The muscadine vines at Piney Woods Winery are heavy with fruit waiting to be picked. But this year the harvest has been canceled. Winery founder Alfred Flies passed away Friday at the age of 92.
Flies (pronounced flees) established the winery 30 years ago after operating an interior design business in Orange for almost 25 years. His daughter, Lori Flies, said the winery’s roots started with a couple of plum trees in their yard. Her father decided to make wine from the fruit. “What really started out as a hobby grew into a business,” she said.
He established the winery on Tejas Drive in the mid-1980s. The winery became a popular tourist site in Orange and his wines are carried at liquor stores across the state, including ones in all the major cities.
Lori Flies described her father as a learner. He started Alfred’s Interiors on Green Avenue, specializing in custom draperies, a skill he had picked up while working at Sears in Port Arthur. He also learned about carpeting and added that to his business. He bought an old Victorian house for the business and then built a new building on Park Avenue. It is now part of St. Paul Episcopal Church.
His daughter said he became interested in wines at an age when many people retire. The traditional grapes don’t grow well in humid Southeast Texas. “Characteristic of my dad, he researched country wines,” she said. The country wines were a tradition in England and were made with local fruit. He learned that muscadine grapes grow well in Orange and focused on them.
Jim Mathews was in high school when Flies gave him his first job. He ended up working his way through college at the job and married Flies’ daughter, Mala. “He was well-respected. He did interior design and went into people’s homes and he knew everybody in town,” Mathews said.
Mathews worked with his father at the winery off and on for 30 years. He recalls they once made a variety of fruit wines like peach, blackberry, blueberry and strawberry. During the past few years, they phased out the fruit wines and concentrated on the muscadine. Flies “never, never” got tired of working at the winery, he said. “The winery was his idea of retirement and rest.”
Wine critics were quickly impressed with Flies’ country wines. His daughter said he enjoyed going to wine competitions across the state. He was a regular at the Fredericksburg festival and the Grape Fest in Grapevine.
He was also a regular participant at the Houston Livestock Show International Wine Competition. Piney Woods Winery gathered headlines across the state in 2009 when his “Moon Magnolia” non-vintage wine won “Best Texas Wine” from more than 170 competitors, including major labels. “It was kind of a David against the Goliaths,” his daughter said. His prize was tooled saddle. She said he also has 12 to 15 belt buckles awarded as prizes at other Livestock Show competitions.
Now, the family has no plans for the winery. “My father was the sole proprietor. With his death, everything stopped,” Lori Flies said.
Alfred Flies was born in rural Oklahoma in 1923. He survived the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression as a teenager on a cotton farm. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school and was in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he went to Oklahoma A&M. Upon graduation, he started working at Sears and was transferred to Port Arthur. He met his wife, Gertie, in Port Arthur.
They moved their family to Orange in the early 1960s where he established his interior design business. Gertie passed away in 2002. His survivors include their four children, along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The family will hold a celebration of his life at a later date.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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