On Tuesday, August 29, 2017, the first ever North Carolina Wine and Grape Month kickoff event was held at The Pavilion at Childress Vineyards in Lexington.  North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper was on hand to sign the official Wine and Grape Month proclamation designating September as North Carolina Wine and Grape Month.  Below are some photos from that day.  We hope this event becomes an annual celebration of North Carolina Wine! Continue reading →

May is North Carolina Wine and Grape month! It was proclaimed by Gov. Cooper to celebrate the wine and grape industry’s contributions to our state. With a $1.7 Billion economic impact, 525 grape growers and  more than 180 wineries, this industry is vital to our state. It deserves to be celebrated! Continue reading →

We spent the weekend of August 18th-20th at the Shelton-Badgett Center for Viticulture and Enology at Surry Community College in Dobson, NC for the North Carolina State Fair Wine Competition.  This was our first time ever judging a wine competition.  We were honored to have been chosen to be part of the panel of judges which included media, bloggers, educators, and Certified American Wine Society Wine Judges. Continue reading →

The North Carolina State Fair is held every October at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.  Each year as part of the State Fair, a wine competition is also held.  There are two categories.  One is the Commercial Category.  The other is the Amateur Category.  Changes have been made to competition.  Let’s talk about the Commercial Category specifically! Continue reading →

Let’s take a minute to talk about two lesser known wine grapes, one red and one white. If you easily get fatigued from Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, these will be two varietals you need to try. The grapes in the spotlight are Roussanne and Petite Sirah. Both grapes are capable of producing a robust wine that can offer a welcome alternative to the more popular choices.

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In mid-March, the North Carolina Fine Wines Competition took to the road and held its first showcase event. The showcase had on display all 12 of the winning wines from North Carolina. This first showcase was at the Duke mansion in Charlotte. The doors opened and the crowds made their way in to pick up their Riedel glass and make their way through the tasting sheet. Continue reading →

This past week, we had the opportunity to visit RayLen Vineyards and spend an evening with their winemaker, Steve Shepard. The purpose of the evening was to offer a barrel tasting of several samples and to give us a sneak peek at what’s coming in the next few years.

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The holidays are here! It’s a time for celebration with family and friends which often means good food and good drink. With a growing industry and higher quality of wines, it is time to consider adding North Carolina wine to your holiday table. But where do you start? What should you pair with classic holiday foods? Well, we have some suggestions!

• Ham – Ham is a classic main course for any holiday. Riesling is a classic pairing with any ham. We recommend the new 2015 Estate Grown Dry Riesling from Dobbins Creek Vineyards (http://dobbinscreekvineyards.com). This wine is the signature white at Dobbins Creek. It is one of the best in the state for Riesling. The nose has notes of pear and honey. It is classic Riesling. The palate continues with pear and honey before moving to a slight mineral note. The finish is crisp. The acidity is pleasing. You will not be disappointed with this pairing!
• Turkey – Roast turkey is versatile. You can pair with a white wine or a lighter red wine.
  • For a white wine, pairing we recommend the 2014 Traminette from Misty Creek Vineyards (http://mistycreekwines.com). Traminette is typically very floral with a nice spicy finish. This traminette is just that. The nose is almost perfumey. The palate has melon and good fruit. There are those hints of spice that you would expect as well.
  • For a red wine, we recommend the 2014 Cabernet Franc from Divine Llama Vineyards (http://www.divinellamavineyards.com). This wine has a nose of cherry and vanilla that carries through to the palate. There a good oaky note as well. It would be perfect with Cranberry Sauce!

• Duck – Ah, duck! It is poultry that has the umph of a steak! Classically you would pair duck with a Pinot Noir. But, if you can’t find Pinot Noir, Chambourcin is a great substitute! We recommend the 2012 Chambourcin from Dover Vineyards (http://www.thefarmatdovervineyards.com). This wine is made in same style as a New Zealand Pinot Noir. The nose has dark fruits with hints of spice. The palate is light cherry and hints of vanilla. The acidity of this wine is the perfect balance to the fattiness of duck.
• Roast Beef – Roast beef is another holiday classic. Of course, this calls for a hearty red wine! We recommend 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon from Mountain Brook Vineyards (http://www.mountainbrookvineyards.com). The nose is herbaceous with notes of cherries. This wine is big and bold with fruity notes along with hints of vanilla. It is perfect with roast beef or any red meat.
• Lamb – Lamb is one meat where you either love it or hate it. We happen to love it. A classic pairing with lamb is a wine from the Rhône Valley of France. These wines are classically earthy. The recommended pairing of the 2013 Mourvèdre from Hanover Park Vineyard (http://www.hanoverparkwines.com) is just that! From the nose to the palate, there is an earthy quality throughout. There are also notes of cherry. This wine is velvety, but light. It is perfect with lamb, mushrooms or manchego cheese!
• Roasted Vegetables – We don’t want all of our pairings to be wine and meat. Vegetables should be a big part of any holiday table. Some of our favorites are roasted carrots, parsnips, celery root, garlic, onion, sweet potato and/or butter number squash. This calls for a full-bodied white wine. We suggest the 2014 Barrel Aged Chardonnay from Baker Buffalo Creek Vineyard & Winery (http://www.bakerbuffalocreek.com). The nose gives nice notes of oak with hints of butter. The butter carries through to the palate with notes of apples and pears as well. It also pairs well with any winter squash soup!

• Palate Cleanser – Sometimes, it’s good to take a break from heavy food and cleanse the palate. A classic palate cleanser is lemon granita, but that can a lot of work. Continuously taking the granita out of the freezer, scraping the crystals with a fork, returning it to the freezer and the repeating the process for hours. Why not go with an easier route? We recommend chilling a bottle of Vino Limone from Elkin Creek Vineyards (http://www.elkincreekvineyard.com) in your freezer. Take it out and give your guests a small serving to cleanse their palates. Or use this wine as dessert itself. It’s lemon wine fortified with brandy. The nose has notes of charred lemons. The palate is tart lemon with a slight sweetness. The lemon allows it to maintain a nice acidity. It’s perfect to cleanse the palate or just enjoy with dessert!
• Chocolate Desserts – Decadent chocolate desserts call for port-style wines. They are perfect with rich chocolate or just by themselves on a cold night. We recommend the Midnight Run from Windsor Run Cellars (http://windsorrun.com). This wine is made from Chambourcin and Petit Verdot and then fortified. There are notes of chocolate on the nose. The palate is warming with notes of cocoa and dark fruit. It’s the perfect way to end any holiday celebration!

Let us know your thoughts on these pairings! We’d love to hear what you think and what pairings you’ve come up on your own. For other food and North Carolina wine pairings, please see an earlier article on our blog. You can find it here: http://ncwineguys.com/index.php/food-pairings-with-north-carolina-wines/.

Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, may it be merry, bright and filled with North Carolina wine!

Cheers!

The Outer Banks of the North Carolina coastline have long been a vacationer’s sweet spot. The long, narrow islands of sand and grasses serve as a natural barrier protecting the interior waterways from the harsh currents of the ocean. Just across the Currituck sound in Jarvisburg is something no one would have expected to see — a vineyard, growing European grapes. The vineyard in the spot light is none other than Sanctuary Vineyards. Continue reading →

Yet another wine month has come and gone. This month, we really stepped it up with our wine postings and winery visits. At the end of the month, we co-hosted a #winechat takeover. There were lots of new participants this year and we had a ton of great questions! One thing we noticed is the increased number of #NCWine and #NCWineMonth hashtags! This is great news for keeping our consistent brand strong and getting the word out there about #NCWine.

Read on for a photo roll of our NC Wine Month adventures.

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The Wine Bloggers Conference had a full agenda. We focused on preparing for the actual conference sessions. We knew exactly what sessions we would attend. However, we realized on Thursday that we had not paid enough attention to the details about the Friday Night excursions. Thankfully, we were tipped off about that and looked at it in more detail.

The Friday evening excursions are a Wine Bloggers Conference tradition. The Lodi excursions were unique though. The excursion groups were smaller than past excursion and they were top secret! The only thing we knew was the name of our excursion, Dutch Crush. You see, you “signed up” by selecting a ribbon with an excursion name. Some of the names were “Gone with the Wine”, “She’s a Brix House”, “99 Bottles of Wine”, just to name a few. We had no idea what winery was associated with each. All we knew is that we would be whisked away to a winery for an evening of wine and food.

We all gathered by our sign – Dutch Crush!

The conference sessions ended at 4pm on Friday. We were told to head outside and find our group. It was there that we learned from Billy, our chauffeur, that we were headed to Van Ruiten Family Winery (https://www.vrwinery.com), his family’s winery. We piled in the van (Mercedes Benz no less) and headed over to the winery. We were greeted by Billy’s mom and dad, Bill and Angie along with Angie’s brothers, John & Jim, John (Winemaker), Bill (President) Rustin (Sales Manager), Akaylia (Tasting Room), and Elyse (Tasting Room). I’m sure we’ve missed someone though. We do apologize. The patio was set up for appetizers and a refreshing glass of 2015 Pinot Grigio. It was hot, and we were thirsty. The Pinot Grigio hit the spot!

Appetizers were ready when we arrived!

We all grabbed a glass and headed out on our tour led by John the winemaker. We visited the barrel room, the lab, the crush pad and stopped by the big tanks which were filled with recently pressed pinot grigio from the 2016 harvest. The yeast was about to be pumped in the tank. It was cool to see the yeast. It looked like bread dough. We ended out tour with a look at the bottling line.

Yeast ready to go!

Following the tour of the winery, we loaded back up in the van. We were headed to the vineyard. Chardonnay was being harvested. We were going to get to ride a harvester! How cool is that? Turns out it’s not that cool, but that’s only because it was still blazing hot out. It was also dusty, but the experience itself was amazing. We don’t see many machine harvesters in North Carolina. We may not have the chance again. One of the best things was being able to see the vineyard from on high. It made the expanse of the vineyards in the Lodi area really hit home. Acre upon acre upon acre of vines is not something we see in North Carolina either. We’re certainly grateful to have had this experience!

The view from atop the harvester!

We climbed back in the van to return to the winery for dinner. We were greeted with a glass of the 2015 Reserve Double Barrel Chardonnay. It was perfect timing! We were thirsty again. This Chardonnay certainly hit the spot! We soon took our seats at the table. Each table had at least one Van Ruiten family member (We also met Bill and Angie’s daughter, Mia) and at least one winery staff person. It was a great way to get to know the team. We were fortunate to have a seat at Bill and Angie’s table along with Bill (President) and Christine of girlsgogrape.com! It was a fun table! We especially loved hearing all the stories from Angie about her mom and dad, John Sr. and Ann. You could see the love on her face as she was telling the stories. You got a sense of what a remarkable couple they were. It was very moving.

The menu!

In addition to the great conversion, we got to experience a variety of the Van Ruiten wines. Some of the standouts were the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2013 Cab-Shiraz Blend. Of course, there was also great food to go along with those wines. Each course paired perfectly with the selected wines. The highlight for us was the homemade Dutch cookies (made by Angie) that were paired with the Late Harvest Viognier.

Van Ruiten Family Pictures hang in their tasting room.

After dessert, more wines and conversation were shared. Hugs and thank yous followed. We left feeling part of the Van Ruiten family and grateful that we’d been lucky enough to share the evening with them!

Our wonderful hosts!

If you’re ever in Lodi, please go visit them! We know we’ll be back!

This post originally was written by us for Craft Carolina.  You can find it here:  http://www.craftcarolina.com/2016/07/25/how-to-read-a-wine-label-by-the-nc-wine-guys/.

Shopping for wine can be a fun if you know what you want. On the other hand, it can also be a daunting experience. Unless you’re in the business, sometimes those wine labels can be confusing. We’re here to help. We’re going to take a look at how to read an American wine label. European wine labels are a different animal for a different time. We’ll look at labels for wine made right here in the USA. In particular, we’ll look specifically at a North Carolina wine label.

Label standards in the US are regulated by the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Bureau (TTB). The regulations are defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Per their website, the TTB works to ensure that alcoholic beverages sold in the US are properly described on their containers. The TTB goes on to state that they review over 100,000 labels and advertisements each your to ensure that they comply with Federal regulations. You can find more information at the TTB’s site. It was used for most of the information in this article. Here is a link: https://www.ttb.gov/pdf/brochures/p51901.pdf.

The basic parts of an American wine label are:

• Brand Name – This is the name used to market the wine.
• Vintage Date
  • This is the year in which the fruit used in the wine was harvested.
  • If state or county is used as an appellation of origin, then 85% of the fruit in the wine must have been harvested in the vintage year.
  • If a viticulture area is used, then 95% of the fruit in the wine must have been harvested in that vintage year.
• Estate Bottled
  • This is used when 100% of the fruit came from a vineyard owned or controlled by the winery.
  • The winery also must have processed the wine in its entirety at the winery.
• Varietal Designation
  • This is the name of the grape variety that comprises at least 75% of the wine.
  • If this designation is used, then an appellation of origin is required. This means that the 75% must have all come from the appellation of origin.
  • The above rules only apply to vitis vinifera grapes (Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sangiovese, etc). For vitus labrusca grapes (Concord, Catawba, Niagara, etc), the requirement is only 51%.
• Other Designations
  • As the varietal designation is not required, other designations may be used.
  • These include Red Wine, White Wine, Rosé Wine, Table Wine (< 14% Alcohol) or Dessert Wine (> 14% Alcohol).
• Appellation of Origin – This can be the state, county or geographic region in which 75% of the fruit in the wine was grown.
• Viticulture Area
  • This is the American Viticulture Area (AVA) in which 85% of the fruit in the wine was grown.
  • An AVA is a designated wine grape growing area within the US so designated for its distinctive geographic features.
• Name & Address
  • This is the name and address of the bottler of the wine.
  • The designation of “Produced” can be added to designate that at least 75% of the wine was fermented at the address listed.
  • The designation of “Vinted” can be added to designate that the wine was cellared at the address listed.
• Alcohol Content
  • This is the alcohol by volume of the wine.
  • Wine that is between 7% and 14% alcohol can be labeled as “Light Wine” or “Table Wine”.
• Net Content
  • This is the net content of wine in the container in metric units.
  • Wine can be bottled in 50ml, 100ml, 187ml, 350ml, 500ml, 750ml, 1L, 1.5L or 3L sizes.
  • Bottling greater than 3L is allowed at even liters only.
• Health Warning Statement – This is required on all beverages at 0.5% alcohol or greater.
• Declaration of Sulfites
  • This is required on any wines that might be sold across state lines where the wine contains 10 or more parts per million of sulfur dioxide.
  • It is not required for wines only sold within a single state.

Wine Bottle Label Details

Well the Wine Bloggers Conference 2016 edition is now over and Lodi, CA can go back to the harvest that is quickly approaching. This year was our first year in attendance. When we arrived in Lodi last week, we weren’t sure what to expect. Sure, we read up on the conference and joined in on the numerous web stream chats from @WineAntics. But still, we were a little unsure what would happen. If you don’t read the rest of this post, you can take away this one piece of info. We absolutely loved this conference and we gained so many valuable insights, that it will now be on our calendar for years to come.

Let me first start out with a quick overview of the conference schedule. The first two days were jam-packed with information sessions, keynote speakers, panel discussions, and live wine blogging (aka speed tasting). Of course, there was plenty of time for meals, mingling, and making valuable contacts in the blogging industry. The final day of the conference was only a half day, but the ratio of insights to time spent sitting was the highest of the entire conference.

I’ll get to a post about the first two days in the next coming days, but I wanted to focus on the last day first. The break out session that day only had two options, so Joe and I decided to divide and conquer. I ended up heading to the session titled “Increasing your Audience and Engagement” presented by husband and wife team @marycressler and @emberandvine. Their award-winning blog Vindulge and their popularity across their social platforms made them ideal presenters for this topic.

There were so many takeaways from this session, that I now have weeks worth of homework ahead of me and I could write post after post about everything they taught me. The point that resonated with me the most was probably this; instead of trying to build an audience of new readers, we need to focus our writing and posts on those who already read our blog. By focusing on our readers we will end up writing better, writing more often, and gain a base of loyal readers. The rest of the popularity equation will eventually unfold after this first key step.

Our Message to You

So here’s to you, our loyal readers. Thank you for sticking with us and for reading each of our posts and reviews. We really appreciate your comments and feedback, so please let us know what else we can do to make it more interesting for you.

We’ll be posting more about the Wine Bloggers Conference in the next coming days, so keep an eye out for more posts. As we continue our journey of taking NC Wine to the next level, we’ll also be making a few improvements on our blog and our social media outlets. Even though we only went to one WBC so far, we feel ready to take on the world. Cheers!

The first weekend in July, we decided to make our way to a few Yadkin Valley wineries.  Although we didn’t get to wine each day of the weekend, we were able to make it on Friday and Saturday. Read on for a recap of our visits to Hanover Park Vineyards, Childress Vineyards, Junius Lindsay Vineyards, RayLen Vineyards, and Misty Creek Vineyards.

After an evening of tasting library wines, there’s bound to be a few empty bottles.

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It was a perfect spring day, bright and sunny with moderate temperatures. It was the perfect day to visit Raffaldini Vineyards for their spring wine dinner. Sticking with the Four Seasons theme, Raffaldini Vineyards offers a wine tasting dinner four times a year, each pairing with the season. This past weekend, they celebrated spring with four courses both inside and out, paired with four wines that show what it means to be “Chianti in the Carolinas”.

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Sundays are wine adventure days for us. We typically invite a few friends to join us as we expand their horizons of the NC wine scene. Since we haven’t been out wining in several weeks, we decided to go it alone and take our time. Our options were nearly limitless, but we decided on three wineries in the Yadkin Valley and Swan Creek regions.  Read on for an account of the day and our tasting notes for each stop.

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