Attractive displays of wine adorn the tasting room at Parsons Vineyard & Winery. Joe Rick and Joyce are ready for visitors at Parsons Vineyard & Winery. The couple met and married while attending East Central University in Ada, where both earned teaching degrees. Joe Rick taught and coached, but now is in the oil business. Joyce has been a biology teacher for the past 23 years. Visitors will be welcomed to the tasting room to sample any of nine Parsons wines. Parsons Vineyard & Winery outside of Shawnee truly is a family venture. While Joyce and Joe Rick own and operate the new business, their sons, Josh, second from left, and Jeff, help out when possible. Josh is an attorney and Jeff is a Farm Bureau Insurance agent in Seminole County. The family is pictured at the entrance of the 4,000 square feet building which houses the winery, tasting room and conference room. The operation is located at 15401 Gaddy Road. Phone 405395-9178 for the hours of operation.
They planted 2,000 vines, trained them to trellises, irrigated and generally pampered them to supply the fruit for the winery. Some 1,400 vines produced their first usable crop this year. The 600 vines planted a year earlier were harvested last year, allowing the first bottles bearing the Parsons Vineyard & Winery label to go in the cooling room. “Last year we made wine and it was our first harvest. The first two years we pulled all the grapes off the vines. It is expensive,” said Joe Rick, estimating a $15,000 per acre input cost for the vineyard. “I just kept wondering when will we get to sell something!” While Joe Rick’s golf game suffered, Joyce sacrificed her free time to learn about growing grapes, pest management and making wine. Joyce, a biology teacher for 23 years, went back to school. She took classes covering all aspects of the family’s new business. Many of the classes were at Oklahoma State University, which receives funding from the state grape growers association to help educate its members. She completed a prestigious Internet course for vintners presented by the University of California, Davis. Only 40 people worldwide are accepted in the class each semester. Joyce was one of only 18 to successfully complete the course, and the only Oklahoman to earn the impressive certification. “We’re still new and learning to make wine,” said Joyce. “Every year that goes by, our wine gets better.” The Parsons’ wine list includes five whites and four reds. It could be expanded if they decide to someday make blended wines. Visitors to the 4,000 square feet winery now can go to the tasting room and sample varieties ranging from Chardonnay to Cabernet Sauvignon. This year’s grape harvest, with the help of friends and family, produced a bumper crop. “Our friends really helped us out. We worked from daylight to dark,” said Joe Rick. “Then they all came back two weeks later for the reds. It’s all by hand.” The dry weather that preceded the August harvest actually improved the quality of the grapes. “Drier weather for a few weeks prior to harvest helped the grapes get sweeter. They take the nutrients from the vines. All of the energy left in the vines goes to the grapes,” said Joe Rick.
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The quality of the grapes is critical. “You cannot make good wine out of bad grapes,” said Joyce. “That’s what makes what happens in the vineyard really important.” With harvest behind them, the task of producing their red and white wines began. “We don’t crush the grapes with our feet,” laughs Joe Rick, remembering an old episode of I Love Lucy where the comical redhead and cohort Ethel Mertz shed their shoes to stomp grapes. The Parsons have shiny new mechanical crushers and destemmers to do the work. The 2,000 square feet of space devoted to the winery operation is filled with large stainless machines and vats. Oklahoma Country • Fall 2005 • 19