Good to Know: Robert Lewis

Paul Reiser and Jeff Beimfohr talk with Robert Lewis, about his local winery Heart Gates Vineyard.

What is KTBS: Good to Know Shreveport-Bossier?

KTBS Podcasting and the Committee of 100 present Good to Know Shreveport-Bossier, a podcast series showcasing the good things happening in our area. We’ll go in-depth about economic development, community growth and other topics about initiatives that are having a positive impact in our community. We’ll have new episodes every other Wednesday. You can find the KTBS Good to Know podcast wherever you listen to podcasting. Or go to KTBS.com or KTBS Now on your streaming device to see the full interview.

Hello again everybody.

Welcome to Good to Know
Shreveport-Bossier.

This is our podcast showcasing all the
good things happening in our community.

My name is Jeff
Plant. We're over here to my right.

My co-host Paul Reiser used to own, like
10,000 Sonics around the Shreveport area.

He's a member of the Committee of 100
and every podcast we focus on

topics and initiatives having positive
impact around the community.

We have new episodes available
every other Wednesday,

and you can find good to know
wherever you listen to our podcast.

As always,
the honors belong to you to introduce

our incredibly special guest
who brought along some refreshments today.

Come on.

All right.

Well, Jeff, thanks for another
entertaining and educational introduction.

It's my game. It's my and my game.

Yeah, well,
today's going to be pretty fun.

Pretty fun. Interview.

Know like a lot of times
we talked a big industry big,

you know, big educational complex

things that are,
that are large in the area and they come

and they impact,
they have with our community.

One thing that hasn't changed is
we never get to the name of the guys.

We got to have a good extended intro.

Did do it my friend.

Well, today is going to be fun
because I love small business

and how important small businesses
to a community.

And today we have talked
to the owner of a small business.

I didn't even know
this was a thing in the Shreveport area.

And what thing is that, a vineyard?

Did you know we had a vineyard,
which is this is wine

country now, this is wine country
Shreveport-Bossier.

And so not only am I excited to find out
about how wine country

and how it's working,
but also I just love,

the fact that a person can get creative,
have a small business

idea, grow
a small business name name name name name.

Name is Mr.

Robert Louis, owner and vintner at Heart
Gates Vineyard right here in Shreveport.

Yes. Robert Rael, welcome to the show.

Thank you
for having with my great introduction.

Appreciate you being here. And
thanks for putting up with that interview.

Oh, definitely.

And you brought samples?

I did, most definitely.

I'm always a popular guy.

People are always are.
So but Robert to it.

So what you know, tell us a little bit
about the vineyard first.

What what is out there and then, you know,
how did you get into it? Yes.

I, grew up in a large family.

And whenever we would go to a restaurant,
there would be like 18 to 20 of us

going out.

And it was always difficult
for us to get in.

So we've got a large Italian family.

So I wanted to be able to have a place
that my family could go

and feel comfortable.

And I knew that others
kind of had that same situation.

So I also had a small son at that time
and thought it would be something fun

that we could do together and work
in the vineyard, in the farm house.

But of course, as soon as I bought
the place he had no interest.

So it's been on me for the last 15 years.

So did you buy a vineyard or you bought
some land and turned it into a vineyard?

No, I worked with the Metropolitan
Planning Commission for two years,

going through and looking

at different properties in the area,
and wanted to be able to find some place

that would work well for our future plans,
and also had to work

with the LSU AG Center to make sure
that the soil was going to work well.

Right.

so we were doing samples.

So, every time I would take it a property,
they're like, no, this isn't it.

This is too close to a church or too
close to it.

Now, this wasn't just, like, let's go buy
a piece of land and plant some grapes.

That wasn't the deal. The.

Oh, no, it was.
It was a lot of work involved.

And finally found a property.

They said, I think this was going to work.

So then I started doing soil samples
and, worked with the LSU AG Center

to make sure that the soil
was going to be okay.

And it was a good sandy mix.

So I was like, yes, I think we got one.

And then we worked with the MPC to do
the zoning change about the property,

and took several years of work in the soil
to augment with different chemicals

to make sure it
was going to be perfect for,

for the grapes as well.

This sounds like a lot of work.

It has been a lot of work

because this is a small business,
but it's been large business to me.

Well, it's not like growing
tomatoes in your backyard.

I mean, you hear about these vineyards

in France and other countries,
they they're centuries old vines.

And so to get something started,
I know it takes a long time to understand.

Takes a long time.

So where did you get the original vines
or grapes?

Did you just plant some seeds
or. Well, no.

with with the wine grapes,
we use a federally approved wine grape

that was created by the University
of Florida back in 1990

to grow specifically in the south below
1500.

1500 feet.

And it's also pierce disease resistant,
which is a big problem in our area.

And we, worked

with the with the,
our friends over at Landry Vineyard.

And they have been very supportive
and helping me with that.

So I did, use their, growers
over in, California

to be able to purchase these grapes
and, planted them at my property.

That's it.

So where is the property
and how many vines do you have?

And how large is it?

Yeah, it's in West Shreveport
and the Pines Road area.

usually I tell people

if they know where the Pines red Walmart
is, I'm on the other side of I-20.

Colored vines of the Pines.

Is that mine?

That's a good one.

I like that you feel free.

Okay.

Oh, I had to trademark that.

That's so. Yeah.

The, my next door
neighbors are Doggett, Tractor Supply

and Garrison's nursery and,
the fire academy as well.

So, like,

you always hear
the stories of people out in California.

Well, we're touring the wine country,
so it's just something people can come

to or look at,
or we all got to be a curiosity for here.

Oh, it is. It truly is.

We're not open to the public,
but we do private events,

and we schedule events
for guests of 20 to 100,

which is always great for people
to be able to come out

and look at the vines
and be able to do a free wine tasting,

and we also do catering for our parties
as well.

We've got a couple of we've got about
seven different areas that they can do.

Parties out at our place.

So you have the vineyard
and you also have a venue

like where people can do wedding,
wedding receptions and so forth.

Yes, we sure do.

We have a wedding courtyard that we built
a couple of years ago, and we also have

a bonfire area that we can do
parties anywhere from 20 to 100 guests.

So whatever they come out there,
it's exclusive for just them.

Since we're not open to the public.

So it's, a private party for basically
just that group or that family.

So here's the deal.
You have a lot of money.

So I want you to go and have a big party
and an invite me? Yes.

Yeah.

But it doesn't take a lot of money to,
to have a party with us, which is good.

Okay.
Let's encourage we try to be economical.

I hope that, invitation doesn't
get lost in the mail somehow, Jeff.

I'm sure it might.

So what kind of grapes do you have?

What kind of wine do you produce?
How large is the vineyard?

Yes, we.

Right now, the the entire property is five
and a half acres.

And I have started with, right now
a half acre planning the bunked the boy.

So we've got, two wines.

We have a semi-sweet

which is in the blue bottle,
and then we have a in the green bottle.

We have a dry,
which is the same as the first one.

You we're talking about. Yes.

That one there. That's our semi-sweet.

Okay.

And it has, naturally has flavors
of peach, pear and honeysuckle.

And it's a little bit on the sweeter side.
I would like that.

You would like that.

So much for the wine drinker
or drink or anything really.

But I like that. Yeah.

And a lot of people in this area
really like it. Sweet.

So we try to make sure that we have
something

that, people are going to really enjoy
and then take that same

grape and process it on the
this one here this year,

which is on the drier side,
similar to a Sauvignon Blanc.

Okay.

So and that's the grape that we grow here,
the one in the middle.

I personally like dry red cabs

and we can't really grow a cab grape here
that was wondering about that.

Yeah.

So we ended up buying grapes
from a vineyard up north

in Washington Valley
and put it on a refrigerated truck

and shipped it down here
and processed it here.

So this one over here,
that was the most popular, I guess.

Yes, it is the most popular. Yeah.

We're about 30 local stores
here in the area.

Wow. So on
the on the left side of your screen,

if you're watching the video
that that's a blue bottle.

It looks it's with white wine inside
right.

Yes. It has a white bread also right here.

What do you call that one.

That is our blanket of white semi-sweet.

Thank you.

Yeah. All right. That's our semi-sweet.

And, we, typically have a booth down
at the farmers

market, and people are always wanting to
try our wines, so we always send them to,

Tony's Liquor over on Line Avenue.

They sell the most wine for us.

I don't know, a lot of local restaurants
and businesses like to support

local businesses.

So are you available
in different restaurants in the area?

we we have been in different restaurants,
but typically with restaurants,

they want to make sure that they have once
they open a bottle,

they need to be able to sell it
that night.

Yeah.

So, typically
they don't carry us for too long

because people are still not aware,
you know, our name, so.

Yeah. Yeah.

Is it getting out there though.

It has, it has
I think was having the events at

our place has definitely helped
about to get us more name recognition.

Yeah.

And whenever we have at a party

or event out there,
somebody just falls in love with it.

And we typically get another booking from
that as well, which is great for me too.

I yeah, I think that from your website
there's several different candies

and different foods associated with wines.

Oh yes, as well. Yes.

There you have there,
we do make a wine jelly out of our wine,

and we also make Cabernet infused
wine brownies, which is very popular,

especially at our,

any event that we host
or a bonfire parties and people show up

and they've heard about our brownies,

or they tell me that they had our brownies
at a party, and it's out of those.

Really? That. Yeah. That's true.

Yeah, they are popular.

I use Ghirardelli dark chocolate
and our red cab.

So the the fruit comes through in that.

So even kids can eat them
because once they've been cooked

the alcohol is gone,
but it just leaves the flavor of it.

So I got to ask you a question.

You talk about working with the NPC,
changing the zoning. Yes.

And Ed Walsh over there was telling us
that, that resulted not only in your,

vineyards, but, I guess a lot of the craft
beer shops coming in and.

Yeah, because we, we started this
almost 15 years ago.

So they did have to rewrite some laws

to allow that, which I do think that
kind of helped with the breweries as well.

Yeah, they're very supportive of them.

We are in partnership with Fatty Arbuckle.

So whenever we do a large event,
we have them come out

and do our bar service
and always make sure that they're bringing

beers from the local breweries as well
to be able to keep it all local as well.

Okay.

I'll I'll hold off as your son
when you decided to take you is probably,

8 or 9 somewhere in in there.

So he's like 23 years. Yeah, he's 21 now.

he's in military, has a job now,
so I probably has no interest in this.

So no interest.

Yeah, it's all me.

So. So mostly at your vineyard.

Did you grow the grapes?

And then you have the venue
and then people,

can they come out there to buy the jellies
and the candies?

Oh, we're, is it
available online or businesses?

well, they a lot of people reach out to us
through our website

and also our Facebook page, the Messenger,
and giving us a call for special orders.

But we don't have a storefront
that we're open to the public.

So that's why we schedule
the private events for people to be able.

Go ahead and, tell us your website address
and all that stuff.

It's Hart Gates vineyard.com.

And we also have a Facebook page and
that's also Hart Gates Vineyard as well.

Our gates, Hart Gates Vineyard and Gates.

Where did you come up with that name?

Well, when I first opened the property,
or started the business,

I had another name,
but it wasn't too cool.

So one day I was working
down from the front. The.

Now, come on, if I.

If I had only known you 15 years ago.

Yeah, I was working.

I was actually weeding out
at the front gates

and our gates have these real pretty cool,

long, long gated hearts
that are fashioned into the gates.

And they're about 40 year old iron gates.

And I was kind of looking at
we have two sets of gates

that comes into the property.

And I was like, I was kind of looking at
the hearts and say, hearts, heart gates.

So that's kind of where it came from,
because we knew that we would eventually

be doing weddings and parties

and wanted to have something a little bit
more romantic for families to say.

And so I incorporated the,
Italian flag into it.

So the Italian color
kind of come through as well.

And then when I,
I actually started naming it.

So people tell me about the gates down
in New Orleans also had those same hearts.

And when I visited
some friends down there,

I started seeing those hearts
everywhere as well.

I was like, that's pretty cool. Yeah.

So when people drive up to the plate,
they see that

that kind of becomes the visual for it.

It does because they drive through.

And whenever I'm doing a tasting for
for guests in the party, I always make

sure that when they drive out
that they stop and look at the gates.

I kind of see where
the inspiration came from.

So what advice
would you give someone who has a vision

and wants to start a business?

You just had a vision for a larger place
for your family to eat, and I did,

and now I'm going to spend four years

finding soil samples
and figuring out how to find these vines.

I mean, this that was a huge undertaking.

Yeah, yeah, it really was.

I did have somebody that was actually
interested in starting a vineyard.

I said, well, if you're interested
in doing it for money, they'll do it.

So it needs to be, passionate.

I, my,
my dad's parents were big into greenhouses

and being outside,
so I loved being outside

and work in the soil
and working with the grapes.

So it's something
that I really enjoy doing.

And making a little money on the side
does help.

Yeah.

Anything that I've made with Hard gates
goes back into developing of the property

for for future goals.

Was there a point when you were spending
four years, I guess you said, trying

to get this all off the ground,
that you said math is too much work?

Well, I'm pretty stubborn, so I was

yeah, I was bound and determined
to keep going with it.

And, I know other business owners,
I do recommend that they make sure

that they have a big pot of cash
before going into it to be able to help.

So because you can't necessarily
go to the bank and get a loan.

So I want to make sure they're saying
absolutely has assets.

So yeah very interesting. Thank you.

So what's been the biggest challenge.

besides just I don't know
what's been the biggest challenge?

I think the biggest challenge for me
is definitely getting the name out there

and working for,
getting everybody aware of heart gates.

I taught college for 20 years, and
one of the classes I taught was marketing.

And I remember from teaching those courses
that most people need to have heard

about a product or a company,
at least seven times

before they're even interested
in purchasing a product.

So I think with me doing the parties, the
events, having the booths at the farmers

market has helped to be able to get us
more exposure and opportunities like this.

to be on your show
to to let more people know about it

so that they're more familiar
and more willing to try and have,

a glass of our wine
or try one of our wonderful brownies.

It is pretty amazing
that people just hear about it

for, you know, they hear about it
long enough and they think it's,

you know, they just naturally think
it's something they got to do.

Right? Exactly. Yeah.

And when they find out about us,
they think it's kind of cool

to be able to go out, especially,
we're outside of the city limits.

So we have bonfire area and
we have the parties and people come out.

They're out looking out in the stars.

It's it's a lot of fun.

So it makes me happy
when I see other people happy.

Is it

so how far out ahead
the people need to, schedule,

like a wedding or a bonfire
or a party event?

Well, with the wedding,

there is a lot of planning
that goes into that,

because we do have partnerships
with lots of other,

vendors in the area to be able to kind of
make us a one stop shop.

Yeah.

So we have deejays
and wedding aficionados and,

people
to do decorating and flowers and catering.

So they

do need to give us at least three months
so we can kind of coordinate all that.

But typically with a birthday party,
I can do that within a couple of weeks,

as long as we have the availability. Yeah.

So I've kind of gotten used to being able
to, to with those out pretty quickly

there. Sounds like a great spot to me.

it's, it's it's a lot of fun.

So yeah. Yeah.
So it's something different.

And then if a person
just wants to try one, I mean, what's,

what's the best way or the, the,
the easiest way to get Ahold of some.

Get Ahold of that.

Get all the time.

Yeah.

Well, honey, the whole time
I Tony's liquor over on my phone is what?

You said you were in 30 stores?

Yes. Cuban liquor.

They have also carried us as well.

So, the winery area in,

I don't know, Lucas and Gary drive.

They sell a lot of wine for us.

They were actually the first store
to ever pick us up.

Yeah.

So I've had to
get it into that first store.

I do,
so I am distributed through Republic.

So pretty much anybody
in the state of Louisiana can pick us up.

I got you.

So, they also have salespeople that go out

and and talk about us as well, but
they kind of stick with the larger brands.

So it's up to me to be able to go in
and talk to different store

owners and managers.

So let them know that,
I mean, I don't use every public.

I don't know what that is. Okay.

Obviously somebody that is a distributor,
they are a distributor.

Yeah.

Because it's illegal for me to be able
to sell directly to a store.

So we have to go through a distributor
in, in Louisiana.

All right. So okay, that the biggest one,

that's one of the biggest.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

So they liked your product enough
to go out there.

They do, they do. Yeah.

Well, I mean, that that in itself
was a pretty good recommendation.

Yes. And the, the first person
that, at Republic was my sales rep.

He really liked
me, really liked the product, and was,

helpful to me in helping me
kind of understand that side

of the business
and being able to distribute the product.

So how much that can you tell us what,
like these bottles got a good question.

that they are on the shelf
usually around 17 to 1999.

Okay. So pretty reasonable.

That's not bad.

Especially for a local product as well.

Yeah. Yeah.

So it's kind of a gourmet type thing.

Local locally made.

Yeah I, I say it's a boutique vineyard,
boutique boutiques.

So might sound more,
a little bit more boutique.

So yeah usually.

What is the flavor profile on the red wine
you said.

Is it a is it a fruit forward.

Is it a spicy is. Oh that's too much. Yeah

it is for.

No we're talking. Yeah.
Like more of a jammy fruit flavor.

Well I would say that probably one of
the primary flavors is like a dark cherry.

Yeah.

Tobacco and a wood flavor as well.

And the oak is going forward as well
because we did aged kind of wine.

Yeah, we we aged it in oak barrels
for a year. Oh.

Before bottling it.

and so what is the profile
on this one over here?

The profile.

well, the the semi-sweet
has flavors of peach, pear and honey.

So that's that's just that's
that's that one.

But the the two on the is the white grape.

They both have the same flavor.

This one's a little bit sweeter
that you're going to like.

And then we have the drive
for people like me.

Then I'm an orchid. Yeah.

And I like the one in the middle. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah.

Well that's forward. That's fruit forward.

It is from forward.

Yes I like definitely trying it with one
of our, Cabernet infused wine brownies.

That's a really good mix.

You got me soul on those brownies.

Oh. What are we going
to have to make you some.

Thank you. So what? Some of those.

So what is the best thing
that we need to tell?

Because we're just about to tell us.

We've got two minutes left.

Oh, sorry, that had to just a teeny bit
short here today.

Okay.

what is the most important thing
that you want our audience

to know about your business?

Well, I really want people to know

that if they would be able
to schedule a party or an event with us,

that really helps us to be able
to have cash continue to come

in, to be able to to further
the develop the property,

because we're still trying to add grapes
every year.

And I think having the parties
also will be able

to let people know about our brand.

And that's very helpful for us.

So if they go to our Facebook page
and message us through, messenger

will be able to, glad to schedule
an event and party specifically for them.

we have some things that we typically do,
like a secretary board,

but we can do any kind of, food or,
catering that they want

to make a party specifically for them
so that they will enjoy it.

Okay.

And give us your website again.

Hart gates vineyard.com.

Hart gates, vineyard gates.

Yes. It's G80 s because there's two gates
on the property that you made it.

Floral Hart gates one Hart two gates.

That's right. Man that was romantic.

I knew there was a reason
why I kept you around.

Yeah. Oh. That's one.

Yeah.

All right.

Closing thoughts
you'd like to leave folks with.

I'm very excited to have this opportunity
and I'm very supportive.

I appreciate all the support
that Shreveport-Bossier has given to us,

and we're looking forward
to being able to serve our community more.

Nice.

Well, I mean, this is a unique thing
for this area, right?

That it is unique and different.

I mean, do you think other people might
try to follow in your footsteps here?

I hope that they would,
because just like the breweries,

there's lots of different breweries
and I'd like go into all of them as well.

So if we had more vineyards in this area,
I think it would be more of a draw.

Yeah.

For people from, Texas to be able
to come over and visit us as well.

Well, that's very cool. I'm glad we,
I glad I got to meet you.

You know, you said you've been here
before, but for other reasons.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's inspirational.

Like I said, I love to see a person
get a dream and make something happen.

So. Well, thank you, I appreciate that.

All right.

We are wrapping up.

This is Robert Louis from Hart Gates
Vineyards.

And I get that you did I did all right.

Thanks for being here,
everybody. As always.

this has been good
to know. Have a good one.

Hey.