Open: Year Round
About Us:
Charlie T Locklear Vineyard & Winery is wholly owned and operated by Charlie T. Locklear, Charlie T. Locklear, Jr. and myself, Daryl W. Locklear. We are proud members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolilna.
The idea of owning and operating a commercial winery was nothing but a dream for my father, and it probably was not even thought of as an attainable dream 15 years ago. Charlie toiled on the family farm growing up, where his family grew cotton, tobacco, corn, soybeans, cucumbers; raised livestock; and planted and harvested vegetables for the table. He was the fourth son in a family of ten siblings, and he learned at an early age that hard work was a part of life. Following years working the farm, he worked as a mechanic, then served in the Army reserves and finally worked in the manufactured home industry. Charlie has a tenacious personality and has never accepted the concept that dreams cannot be obtained.
My brother and I have always been my father's little helpers, and he taught us as we grew up on the farm that hard work makes the body and mind stronger. With this instilled in us at an early age, we have never been afraid of hard work. So the challenges that a vineyard and winery presented did not scare us away. In fact, we embraced it as a family and began the task of building a family legacy. This has been a family venture from the beginning and we have done all the labor, design and layout ourselves, with nothing more than the desire to achieve.
Together we took a small part of the farm and planted Muscadine vines and converted an old storage building into the wine production facility, which also houses the retail wine store. Currently with the vines we have planted we can produce approximately 3000 cases of wine per year when we are in full production.