Starting from scratch: Life's circumstances led me to Virginia in 1981. I was hired to expand an existing vineyard and start up a winery in the Shenandoah Valley. It didn't take long for me to realize that I wanted to set my own roots here. I had a background in wine consumption and in farming, but only a couple years of vineyard and winemaking experience. With family support, I was eventually able to put a down payment on an old abandoned apple orchard in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hardscrabble Vineyard was born in 1985 with an 8-acre plant-ing.