Winemaking was already part of life around Valdese when Mellie C. Bernard began building The Waldensian Winery in nearby Icard in 1933. By 1935, his wines were being sold commercially, carrying the flavors and traditions of the Waldensian foothills to a wider audience. Bernard made wine to be enjoyed, drawing on local fruit, agriculture, and the practical ingenuity of the community around him.
The winery grew through the 1930s and 1940s before closing in 1948 when local prohibition restrictions ended legal production. Mellie Jean later remembered roughly 60,000 gallons of wine remaining, pumped into railroad cars and sold north as vinegar. It was a bruising end to a thriving winery, but not the end of Bernard’s wines. The name, recipes, and memory endured.
A Name Worth Bringing Back
THE WEAVER YEARS
In 1983, Mellie Bernard’s son, Mellie Jean Bernard, joined Lorin Weaver and Leonard Bumgarner to bring his father’s wines back. The revived business grew into Waldensian Style Wines, giving an old regional favorite a new life.
With Duplin producing and bottling much of the wine, the Weaver and Bumgarner families kept it moving through western North Carolina. Kathryn’s Cheese House became both a home for the wines and a museum for equipment rescued from the old Icard winery. Bottles reached shops across the foothills, and a tradition dormant for decades was alive again.
A Revival with the Zimmermans
EDDIE & BRENDA ZIMMERMAN
In 2008, Eddie and Brenda Zimmerman acquired Waldensian Style Wines and brought production back to Burke County. Eddie came with decades of winemaking experience and deep Waldensian ties, while Brenda brought the warmth and hospitality that became inseparable from the winery.
Fruit wines again took center stage. Blackberry, Peach, Apple, Raspberry, and Pear became festival favorites across North Carolina, joined by Brenda’s Bellini and countless conversations poured one tasting cup at a time. Small, personal, and welcoming, the winery became distinctly theirs.
Then the Bull Came to Durham
ANDREW & ALLISON ZIMMERMAN
In 2021, Andrew and Allison Zimmerman carried the family’s fruit-wine knowledge east to Durham and launched Drink A Bull as a new winery of their own. Familiar wines came with them, but not unchanged. Recipes were refined, the wines moved into cans, and the brand took on a bolder, more playful Durham personality.
In 2026, Drink A Bull gained a front door with the opening of its Tasting Room & Tea House in Old West Durham. Apple, Peach, Raspberry, Blackberry, and Pear now share the bar with craft cocktails, loose-leaf tea, coffee, beer, live music, and community gatherings. The setting is new, but the instinct remains familiar: make wine approachable, make it enjoyable, and give people a reason to share another glass.
From the Foothills to Durham
A North Carolina Wine Story
The Bernard Legacy
THE BERNARD YEARS
The History of the Waldensians
in North Carolina
A Tradition Carried Across an Ocean
The Waldensians came to North Carolina from the Cottian Alps of northern Italy, where their communities had endured centuries of religious persecution while holding tightly to their faith, families, and way of life.
After finally gaining religious freedom in the nineteenth century, some looked beyond the Alpine valleys for a new beginning. In 1893, Waldensian settlers arrived in Burke County and founded the community that became Valdese.
They brought more than their belongings.
They brought the habits of generations accustomed to working the land, gathering around the table, and making wine at home. Small vineyards appeared around family homes, and old European traditions began adapting to the North Carolina foothills. Grapes were joined by the berries, peaches, apples, and other fruits that grew locally.
Wine became one of the traditions that crossed the Atlantic with them, changed with its new surroundings, and endured.
That was the culture surrounding Mellie Bernard when The Waldensian Winery emerged in the 1930s. Nearly a century later and two hundred miles east, its influence can still be found in the fruit wines being poured at Drink A Bull in Durham.
If you want to learn more about Waldensian Heritage and winemaking culture, we encourage you to visit the Waldensian Heritage Museum at 208 Rodoret St, Valdese, NC 28690.
You can taste this legacy in every can of Drink A Bull wine – check out our fruit wines
Follow us
Located At:
1806 W Markham Ave
Durham, NC 27705
Monday | By Request
Tuesday | Noon to 8pm
Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat | Noon to 10pm
Sunday | Noon to 8pm