- Darlene Gabbard is a member of the Lumbee tribe and needed to find use for the abundant fruit that grew on her property in Lexington.

After years of making pies and jellies, she tried her hand at making wine.

It was a hit and resulted in the country's first American Indian-owned winery.

Let's join Teresa Litschke at Native Vines.

[music playing] - So Native Vines is a hobby that kind of blossomed into a business, a family business.

- I was just looking for something to use large amounts of fruit and came across a homemade wine book at the library and started making homemade wine.

- From there, it just grew into what it is today for over the last 20 years.

- That was 2006, and we've been rocking and rolling ever since.

- The name Native Vines initially came from all the blackberry bushes on their 40-acre property.

But Darlene soon found out the wine she was making in a barn converted into a winery and tasting room would give the name a whole new meaning.

- I started trying to research what other Native Americans were doing with the industry.

I thought there would be some information that I could pull from and found out that there weren't any.

- That catapulted Native Vines into rare territory.

And together with Darlene's daughter Victoria and her granddaughter Ava, they continue to use the traditions of the Lumbee to help guide the way.

- So without a lot of chemicals, without changing a lot of things and just keep it simple, really the natural flavors of the fruit, I think that kind of pulls that Native American aspect into it of just keeping everything as natural as possible.

- That goes for the tasting room as well.

- I couldn't think of any better place to come have a nice lunch with a little bit of wine and enjoy the rainy day outside.

- I would say it's very different than a lot of other wineries around here.

And a lot of the ones we have here, I know have never been done before.

- They are so tasteful, every single bottle.

- I love it.

I mean, it made a wine drinker out of me.

And I'm not really big on wine.

So I'm sold.

- We have dry whites and reds, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir.

- And the Native Red is without a doubt my favorite.

- I really can't pick a favorite.

They're all so good.

- But we enjoy fruit wines.

- Over the years, Blackberry and Apple were the first two, just to use up the fruit.

- And I tasted several, but I really like the Blackberry.

- And then we do our green tea wines.

- My favorite is the Raspberry Tea.

- Which actually came to Darlene in a dream.

- It did.

I literally made it in a dream.

And so everybody thought I had lost my freaking mind.

- Like, who is going to drink green tea wine?

This does not sound appealing at all.

And we had to eat our words because she developed the recipe.

And it was not easy because green tea naturally doesn't want to ferment.

It doesn't want to turn into alcohol.

She made it dry, then she made it sweet, and she landed on this off-dry green tea wine.

And she has the patent and trademark on it.

It was the first ever to be developed.

It's floral and light and refreshing and absolutely delicious.

- I think you're really going to enjoy this.

- Darlene may have been Native Vines' first winemaker, but she won't be its last.

Victoria is now at the helm, using her talent as an artist to design some of the labels.

She's also putting her own spin on their particular brand of wine, making it obvious this apple didn't fall far from the tree.

- Her palate is good.

Her palate is selling a lot of wine and winning a lot of medals.

So I leave her alone.

[laughs] ♪ - Native Vines Winery is at 1336 North NC Hwy 150 in Lexington.

And they're open every day except Monday.

For more information, give them a call at 336-787-3688 or go online to nativevineswinery.com.