I found this little park walking around on Wild Horse Rd.

Greyton H Taylor Memorial Family Park
Wild Horse Rd, Hilton Head Island

Greyton H Taylor Memorial Family Park
Dedicated to the people of Hilton Head Island this 24th day of April, 1992 by Muriel Fiander Taylor, in memory of her beloved husband Greyton Hoyt Taylor, grape grower, wine maker, and farmer. A lover of the land.

So, who was Greyton H Taylor?

He was a son of Walter Taylor. Walter Taylor founded the Taylor Wine Company in upstate New York in 1880.

Taylor Wine, owned by Coca-Cola

You’ve seen Taylor wine. It’s the stuff that comes in the really big bottles.

Walter Stephen Taylor was a cooper’s son. A cooper makes casks and barrels. He was making wine casks in New York. Walter Taylor established a vineyard in New York’s Finger Lakes region. He was very successful. Taylor Wine was sold all over the Northeast.

During Prohibition, Taylor sold grape juice in small wooden barrels with careful instructions on what not to do to be sure your juice would not turn into wine.

Walter Taylor’s five sons all went into the wine business. Taylor Wine Company became one of the largest wineries, maybe in the world. Greyton H. Taylor was one of the sons. As the business expanded, Taylor Wine sold off the original vineyard, Bully Hill on Lake Keuka, near Hammondsport, N.Y.

In 1958, Greyton Taylor and his son Walter S. Taylor bought it back. They planted French hybrid vines and established a vineyard. Then, Greyton died in 1971, at 68.

In 1977, Taylor Wine Company went public. The Coca-Cola Company bought control and fired the family.

After the Coca-Cola Company fired him, Walter S. Taylor started marketing his wine from the Bully Hill vineyard. He was sued. He was no longer allowed to use the Taylor name on wine.

So, Walter Taylor threw a party. He invited 200 fans to a tasting and scribbling. They marked the name off hundreds of bottles of wine. This was the new label.

Bully Hill Wine
”They Have My Name and My Heritage, but They Didn’t Get My Goat”

They distributed bumperstickers that said ‘‘Enjoy Bully Hill, the Un-Taylor.”

Coca-Cola sued again. Walter Taylor was ordered to deliver “all prohibited labeling and advertising for destruction.” He rented a manure spreader to deliver them and threw a parade to drive the four miles to turn over marketing materials, then threw another party at the vineyard.

Greyton H Taylor and his wife owned a vacation home on Hilton Head Island. He spent much of his time there. His wife, Muriel Fiander Taylor, lived on Hilton Head after his death.

“Muscadine, the islands wild grape, was successfully crossed with selected wine quality grapes by American vintner, Taylor, on a 40–acre experimental vineyard on Hilton head Island… Mr. Taylor also planted and tended a southern scuppernong grafted to a white, wine grape vine which produced, in its second year at least 30 pounds of quality grapes, attesting to a possible new industry for the area. This particular grapevine was in the yard of a friend and provided a lush canopy for a small period. In the midst of this flourishing experiment, Greyton Taylor died and, like the grandfather clock which stopped, the friends grapevine died also.”

Discovering Hilton Head Island by Margaret Greer

This really is a condensed version of the story, if you really want to know more, there is a whole book,  Over a Barrel: The Rise and Fall of New York’s Taylor Wine Company by Thomas Pellechia