Story and photos Clint Branham
Communica ons Specialist DIAMONDHEAD WINE Grown from a hobby
They say that nothing good ever comes easy and, well, it isn’t always easy to find your way around the winding backroads of rural Mayes County, even with good directions. That might explain why Diamondhead Wine, named after the remotely-located Diamondhead community in which it originated, is enjoyed by so many.
C
lyde Mickle will be the fi rst to tell you – there is nothing fancy about his wine opera on. There are no million-dollar machines pumping rivers of homogeneous liquid into massive tankers. There is no conveyor marching an endless row of bo les neatly into boxes. There is no lab where ingredients are carefully measured to ensure every drop in each bo le tastes exactly the same. There are no assembly lines where robots cork bo les and affi x labels.
Mickle’s wine isn’t given some fancy French name that no one can pronounce. If the wine is made from blueberries, you can bet the word blueberry is somewhere in the name.
No, sir. This is no wine factory. You see, mass produc on really isn’t Mickle’s style.
At Diamondhead Wine, there are a few containers and hoses connected with a symmetry known only to Mickle. There is a cold room where shelves are lined with clear, glass jars. Each jar holds fi ve gallons of wine and has its contents carefully labeled. In the corner sits an odd-looking, levered contrap on that Mickle uses to cork bo les by hand. That’s pre y much it.
What began as a hobby for Clyde Mickle has grown into something much more. It wasn’t long ago that the 64–year-old rural Pryor resident was making homemade
wine as gi s for friends and family. He spent many an hour perfec ng the cra .
As word of his tasty brew spread, it was not uncommon for Mickle to hear that he should be making his product available for sale.
“I made wine in the backyard for quite some me,” he said. “I would give it out as Christmas gi s and for anniversaries and everybody just loved it. They’d say ‘you need to sell this, you need to get this on the market,’ and I kept thinking ‘yeah, maybe I should,’ But I really didn’t have a good way to do it on a larger scale.”
Mickle eventually took the advice to heart. The ball started rolling when an opportunity presented itself for him to purchase a tract of land adjacent to his property. A large building was already conveniently situated on the land.
“This place came up for sale next door to me and I thought ‘well if I don’t buy it, someone else is gonna buy it and do something with it.’
4 - NE Connection
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