CityView Magazine

brew Home brew Counter-clockwise | Donnie Spell, bottom, makes homemade wine on his farm near Hope Mills. Troy Sacquety and Jason Vincent brew beer from raw imgredients. The fi nished product goes into a refrigerator Sacquety has converted into a homemade tap. Sacquety and Vincent take a nip of one of their creations. ton is brewing up a batch of homemade beer in his garage. These backyard brewmasters call it a H 36 | Food & Wine • 2008 craft. There’s personality in these pints of beer and barrels of wine that can’t be found in any store. And if there’s one thing that can be said about Spell, he’s certainly not short on personality. He is often character- ized by those who know him as a “char- acter” who doesn’t have a serious bone in his body. But when it comes to mak- ing wine, Spell takes on a whole new attitude. He uses a recipe handed down from his grandfather and admits to tast- ing a bit of Grandpa’s persimmon wine OPE MILLS – Donnie Spell doesn’t buy his wine from the store. He makes his own – the old-fashioned way. Just around the corner, Charlie More- when he was only 8 years old. Today, there are those who can’t get enough of Spell’s grape concoctions. “When it comes to wine, I do it right,” he says. He bottles it in Mason jars, bought when they go on sale and later given away to family and friends. His Spellmonte brand labels, printed lo- cally by Williams Printing Company on Bragg Boulevard, are about as commer- cial as his wine gets. Spell doesn’t use special products or instruments. “I don’t even use yeast,” he says. “I’ve been making grape wine since before anybody even thought of using yeast.” Spell usually makes about 120 to 140 gallons a year. He uses wooden bar- rels and makes three varieties – white, red and “real dark” wine, his strongest and most popular wine. Spell starts by harvesting and cleaning Scuppernong grapes and smashing them with an old- By Eddie Dees

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