NC Wine Month 2017 Kickoff Event

For the first time ever, there will be a kickoff event to celebrate North Carolina Wine Month things started!  We’ve been busy helping plan this event.  Here’s a rundown of the activities.

The kickoff event is geared toward North Carolina Media, Bloggers, and Wine Industry folks.  The goal is to profile North Carolina Wines from across the state and provide media and bloggers with information to use in stories, blog posts, and social media posts throughout the month of September.

The event will be held at the Pavilion at Childress Vineyards in Lexington on August 29th.  Registration will begin at 1pm with the event starting at 2pm.  Richard Childress is scheduled to kick things off with a welcome.  Richard will introduce Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Troxler, who will make remarks.  Commissioner Troxler will then introduce Governor Roy Cooper.  Governor Cooper will make remarks.  Then he will sign the executive proclamation declaring September as North Carolina Wine and Grape Month and present the proclamation to Richard Childress.  Richard will thank the Governor and turn the event over to us!

We will make remarks of our own.  Then we will explain the tasting event that is about to take place.  A small group of wineries and two meaderies from across the state will participate the tasting event.  Wines will encompass the gamut from dry to sweet from vinifera to hybrids to muscadine to honey.  The following wineries are confirmed for the tasting event:

• Baker Buffalo Creek Vineyard & Winery
• Biltmore Winery
• Childress Vineyards
• Cypress Bend Vineyards
• Duplin Winery
• Hanover Park Vineyard
• Honeygirl Meadery
• Linville Falls Winery
• LuMil Vineyards
• Shadow Springs Vineyards
• Shelton Vineyards
• Silver Fork Vineyard & Winery
• Starrlight Mead

The tasting will be a “speed” tasting.  Guests will seated at tables through the Pavilion.  Wineries will be given five minutes with each table to pour and talk about their wine and their story.  After the five minutes, the wineries will move to the next table until every table has experienced all the wines.  Guests are encouraged to:

• Swirl – Take a moment to swirl the wine in the glass to get some air into it.
• Smell – Stick one’s nose right into the glass and sniff.
• Sip – Take the wine into one’s mouth, swish it around,  and see how it tastes.
• Spit – This is important as there will be several wines to taste.  We want this to be a safe event, and we want everyone to appreciate all of the wines!  Spit cups, dump buckets, and water will be provided on each table.
• Post – Talk about the wines on social media!  We hope we’ll have several folks posting about EVERY wine!  And don’t forget those hashtags #NCWine and #NCWineMonth!

Following the conclusion of the tasting event, wineries from across the state will be available to talk with media and bloggers.

We hope this event becomes an annual one that will move around the state and feature different wineries every year.  Follow the conversation on social media using hashtags #NCWine and #NCWineMonth!

Cheers!

Update: Originally this article referenced September as being the official month to celebrate North Carolina Wine. in 2020, the state officially changed it so that NC Wine Month is celebrated in May!