Singing wine’s praises: A winemaker’s secret to success

By Casey Gillis

Published: September 29, 2008

AMHERST — In the 16 years since Svet Kanev moved from his native Bulgaria to Amherst, he’s put his mark on Rebec Vineyards and the wine he makes there.

He does it his own way.

“Katie (Meeks, the tasting room manager) has this great quote: ‘The secret of Rebec wines is that Svet croons to them in Bulgarian,’” Lynn Hanson, wife of Rebec’s owner, Richard, once said.

“It’s true. He goes in and sings to the wine.”

Ask Kanev about it, and he suddenly gets shy.

“When I bottle it, sometimes, if I’m in the mood, I’ll sing,” he says, sheepishly. “They always tease me about that.”

Richard Hanson, who planted his first grapes on the 70-acre vineyard in the early 1980s, praises Kanev’s creativity.

“I taught him everything I know about winemaking,” Hanson says.

“He would innovate. He would come up with his own ideas. He would vary things, change things and improve on them. He was not just following instructions; he was using his brain.”

Kanev never thought wine would be his life’s work. He’d studied horticulture at home in Bulgaria and came here in 1992 as an exchange student.

“It was a nice coincidence that I wound up here,” says Kanev, who spoke little English at the time. “I made a life out of it.”

His first job at the vineyard was labeling and, during that first year, Kanev lived with the Hansons.

“Every night, we always had dinner together,” Richard Hanson says. “He would come up with a list of words for us to tell him what they meant … maybe 15 or 20 words a night, every night.”

Later, “I found out in the next three or four days, he was using those words. He’s probably got a larger vocabulary than 80, 90 percent of Americans.”

After a year, Kanev had to go back to Bulgaria under the terms of the exchange. It took another year for him to get his work visa, and he returned to the U.S. — and Rebec — in 1994.

Today, Kanev does a little bit of everything at the vineyard.

“Everybody does multiple things,” he says. “Sometimes, I just run the store (and tasting room).”

Other days, he’s making wine, bottling it or ordering supplies. That’s what he loves about the job: its unpredictability.

“I never really know what I’m going to be doing (every day),” he says, adding that he also likes surprising people with unique flavor combinations.

“It’s very challenging (and) interesting for me to blend. I have really enjoyed it,” he says. “People seem to like the wine, and they come back. That’s really rewarding.”

Rebec produces about 5,000 gallons of wine a year, he says. Most of the winemaking is done during the winter months, followed by the bottling in early spring.

September and October — the height of festival season — are their busiest months.

In the fall, Kanev spends most of his weekends bringing Rebec’s wines to festivals all over the state. And every October, the Hansons hold Rebec’s annual Virginia Wine & Garlic Festival, now in its 18th year and scheduled for Oct. 11 and 12.

Kanev says he remembers the festival’s first year, when about 3,000 people attended.

“It was still busy, but not crazy-busy.”

Not like now, when the event usually attracts double or even triple that number.

Kanev says there’s no real way to plan ahead for it.

“I just have to live through it,” he says. “You can’t worry, or you’ll have a heart attack. It’s overwhelming at times.”

“If we live through Saturday (the festival’s first and, usually, busiest day),” he adds, flashing a grin, “we’ve survived.”

If you’re going
WHAT: The 18th annual Virginia Wine & Garlic Festival
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 11 and 12
WHERE: Rebec Vineyards, U.S. 29. Amherst
TICKETS: $14 in advance and $20 at the gate for general admission; $18 in advance and $25 at the gate for general admission with wine tasting and souvenir wine glass; $4 in advance and $5 at the gate for children; two-day tickets are $5 more for each
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INFO: http://www.rebecwinery.com