By Bob Flynn

When North Carolina native Bill Patterson moved to Pulaski County in 2002 while working for the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation location in London he never imagined that he would one day own a winery .

But when he and his girlfriend Debbie moved into a farmhouse at 2115 Smith Ridge Road one of the first things they did was plant a few grape vines on the lower part of

the property . Two years later he purchased an adjacent property when it came up for sale .

While contemplating what he could do with the 21 acres among the rolling hills of the Ansel community his thoughts turned to the grapes he had planted earlier which , because of their location , really hadn ’ t done so well , so he contacted the University of Kentucky Department of Horticulture for advice . “ When we first moved

here we didn ’ t know what we were going to do with the property so we put a few grape vines down in what we call the lower vineyard and it turned out to be a horrible place to plant ,” Patterson said . “ So I started working with the University of Kentucky viticulture department and they came down and said the best place to plant grapes were on the hillside . I ’ ve been working with them ever since .”

Soon after his talks with the folks from UK

Patterson took a business trip to Chicago and while killing time in his hotel room , Patterson said he picked up some paper and started to sketch out just what a possible winery would look like on his property .

That ’ s when he made a decision that changed his life forever .

“ I was sitting in my room by myself having a drink and I laid out the hill on Marriott stationary ,” he said . “ After looking at it I decided why not , so I got