The North Carolina Wine Trail...There are 53 wineries in North Carolina. They are all over the state; but there is only one acknowledged AVA and that is Yadkin Valley. In July, I was in a Starbucks and looked at the USA today on the stand; on the front page was a big picture and the start of an article about 5 wine tasting regions. I picked up the paper expecting the stories to be about the West Coast and mostly about California. I was SO surprised that it was about 5 other states... the article was about Colorado, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and New York. I was so excited, I would be in 3 of those states! That article is what got me started on this wine journey in NC (and more to come as we head to Virginia and Ohio too).
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Saturday: Raylen Winery Sunday: 2) Childress 3) Westwood 4) RagApple Lassie 5) Shelton 6) Black Wolf They grow the Bordeaux vinifera varietals along with a few other types: Cab Sauv., Merlot, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Chambourcin, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Viognier, Chardonnay, Seyval Blanc, and a few others. We really enjoyed the Cabernet Franc that was bottled on it's own at all the wineries that had it. The Merlot was ok at most, the Cabernet Sauvignon seemed to be missing something (I guess we are just too use to the west coast versions). The blends were mostly pretty darn good and the Chambourcin's that we tried were very good. There were a lot of sweet wines too, after all, this is the South and the South likes there Sweet Tea and Sweet Wines. We steered clear of those mostly. We bought at least one bottle of wine from each winery and a few from some of the others... I think we ended up with a case of wine when it was all said and done. NC is on the wine map now!
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| This is the outside of RayLen Vineyards & Winery. You can just see a little of the vineyard to the right of the tasting room (the white part of the building). The vineyards were gorgeous and were all around the building.
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Here is the tasting room, large & spacious. There were very few there on Saturday as we were tasting, but we had a lot of fun. The tasting room is not open on Sunday, so we enjoyed it a day earlier than the other wineries. |
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| This is Melissa, she was our wine pourer at RayLen. She was very knowledgeable about the wines and fun to talk with.
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RayLen merlot grapes |
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| We had a little more time, so we headed over to Garden Gate Vineyards, but when we got there, we found out that there had been a death in the family and it was closed. The family is in our thoughts.
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Sunday we started with Childress Vineyards, it is owned by Richard Childress, NASCAR owner. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous and are used for weddings and other functions quite often. |
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| Here I am outside of the tasting room. There is also a restaurant inside that we didn't know about until it was too late, we had already eaten lunch!
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The tasting room at Childress, it was huge and very elegant. We enjoyed the wines, they were better than expected. We joined the wine club for one year, it is a fixed price, you get a large format bottle for joining and then 4 shipments of two wines each. |
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Here we are entering Westbend Vineyards. It was one of the smaller wineries, though they had over 10 wines to choose from. |
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| The sign into RagApple Lassie Vineyards. I love their label, the winery is in an old daily barn, that is what the property was originally. The owner still farms, he has both corn and tobacco growing on the property along with his grapes!
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Frank (owner of RagApple Lassie) and Jim. The name came from a cow that he had that one state champion when he was in 4-H many moons ago... |
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| This is the view coming into the Shelton Vineyards. The property was huge and beautiful, you pass through the vineyards before you get to the tasting room and winery. The grounds were set up for walking and picnicking. I would guess they have weddings and such here a lot too.
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A small pond the closer we got to the main building, it just called for you to go buy a bottle of wine and come back out and sit down, enjoy the grounds and enjoy the wine. |
| Here is the inside of the tasting room, again, this is another large one, truly setup well for large tastings. There were a few in there while we were there. The current wine maker did work at Dunham's in Walla Walla, WA :) for a few years. |  |
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| The restaurant and wine tasting room at Black Wolf Vineyard. We did not get there in time to do a "true" tasting, but they did sell a flight of your choice of 3 wines that you could enjoy with dinner.
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Jim and I at dinner, trying out the wine waiting for our appetizer to be brought to us. It was a nice way to end a day of wine tasting in NC. |
| We will be buying more
North Carolina wine in the future!
Salud! Kim |
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