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ORAL HISTORY
Lenna Hobson, owner
RagApple Lassie Vineyards
Frank Hobson is a third-generation farmer. His family has raised various row crops, including tobacco, on the same land in Booneville, North Carolina, since the early 1900s. In 1995 he married, adding a new member to the family: his second wife, Lenna. And in an effort to insure that his family’s land remained agricultural, he added a new crop: grapes.
In 1999, after conducting research and generating contacts through his farm supply business, Frank located vines and planted ten acres in Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. In 2000 Frank and Lenna established the winery, naming it after Frank’s champion show calf, RagApple Lassie. Today, thirty-five acres of vinifera grapes grow on Hobson land. But the bulk of the property is still dedicated to corn, wheat, soybeans, and tobacco. The Hobsons are so tied to the their farming roots, in fact, that a tobacco leaf graces the back label of every one of their wine bottles.
