SC's first winery started on Daufuskie. Now, after 60 years, it's back in business

As Lancy Burn tells it, his granddad’s winemaking made him a magnet on Daufuskie Island.

Papy Burn worked at the Daufuskie's Bloody Point Lighthouse for many years. And in the mid-1900s, Papy converted an old building used to store oil, wicks and lamps for the lighthouse into a winery.

The tiny and historic Silver Dew Winery was the first registered winery in the state, according to locals. Author Pat Conroy even took notice, writing about it in his Lowcountry-based 1972 novel, "The Water is Wide."

Back in the winery's heyday, Papy made wine from just about anything, including plums, oranges, elderberries and scuppernong, a species of large round grapes that are native to the South. He even tried making wine out of bananas once, but that batch blew right up, Burn said.

Papy’s scuppernong wine wasn’t for the faint of heart. Locals referred to it as "a sipping wine" — sweet, powerful and very alcoholic.

"What they would do in the evening is take a little glass of wine and drink it, and they’d get drunk as a skunk off of it," Burn said. "But they’d go to bed and sleep well ... That’s what it was all about."

According to Burn, Papy’s secret ingredient was rainwater. He bought grapes from various people on Daufuskie, crushed them up and added rainwater and some sugar — but never yeast.

Burn helped his grandad in the winery by mashing the grapes in a meat grinder and every once in a while, he got to taste the wine.

"My ears would light up like tail lights just from a couple sips and he’d have to take me out of there," Burn said laughing.

After a few years in business, Papy retired and closed the winery in 1956 and it sat untouched for years.

But as of April 25, after more than six decades, commercial bottles of wine are once again being corked in the old Silver Dew Winery.

The winery will be hosting a grand re-opening on Saturday, May 26 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

‘More of an honor than a job’

The reopening of Silver Dew Winery was not possible without jumping over some hurdles first.

In 2015, Wick Scurry bought the Bloody Point Lighthouse, along with the winery.

At that time, Scurry planted a grape arbor with the hopes of growing scuppernongs like Daufuskie residents and Burn did in the old days.

"I’m kind of a history nut and it (the winery) is very historic ... so I thought it would just be great to bring the wine back," Scurry said.

Unfortunately, mother nature had another plan. In October 2017, as Tropical Storm Irma blew through Beaufort County, it took Scurry’s growing grapes down with it.

"It was disappointing, because we did have a good deal of grapes," Scurry said.

Scurry was getting ready to put ads in the paper for a winemaker to help him when in walked Clifford Joseph Smith III, also known as Joe.

While the Lowcountry was rappling with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irma, Smith was working at a winery in California’s Sonoma County when the Altas Wildfires broke out.

As a temporary employee, Smith was forced to head home to South Carolina after evacuating.

"When you see people you love lose everything, it's kind of a reality check to not take things for granted and to take opportunities when they come to you," he said. "So it's funny when things worked out."

Smith grew up on Folly Beach and worked on Hilton Head Island for about three years as a sommelier — a trained wine professional— for the Lowrey Group.

Moved by the intricacy of wine making, Smith spent nearly a decade traveling the country and the world learning about wine.

When a friend told Smith about Scurry's vision for the Silver Dew Winery, Smith said he was immediately intrigued. Not only did he like the idea of staying in the Lowcountry, he was also drawn in by the unique and historic nature of it all, he said.

After Scurry showed Smith the winery, he quickly jumped on board as Silver Dew's winemaker.

In an effort to get the winery up and going without any grapes growing on the nearby vines, the pair purchased a shipment of Riesling grapes from Oregon.

The grapes were pressed and frozen in Oregon, transported to Beaufort County on a refrigerated truck and brought over to Daufuskie on a barge — before eventually reaching the island 10 weeks later.

Once grapes arrived on Daufuskie, they were fermented and bottled right there in the Silver Dew Winery. Last week, Smith, Scurry and a team of employees filled all 654 bottles of the wine.

"The idea of spending time hand bottling the first batch of wine to come from this winery in over 60 years was more of an honor than a job,” Smith said.

‘Something Daufuskie residents can be proud of’

The Silver Dew Winery does not resemble those you would find in California’s wine country. The winery is small and absent of most fancy equipment, but Smith said he enjoys the challenge.

"It adds to the charm and what really makes it special to me is that it’s a throwback to how wine was made 150 years ago," he said. "It’s never going to produce thousands of bottle of wine, but it’s not set up for that."

Still, the team has high hopes for the winery.

"We’re setting this place up to be a fully functional commercial winery," Smith said. "I hope we can help people see that you can make really good wine even on a place like Daufuskie—an island off of South Carolina with no bridge."

By next year, the team plans to start producing wine with the grapes off of their Daufuskie vines.

The island's rich soil diversity — complete with sand, salt and minerals — will play a large role in the flavor of the grapes, according to Smith.

"It gives us the opportunity to grow really healthy, flavorful fruit, so that we can produce really flavorful wines," he said.

In spite of other failed developments on Daufuskie in recent years, Scurry believes the island’s popularity with visitors is strong enough to keep the winery going.

"In many ways the island is thriving," Scurry said. "I’m expanding my docks, because so many little boats are coming out to see the island ... And on top of that, we certainly have people to sell the wine to. Anybody who picks up a golf cart to ride around Daufuskie has to go by the winery and now they can stop in."

The team is working on getting all 654 bottles of the dry Riesling labeled and they expect to host a grand opening Memorial Day weekend. At this time, they’re only planning to sell the wine at Silver Dew, where they will have wine tastings and sell wine by the bottle and case.

"Silver Dew has been a little bit of a canvas for us, not just for me and Wick, but for the people on Daufuskie," Smith said. "To see something like this really come back to life, I think it’s something Daufuskie residents can be proud of."

Being back in the winery as Smith and the others hand bottled the wine for the first time in decades, Burn said "the memories just floated back."

"Working at my grandfather's winery was a very special part of my life," Burn said."... And I'm wishing them well with their venture as the new Silver Dew Winery. I know it’ll add another chapter to Daufuskie’s history, especially for my grandaddy and the winery."

This story was originally published May 3, 2018 at 1:45 PM with the headline "SC's first winery started on Daufuskie. Now, after 60 years, it's back in business."