I can remember our first Christmas back together again. It seemed that nothing had changed: loud laughter, music playing, the smell of my grandmother’s gumbo, and me sitting back thinking I’ve missed this. In that moment, my grandfather, Sie Dukes, shoved a glass of his wine in my face saying, “taste that, but go easy it’ll put you on your back if you’re not careful.”
The 40 years Sie spent perfecting this grand fruit wine recipe, triggered my pallet and left me with different questions as I drank my glass of wine: “Has this wine always been this good? If so, why haven’t we established a winery yet? What do I need to do to get this wine in the hands of the public?”
Shortly after finishing that glass of wine, I found myself in a four hour conversation with my grandfather learning all the tricks of the trade. I wanted to know how to make this wine and how he started. The conversation could have gone on for another five hours, but I did not take heed to my grandfather’s statement when he first said “Go easy.” In those four hours, my grandfather explained to me how he was taught how to make great wine by some vintners down in New Orleans where he was both raised and perfected his gift in playing the blues guitar.
Sie spent most of his days at a nightclub earning money playing his guitar with his blues band. That night club made their profit from serving drinks to all who came to listen. When they would run short on meeting their quota for the month the workers and musicians would deliver fresh milk and wine to locals. Sie figured he could make some extra cash doing all the deliveries before it was time for his band to play. Fatefully, some of the locals he delivered wine and milk to changed his life.
A group of middle aged farmers would regularly buy a bunch of wine from the nightclub. One day, my curious grandfather decided that on his next delivery to this group he would ask them why they ordered so much wine. Little did he know that resolution would serve as the inception of a family legacy. The next morning Sie Dukes picked up his two cases of wine from the nightclub and made it to his stop right on time for his wine delivery. The moment he saw his customers coming out of their barn house for their pick up he asked “Why do you all order some much wine?” One of the middle aged fellows responded “come to the back and let me show you!” The man explained that they were farmers who specialized in oenology (wine making) and that they ordered wine from this nightclub in order to taste their competitors’ wine. Sie pleaded with this vintner to show him his craft until he acquiesced.
From that day forward, every single time Sie would deliver to this group, the middle aged guy would set aside time to show him the artful process of how to ferment grapes into wine. That was 40 years ago, and my grandfather has not stopped making wine, manifesting the perfected recipe of Dukes Wine. Once Sie moved to California, grabbing wine grapes from Napa Valley was easy since his route as a truck driver passed through the valley. In his spare time, he would grab pounds of fruit, take it back home to Los Angeles to continue making his wine. A few years later he started experimenting with other fruits when wine grapes weren’t in season, establishing that you could make great wine out of any fruit once you’ve mastered his recipe with a few minor adjustments.
To this day, on every holiday, there is live music played by all my family members along with our wine and my vision is to bring this sentiment to the entire world. A family tradition of laughter, music, fellowship and some good old wine — Dukes Wine.
Deon Dukes
Founder & Principal Vintner
