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Published October 09, 2008 09:30 pm - It’s really a pretty typical story. Guy studies voice at the Boston Conservatory, moonlights as a dishwasher at a French restaurant, becomes a vocal-music teacher, then becomes the head chef at the restaurant where he used to wash dishes, moves to Chicago to run the restaurant on the top of the Hancock Building, opens a consulting business with his wife, buys a horse ranch near Grand Lake and starts a vineyard. Mike Pound: Festival to celebrate Oklahoma wines By Mike Pound
Globe columnist mpound@joplinglobe.com It’s really a pretty typical story. Guy studies voice at the Boston Conservatory, moonlights as a dishwasher at a French restaurant, becomes a vocal-music teacher, then becomes the head chef at the restaurant where he used to wash dishes, moves to Chicago to run the restaurant on the top of the Hancock Building, opens a consulting business with his wife, buys a horse ranch near Grand Lake and starts a vineyard. You know, the same old same old. OK, so maybe Val Sammer took a somewhat circuitous route to arrive at his life today as an Oklahoma cowboy and viticulturist (it’s a word; I looked it up), but when you listen to him explain the journey, it all seems to makes sense. Val and Nancy, his wife of 25 years, own and operate the Royal Horse Ranch and Grand Lake Vineyards, located on Highway 125 on Monkey Island at Grand Lake. Nancy has been around horses and worked with them much of her life, but Val didn’t hop on a horse until he was 38. Twenty years after that first ride, he and Nancy own a horse ranch that offers riding lessons, trail rides and other horse-related services. But I didn’t drop by Val and Nancy’s place Thursday morning to talk about horses, nor, I think, did Val stop what he was doing to talk to me about horses. What we both wanted to talk about was wine. Specifically, the upcoming Grand Wine Country Fall Festival. The festival, now in its third year, will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Val and Nancy’s ranch. Restaurants and businesses from all over Grand Lake will be on hand showing off their products, but the real stars of the festival will be four Grand Lake-area wineries. And in case you’re wondering — yes, they do make wine in Oklahoma. Lots of it. And it’s pretty good. I mean, I don’t know much about wine, but I know what I like. Thursday morning, Val and I sat underneath a large tent in the field where the festival will take place and talked about wine. Well, we talked about a lot of stuff, but mainly we talked about wine. Val told me that he had been on the pouring and drinking side of wine for most of his adult life. A chance meeting with Pam and Rob Harris, who own the Cabin Creek Winery, got him interested in the other side of wine. “I asked Rob how to grow grapes, and he said, ‘You dig a hole in the ground, plant a grapevine and work harder than you have ever worked in your life.’ And he was right,” Val said. At the Fall Festival, folks 21 and over who pony (ha) up 15 bucks will receive a souvenir wine-tasting glass and eight wine-tasting tickets that will allow them to sample wines from the Blue Coyote Vineyards and Winery, the Cabin Creek Vineyards and Winery, the Oak Hills Winery and Vineyards, and the Summerside Vineyards and Winery. All four wineries will have wine for sale at the festival. For those who don’t want to sample the wine or those under the age of 21, the admission price is $5. In addition to the wine-tasting, food, and arts and crafts, there will be live music. Helicopter rides will be offered by the folks at Helicopter Advantage. And one important note: Val said there will be a special area for football fans to watch the Oklahoma-Texas game. All in all, it sounds like a pretty neat deal. Some great food, some great music, some great wine and some football. Ha. That’s just an “I’m a KU fan, not an OU or Texas fan” joke. No, I’m sure the OU-Texas game will be fine. If you like that sort of thing. But the best thing about the Fall Festival is that it allows folks to get to know a little something about the wineries in the Grand Lake area. Val, who also makes his own wine but at this time does not sell what he makes, said the local wineries offer a package that allows you to visit all four wineries. For information about the tour or for more information about the wineries, you can dial up www.grandwinecountry.com. 
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