By Becky Billingsley

Saturday, June 12, 2010, Georgetown - A husband and wife team - South Carolina natives who moved to California and became winemakers - visited the Grand Strand this week to share and explain their vintages.

Mark Ray grew up in a restaurant family and eventually became a sommelier and owned his own place in Pawleys Island. His wife, Missy Ray, also worked in the local food and beverage industry.

On June 9 at Kudzu Bakery in Georgetown, Mark said his South Carolina wine mentor was Chef Carlos McGrigor, who works at Collectors Cafe in Myrtle Beach.

"Carlos talked me into buy some 1982 first growth Bordeaux," he said, "and it turned out to be the vintage of the century. Before Carlos all I knew was big growth cabernets. He evolved me into French wines and more refined things."

These days the Rays are making their own wines. In 2007 they launched Melissa Kelly Wines, named for Missy's maiden name. Missy is also the national sales coordinator for Swanson Vineyards.

The couple was making a sales swoop through South Carolina and North Carolina to offer their limited production wines to high end retailers and restaurateurs. Tiffany Folk Phillips of RNDC Wines escorted the couple to businesses in Georgetown County, and one of their stops was to do a tasting with Stacy Rabon of Kudzu Bakery.

They sampled several wines including 2008 Swanson Pinot Grigio, 2005 Swanson Merlot and 2005 Swanson Alexis, which was named in honor of a Swanson granddaughter's wedding. They also tried some of Mark's own Melissa Kelly and Perception Wines including a 2007 Melissa Kelly Chardonnay, 2007 Perception Pinot Noir and 2007 Perception Zinfandel.

Stacy Rabon was already familiar with the wines and was eager to try the bottles poured on Wednesday. She knows her way around California wine country, and she and the Kellys talked knowledgeably about the specific fields where the grapes were grown for each vintage.

The Rays' production is small, sometimes in the dozens of cases, and their supplies for some of the vintages they are selling on this trip were down to just a handful of cases.

Mark said his and Missy's own wine production is primarily red wines, and they make "very tiny quantities."

"We sell most of it directly to our mailing list," he said. "They're fun hand-crafted wines."

Kudzu Bakery is known for its eclectic wine inventory, and Rabon said wine vendors come by anywhere from one to five times per week to conduct tastings. In this case Rabon said she would be placing an order.

"Wine doesn't move off the shelf unless you're willing to meet the retailers," Mark said. "I'm amazed - when we get out there, every place we have stopped has bought it. It's just a matter of getting out there and telling the story."