Don't Back Down

This piece was originally written on November 5, 2001, well before the birth of my blog. I've re-edited it a bit to update links and make sure that it makes sense. Hopefully this is the first of many food-related pieces!

First, Denise and I found the web site for the Yadkin Valley Wine Trail.

The first stop on the trip was RayLen Vineyards. Nice little place, but they didn't have much of a tour or anything. Reminded me of an airport gift shop. $3 for a tasting (5 wines, you get to keep the glass). Didn't really care for any of the wines, though. They weren't bad, just nothing to write home about. We bought a "blend" - they mix several of the other (red) wines together.

The next step was Westbend Vineyards. Very cool little place - almost like an old-timey farm tucked away in the hills. Short tour through the premises where they explain the process of making their wines. Free wine tasting - several wines (12?) available. Most are really tasty. We bought a Chambourcin. Never had heard of it, but it's quite good.

Our next stop was a place called Hanover Park Vineyard. It was a little house - really! They had converted it into a small winery. Very small, actually, only a few hundred cases a year if I recall correctly. Their Chambourcin was also quite good, but we already had one of those, so we bought a Rosé instead. Unlike many Rosés, the wine was actually not very sweet (which is why I liked it). Quite tasty. The tasting here was also free, and they had 5 wines I believe.

The last stop was the big boy - Shelton Vineyards. Apparently a couple of guys from this area of the state came home with lots of money they made elsewhere, and decided they wanted a winery - like one of the ones you'd see in California or somewhere. So they spent loads of money on it, and they did a pretty good job. $5 gets you a tour of the facilities (by far the largest on our trip) and a sampling - again, you get to keep the glass. Again, the wines were okay. We bought another blend here.

Shelton does, however, have another operation - they make cheese. This is just a small deli that offers up several styles of cheese. They had a cheddar and several chevre spreads available the day we were there - and the samples are free for all you can eat (within reason, I'm sure!). Very tasty. Rather expensive, though. We bought a basil and garlic chevre and some crackers.

After the wineries we visited, we tried to find another one, called Black Wolf Vineyards. Well, it turns out that the Vineyards were right there (very near to Shelton, in fact), but the wine is shipped across the state to where it is processed and bottled. Kinda strange, actually. Anyway, we had dinner at the Wolf's Lair. Good food. Also sampled some of the wine-by-the-glass, but nothing was exceptional. Tasty, just not great.

We would probably rank them:

1. WestBend
1. Hanover Park (tie)
3. Black Wolf
4. Shelton
5. RayLen

Now if we'd just get more cheese producers... :)

Here's a map of North Carolina that shows you where we went on our trip.

We started at RayLen (#14, just to the left of the I-85 marker that's almost in the middle of the state). Then we went to WestBend (#15), which you can see immediately above and to the right of RayLen, according to the dot on the map. Our trip took us next to Hanover Park (#13), which is just to the left of RayLen's #14. Finally, we went to Shelton (#10), which you'll see right on the north edge of the state. You can find dinner at Black Wolf (#11) just above and to the right of Shelton.

We might have to take a trip to the West end of the state soon, as it looks like there are a few clustered in there that could use a visit!