Address: 585 Mountain Cove Rd, Lovingston, VA 22949
Phone number: 434-263-8463
Website: www.democracyvineyards.com
Hours of Operation: Feb-Mar Friday-Sunday Noon-6pm or April-Mid Dec Thursday-Sun Noon-6pm
Tasting: $5/partial, $8/full
Wine Trail: N/A
Winemaker: Ben Marguiles
Acres Planted: 6
Democracy Vineyards Story
How does a rich collection of political memorabilia and a passion for wine lead to founding a winery? The founders of Democracy Vineyards, Jim Turpin and Susan Prokop, are well known in political circles and the winery started as a mere concept, a dream, where they might start winegrowing encore careers.
Once they identified the Nelson County farm site, Susan and Jim turned to longtime Virginia vineyard consultant Chris Hill to alter the previous apple operation to a winegrowing farm. One day as the couple was trying to figure out what they might do with Jim’s collection of historic campaign paraphernalia – which includes pieces from the days of the Whigs through the New Deal to the Nixon-Humphrey 1968 campaign – they realized they could decorate a tasting room with all that stuff , and the name naturally followed.
Farming has been in Susan’s family since her ancestors emigrated in the mid-1800s from what is now the Czech Republic (hence Velvet Revolution). Jim, who has family ties to Nelson, is proud to say that during the 1980s he was the only registered lobbyist with a NASCAR® Competitor’s license. Adding to their political pedigree, their first date was a 1995 Clinton White House Christmas Party. Bill Clinton’s photograph was a featured part of the groom’s wedding cake in 1998. The caption on the photo read, “Thank you Mr. President.”