Nicholas 'Nico' Kimberly hand cuts his grapes from a vineyard in Concord that he leases to grow his grapes. NOK Vino, created in 2022 and named after his initials and their motto: “Not Otherwise Known,” has become the brain child of Kimberly’s experience in the service industry, vineyards and love of tasting. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor

Nicholas Kimberly vividly remembers the first time he tasted organic wine made with grapes grown in New England.

“I was drinking this wine, and I got transported into the Mediterranean Sea and I was on a boat laden with goods and I was tasting wine out of a jug,” he said. “It was an incredible time.”

He attributes this experience to the richness of Northeast soil and wine’s longevity as a drink people have enjoyed throughout history. Reconnecting people with wine’s global history and their own ancestral ties to the fermentation process is one of his goals with his wine business, NOK Vino.

“Our mission is to reignite that deep knowledge within everyone. You were probably part of fermentation at some point in your DNA lineage, this belongs to you. Doesn’t matter what you look like, where you come from, this is a human thing,” he said.

Nicholas ‘Nico’ Kimberly inspects his grapes from a vineyard in Concord that he leases to grow his grapes. NOK Vino, created in 2022 and named after his initials and their moto: “Not Otherwise Known,” has become the brain child of Kimberly’s experience in the service industry, vineyards and love of tasting. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor

NOK Vino, created in 2022, is Kimberly’s brain child, born out of his experience in the service industry and his love of vineyards and wine tasting. The operation consists of five young farmers and wine enthusiasts, nine acres of vineyards spread out around southern New Hampshire and a tasting room that opened in Hooksett in late May.

The new tasting room has become home base for the business, a place where they plan to stomp grapes in the back garage and serve drinks at the front bar. The tasting room will also provide a gathering place for people interested in wine tasting, non-acholic drinks or local snacks.

“We don’t tell people what to taste. We tell them what we do, how we do it, where the grapes are from, something interesting about the landscape and pour a sip,” said Kimberly.

The NOK Vino process from grapes to wines

It all begins with farming.

From January to November, Kimberly and his four coworkers are in their vineyards and orchards daily caring for the over 8,000 plants that will produce their grapes for harvesting in early September. All the grapes and apples that go into making their wines are grown in New Hampshire without added chemicals or filtering.

“It’s about farming, it’s about paying your farm workers, it’s about making them visible to the community and having them be part of the community,” he said. “We are making the most authentic expression of New Hampshire’s landscape and the fruit that we can.”

As a start-up, the business leases all the land it uses to cultivate its grapes, but Kimberly hopes that in the future NOK Vino will consolidate into a single location with a vineyard, production and a tasting room.

Nicholas ‘Nico’ Kimberly carries a load of grapes from a vineyard in Concord that he leases to grow his grapes. NOK Vino, created in 2022 and named after his initials and their motto: “Not Otherwise Known,” has become the brain child of Kimberly’s experience in the service industry, vineyards and love of tasting. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor
Nicholas ‘Nico’ Kimberly keeps his grapes under netting to protect them from the birds. Kimberly says the drought made birds eat the grapes in their pursuit of moisture. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor

All of the grapes harvested for their over 20 wines are made from hybrid, cold-climate grapes, the only grapes that can successfully grow in New England’s ever-changing seasons. 

According to Kimberly, other local wineries ship grapes from California to create their most popular wines, like Chardonnay, Cabernet and Sauviguon Blanc, but his homegrown hybrid grapes hold the taste and ancestry of Granite State soil.

With names like Pomme Pink, Rural Virgo, Camaraderie and Elevation Red Field Blend, the resulting wines wouldn’t be recognizable to the average consumer. Kimberly sees that variety and creativity as part and parcel with the wine tasting experience.

“Wine is such an incredibly diverse and comprehensive beverage because every person approaches it in a different way,” he said.

‘A New England wine movement’

For Kimberly, NOK Vino is at the front lines of an uniquely New England wine revival — one that owes its existence to farmers.

Protecting and prioritizing New Hampshire farms is of the utmost importance to future-proofing the growing local wine culture, he said.

“Do you want to see a New Hampshire that has farms? That has places you can go to agricultural land with growing things and animals and places you walk around and bring your family? Or, do you want to see a New Hampshire that’s devoid of agriculture?” he said. “It literally is that drastic in our mind. That’s the view of any farmer in my age group.”

Nicholas ‘Nico’ Kimberly keeps his grapes under netting to protect them from the birds. Kimberly says the drought has made birds especially tough this year in their pursuit of moisture. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor

With the strength of local agriculture, Kimberly believes that New Hampshire could be on the forefront of a movement to make the Northeast’s natural wine a stiff competitor for California wines.

He embraces the role NOK Vino could play in this burgeoning industry.

“We have this amazing opportunity to define what the culture is around wine in the Northeast,” he said. “We consider this a movement. This is a New England wine movement.”