By LEE HINNANT

When the once-profitable tobacco crop faded away, the Suggs’ family didn’t write an obituary for the 30-plus acres of land they’d farmed for more than a century.

Sisters Amy Suggs and Sheila Suggs Little raised eyebrows a couple of years ago when they planted Columbus County’s first commercial vineyard in at least 85 years. This week, they’ll raise their glasses as the tasting room, gift shop and guest inn open for business at Grapefull Sisters Vineyard near Tabor City.

“You’re ahead of your time,” Little was once told. “Columbus County is not ready for this.”

The sisters held a broader vision and worked long and hard, planting about 500 muscadine grapevines and building a three-room guest inn. Overnight guests are now welcome at Inn d’Vine and visitors can sample 10 wines from grapes grown within sight of the gift shop that features North Carolina arts and crafts.

The guest rooms feature custom-designed furniture and spa-style bathrooms and adjoin spacious common areas and a wrap-around porch with broad views. The vineyard and inn at the Palmer Suggs farm is only 12 miles from the ocean and the busy beach towns, but it feels like the quiet, peaceful farm it has long been. Grapefull Sisters Vineyard is close enough to the Atlantic to catch the afternoon ocean breeze, but far enough away to forget about traffic jams and throngs of tourists.

“We want people to come here to relax,” Little said. “If they fall asleep on the front porch on the futon, people will just tiptoe around them.”

The 12,000-square-foot inn has a small television and DVD player with classic movies, a stereo and a miniature kitchen. Perhaps the most telling feature, however, is the old-style rotary telephone. The handset is off the hook, symbolizing the laid-back atmosphere.

The sisters have planted one display garden and are working on a more elaborate “wedding garden” that will have a labyrinth, fishpond and secluded, private areas. In the future, they plan to add a 17-acre campground with small cabins and park-style recreational vehicles that will be home for artists. This small-scale artists’ colony will hold scheduled open houses for guests and allow them to peer behind the scenes at how art is created, Little said.

The vineyard will hold a heritage festival and plans to host a Civil War re-enactment as soon as this fall. “We’re really going after something unique for the Eastern United States,” Little said.

The inn offers guests a continental breakfast, but is not a restaurant. Little said the S.C. beaches offer world-class dining only a few miles away. For a nominal fee, visitors can sample 10 wines, including a dry and semi-dry label. Because Columbus County does not generally permit the sale of alcohol, the vineyard can offer only wines produced from grapes grown on site. When the bottles from the first crop are gone, sales will end until after this fall’s harvest.

“We’re very, very small, but we’re a start,” Little said. Jennifer Long of the Columbus County Tourism Board was a great help getting the business going, she said.

The vineyard and inn are located just off N.C. 904 at 4903 Ramsey Ford Road, Tabor City. The vineyard is open to visitors Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call (910) 653-4726, 653-2944 or (828) 381-9221.