations, online at their website, or in retail chains across the state.
As the 40th largest winery in the world hosting over 1 million customers each year, Duplin Winery certainly sets itself apart in a variety of ways. Although Jonathan is proud of many things, he is most proud of the history and legacy that is preserved at Duplin Winery for both his family and the families that have come before. “The first wines made in our state were muscadine wines, so because of our history, there will always be a market for muscadine wines,” he said. “I believe muscadine wine is a lot like barbecue. It’s a staple for people that were born and raised in North Carolina. It’s an honor to continue sharing that history, legacy and culture across the world.” We are so proud of all that Duplin Winery is doing to advance the muscadine grape industry of our state. Plan a visit this fall and enjoy some muscadine wine for yourself!
