he end of prohibition and the creation of North Carolina’s ABC Commission allowed wineries to reopen and thrive. Original winemaker and proprietor Mellie Bernard created Bernard’s Waldensian Style Wines in 1935. Mellie embraced the Waldensians’ local winemaking culture in the small town of Valdese and launched his winery in neighboring Icard. His vision flourished in the local community for many years, providing local area residents with various fruit-based wines. In 1948, there were two alcohol-related deaths in Burke County, which resulted in legislation that made it a dry county. No alcohol could be produced or sold in the county. Without another option, Mellie left wine on the bottling lines with over 6,000 gallons of wine he was no longer allowed to sell. Using his knowledge and talents, Mellie lent his expertise in wine making to Duplin Winery. To carry the winery forward a partnership struck up with the Weaver & Bumgarner families, Bernard’s Waldensian Style Wines became Waldensian Style Wines. Duplin Winery continued to produce wine for Waldensian Style Wines to distribute across Katherine’s Cheese House, the Hickory Furniture Mart, and much of the foothills of NC for decades to come. As the Weaver and Bumgarner families began to retire in the early 1990s, Katherine’s Cheese Houses closed, but the distribution of the wines across the foothills of NC continued. In 2008, Eddie and Brenda Zimmerman acquired Waldensian Style Wines to breathe some life back into the historic Winery. With Duplin Winery still being a producing partner for Muscadine & Scuppernong wines, the Zimmermans reopened a production winery and began making many of the historic Italian and fruit-based wines in-house.