Taking a look at a new winery coming to North Carolina, and a South Carolina winery with a brand new look.
Rebecca Rosenberg’s latest book, Champagne Widows is the story behind Barbe-Nicole Clicquot.
Arthur Barham, aka Merlot2Muscadine, explored the Yadkin Valley Dessert event and shares the delicious findings.
Once again enlisting Merlot2Muscadine, he takes a look at the food/herb and wine pairings in the return of this popular event.
Screw it Wines gets the intel on Dynamis Estate Wines straight from its winemakers, Mat Worrell and Katy Kidd.
Screw it Wine was at the 2022 NC Fine Wines Gala and shares some information on the Showcase winners.
Many breweries across the state opened new taprooms during Covid. Natalie Hampton talked to some popular Triangle area owners about opening during Covid.
Winston-Salem’s Incendiary Brewing took over the old Westbend Winery location in Lewisville, so we asked them what’s in store at the new location.
Our friend Dennis Turner of Winery Escapades shares some insight on what could be North Carolina’s next AVA.
Dave Nershi of Vino_Sphere talks to three Oregon winemakers about the success of white wines in the Willamette Valley. It’s not just all Pinot Noir anymore!
Deriving from Greek mythology, Eola Hills Wine Cellars in Oregon pays tribute to Aeolus, the Greek God of the Winds.
Dynamis Estate Wines, says that the winery would be open to the public, reservations only, from Wednesday to Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Dynamis will feature two tasting options: the Estate Tasting and Vineyard Flight.
For the Vineyard Flight, guests will receive a sample of the five wines for you to sit down and drink at your leisure for $45 per person. With the Estate Tasting, you’ll enjoy a seated, in-depth tasting guided by one of the winery staff members. This tasting is valued at $55 per person and takes 90 minutes to finish.
The winery will be strictly 21 and over with no pets or outside food. The winery will eventually feature a small kitchen with a team of culinary chefs preparing meals, including fresh fruit from the property.
The Swan Creek AVA group of eight wineries will officially become nine when Dynamis Estate Wines opens to the public on June 1 of 2022.
Other wines in the AVA include Dobbins Creek, Laurel Gray, Midnight Magdalena, Piccione, Raffaldini, Shadow Springs, Stardust Cellars and Windsor Run Cellars.
Dynamis Estate Wines is set to offer its guests the closest experience of getting away to Napa
for a total wine experience: from the gated entrance to the scenic 2.5-mile drive up the mountain to reach the tasting lodge, private rooms, one-on-one tasting experiences, and beautiful outdoor seating.
But, part of the visit to the winery, other than the great wines, is the experience. The Cabernet Sauvignon will set you back $100, with the Alpha not far behind at $95 per bottle. You can also pick up the Merlot for $50 and the Sauvignon Blanc for $35 per bottle.
Jennie Hess, director of hospitality at
Most certainly not what one would expect of a winery in Pelzer, South Carolina. Cityscape Winery just christened a grand ten thousand square foot tasting room and winery.
“It has been four long years of planning, dreaming, praying, crying, permitting, construction, and inspections, but we made it through, and the end result is beyond anything we could have ever imagined,” Josh Jones, co-owner and winemaker said.
The newly constructed building sits between Cityscape Winery’s two vineyards and features a picturesque and panoramic view off the back deck. The main floor expands over 5,000 square feet and features a cozy u-shaped bar reserved for patrons wanting to simply enjoy a glass or bottle of Cityscape’s award-winning wine. The 5,000 square foot lower level features a new and expanded production facility, a barrel room, and a private event space.
Josh and Deb Jones purchased Cityscape Winery in 2015. The winery consisted of a small muscadine vineyard plus a tiny 800-squarefoot tasting room. Over the years, the winery expanded to include two large outside tents for tastings and multiple tables mingled about the vineyard.
An upper vineyard of French-American hybrids was planted, and juice and fruit are imported from many traditional wine regions. Production has more than tripled, and their wine is distributed throughout the state of South Carolina. All leading to the unveiling of this brand new and awe-inspiring grand tasting room!
The winery offers expanded hours Wednesday through Sunday, and Tastings can be quickly booked on their website. Make it a weekend in upstate South Carolina and plan your visit to CityScape Winery in southern Greenville County. Don’t miss the chance to visit with the winery’s mascot, Pinot the pig.
Champagne Widows is a fascinating story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, or Veuve (widow) Cliquot, her uncanny sense of smell (Le Nez) and how this gift led her to make great champagne. Rebecca Rosenberg brings this story to life around a fictional tale of how Clicquot continued making champagne following her husband’s death during the time of the Napoleon Code, which prohibited women from owning a business. Rosenburg is a triple-gold-winning author known for writing novels centered around historical real-life women set in fictional settings to bring these figures to life. We recently caught up with Rosenberg to learn more about her inspirations for her novels, primarily Champagne Widows.
By JENNIFER PRIMROSE @trianglearoundtownScrew It Wine: Tell us a little about Champagne Widows. Many people may not know that this is a fictional book based on real people. How did you go about researching when writing this book? I have always been a sparkling wine lover, probably for 20 years. I have traveled to Champagne, France, five times before. I discovered on those trips that I was visiting five different widows in the Champagne region of France that developed champagne as a favorite beverage around the world. And the
first one of those was Veuve Clicquot, a young girl at 20 years old. That caught my interest. So I started here and focused on Veuve Clicquot and went around to all of her vineyards and her homes to see how she grew up. And the fun thing about her is that all that history still is there to see, so you can see the houses she grew up in and all those vineyards are still intact and helped piece together the story of Veuve Clicquot.
Screw It Wine: The story is about widows and women in the wine industry. When you write a fictional story like this, and there is history involved, what approach
do you take when writing the novel?
As an example, my next book is about Pommery, and I just finished the first draft. So first, you have to do your research about the actual person and get as much information and many different sources as possible. You find out that there are many different versions of the truth when dealing with someone who lived in the 1800s. When you read many sources, I probably had ten reference books that I was looking at, and you started to see some similarities. And you realize what the core of that person was. For instance, in the case of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, they said she was le Nez. And you will see this right away in the book. So that means “the nose.” So she had an excellent nose for wine. She was known to have a great nose for wine. And as you probably know, 85 percent of all wine tastes comes from the scent. All those sensors are picking up that wonderful aroma. And it turns out in my research that she was the great-granddaughter of Nicolas Ruinart, and he worked with Dom Perignon. So you have this real history there that nobody brought out.
Screw It Wine: How many books have you written so far? You have The Secret Life of Mrs. London, based on the wife of novelist Jack London and Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor. Tell us a bit about these novels based on fictional women. Champagne Widows is my fourth book. The next one is Pommery. I just finished the first draft, so there will be about 29 more drafts before it’s complete. They are all women, and “The Secret Life” is about the wife of Jack London, her affair with Harry Houdini, and how one woman gets two of the world’s most famous men at the time to fall in love with her. I discovered that she was responsible and wrote a lot of what Jack London wrote, and she never got her due for that. And the Gold Digger is (about) a 20-yearold girl who came west for a gold mine, and she found herself abandoned and pregnant and working that gold mine alone. It’s a rags to riches back to rags kind of story. She became the most scandalous but richest woman in the country, and then she lost all of the money. It’s an interesting story in that gold rush era.
Screw It Wine: How long does it typically take to write a book? This latest book took me a year. Have you ever heard of the NaNoWriMo? It means that in November, you write about 1,500 words a day. Like that’s a thing, and it’s all over the country. It’s probably 100,000 people, maybe even more, that are doing that, and that helped me a lot
because it just kick-started me and made me keep going on that pace, and then I continued at a very fast pace through December. And that meant that I could get it done in the year. I think COVID slowed me down up to that point. Plus, when you get to writing several books, they’re layered on top of each other, and it gets more complicated.
Screw It Wine: Looking at the wine industry today, like your Champagne Widows, women weren’t winemakers and couldn’t be winemakers back in those times. Today, it seems like women winemakers and womenowned wineries are growing. How do you feel about this industry and more women being appreciated and wanting to enter the field of winemaking? I love it. The cover of my book Champagne Widows is the label for Breathless Wines, a sparkling wine company. Three sisters own it, and they have a woman winemaker. I am the champagne historian for them and do their social media and all that kind of stuff. It’s exciting that Veuve Clicquot was the first woman who ever made champagne. And it was illegal for her even to own a business. The Napoleon code forbids any woman to own businesses. And that’s the fun kind of mystery that none of these women could remarry, or they would lose their winery. So that’s why they remained widows. They could have romances and everything, but they had to remain a widow if they wanted to keep their wineries.
Screw It Wine: Do you have a favorite place you like to visit or a favorite region for sparkling wine? So that’s another aspect of education. Prosecco, the sparkling wine in Italy, is made from entirely different grapes than the cava in Spain. I love cava, and it’s from different grapes. So you’re tasting different tastes because they are using different grapes. And they also use other processes than champagne, but really, there’s nothing like champagne, from Champagne, France, to get a great education about the beginning of sparkling wine. And then, of course, in California, we do a lot in Sonoma Valley, where I am. We do a lot of great, great sparkling wines, and they’re all made with the méthode champenoise. So they’re made the same way as the champagne in France.
Screw It Wine: We all know that we can only call it champagne if it comes from the Champagne region of France. The same goes for Prosecco in Italy, Cava in Spain and even port in Portugal. This bubbly has a long background, and being an expert in champagne, can you briefly
explain its story? Before champagne was called champagne, it was called sparkling wine. And then what happened? I write the next book about Bollinger’s time when champagne first got together. All the champagne wineries got together and passed a worldwide law that only allowed them to make champagne. And part of Bollinger’s story is when that happens. So what was happening was wine worldwide, and everyone was calling it champagne, and they wanted the distinction that it could only be here. They call that Vin Mousseux, which is most like a fizz.
Screw It Wine: I think many young winemakers are now trying to do “hip things” and going back to earlier times. These winemakers are doing a lot of petulant natural wines and orange wines, where they leave the skin on the white grapes when they’re pressed. Some are doing piquettes where they take the pumice leftover from the original pressing and then press it again with water coming in at 6-8% alcohol. It’s like the water industry and how we all now drink fancy, expensive waters. And you would never have thought that would happen, say 30 years ago. It seems like different fancy water to come up with something exciting, and these widows way back then were experimenting so much with what could be done. So I think it’s just the name of the game. They’re creative peoplewinemakers are creative people.
Screw It Wine: We also wanted to ask you about your lavender farm. Tell us a little about how that came about. Actually, I’m sitting here in my writing studio, and I’m looking at it. I live right next door to Chateau St. Jean in the Sonoma Valley. So we have probably 100 wineries here. We bought five acres here many years ago, and we knew we couldn’t grow grapes on these five acres. Because that’s not enough to do anything with, we started looking into what we could grow, and we hit on lavender because I had always liked lavender. And you can make so many things from lavender. So we had the largest lavender production company in America, and you can look that up - Sonoma Lavender. My first book was Lavender Fields of America. So we did that for 20 years. And then we sold the business because I had started to write more every day and wanted a kind of change – but we still live here and grow it. It’s kind of the best of both worlds because we were making like 300 products right here in Sonoma.
Screw It Wine: We have just one last question for you. Do you have any predictions for 2022 in the wine world? Trends we might see emerge or trends that may fade away? Well, I’ve recently been reading that the Champagne region of France has really been decimated. And I saw on “60 minutes,” they had a whole thing about their production being almost zero this year.
As a veteran of both red and white wine events regularly held in Yadkin County, I was immediately interested when the 2022 Yadkin County Dessert event was announced. The previous red and white wine events paired small tapas-style plates with small pours of wines from participating wineries and vineyards. The Dessert event featured an impressive seven participating wineries and vineyards pairing desserts with wine.
Sponsored by the Yadkin County Tourism Development Authority and the participating Yadkin County wineries, it was an incredible opportunity to sample sweet treats and enjoy delicious wines.
The seven wineries taking part in the event may seem a bit intimidating to most. However, each winery only offered a two-ounce pour. As a result, after a hearty breakfast (totally mandatory) and staying hydrated (ditto), 14 ounces of wine is doable, especially with intervals inbetween.
Most of the participating vineyards and wineries were located close to each other, making travel between the destinations much more manageable.
So, where did I go, and what did I sample? Read on.
Our first stop at the event was Midnight Magdalena, where they served mini goat cheesecake paired with the Half Moon Rosé wine, and it was an excellent way to start the event. The creamy cheesecake was nestled in the most delicate, flaky pastry you could imagine. The slightly tart cheesecake matched perfectly with the rosé wine, crafted from Sangiovese grapes in the classic Provence style. Nestled in the center
was a single blueberry that added just a touch of sweetness. Again, a great first offering to start the dessert event.
Dried Mango Dipped in Chocolate paired with White Sangria
Our next stop was Windsor Run Cellars. I confess this is one of the pairings I looked forward to due to my love for both mango and chocolate and prior experience with this magical combination. I can assure you Windsor Run did not disappoint with this simple
but classy pairing.
One of my big surprises of the day was the wine, a White Sangria. This sweet fruity wine paired well with the mango as well as chocolate. Crafted from a Valvin Muscat base with pineapple, passionfruit, apple, and mango juices, the result was amazingly sangria-like but with more depth and character. As a matter of fact, the staff and I mused about how this offering poured over fruit with a dash of rum would make a tasty cocktail. When summer is upon us, I will give it a try but will substitute a sparkling wine instead of rum.
The next stop brought back fond memories from my childhood. The lemon pound cake that the ladies in the church would bring to potlucks and church socials was legendary. With a golden yellow hue and a tart lemon taste, even the glaze on the cake would make you drool.
The pound cake served at Shadow Springs made my taste buds sit back and take notice. In a word, it was delicious. The owner promised to put the recipe on their website, and I can assure you I will remind her until she does or shares the recipe with me personally.
The sunlight wine was crafted from Petit Manseng with just a touch of Seyval Blanc to sweeten the combination. The tart, acidic wine cut through the richness of the pound cake, and the result was a dynamic pairing.
I have been a fan of the combination of lemons and blueberries for many
years. From desserts to even wine, the tartness of lemon and the sweetness of blueberry have long been a dynamic duo.
So, when Brandon Hills chose to pair lemon velvet cake with its Blueberry Delight, it got my palate excited. The cake was light, fluffy and moist with sweet-tart lemon icing –the blueberry wine paired perfectly with this sweet lemony treat.
At Hanover Park Vineyards, they paired banana pudding with blueberry wine. The rich, creamy banana pudding matched well with the sweetness of the blueberry wine, which was tart and flavorful. Before I knew it, I had finished the portion owner Amy Helton had graciously provided and fought the urge to lick my cup and spoon clean. I could quickly have eaten a second portion.
I have much respect for Sanders Ridge and their ability to pair food and wine ever since they served a lemon whipped mousse with Viognier during the most recent white wine event that was outstanding. While I was in line waiting to be served the blackberry crisp, I couldn’t help but notice the large portions provided to those in front of me. Since this was my next to last stop in our dessert event, I asked
that my portion be smaller, and that was a mistake.
The warm blackberry crisp was a delicious cake with layers of tart blueberries and was topped with whipped cream. The tart, sweet wine accentuated the delightful dessert.
RagApple Lassie is a veteran of both the red and white wine events and no slouch when it comes to pairing food and wine. I know this personally, having visited them at both the last red and white wine events. This winery is situated on a working farm and is one of the oldest in the area.
The peach cobbler was delicious, and the scoop of vanilla ice cream on the top pushed it over the edge. The First Blush was a white Zinfandel and, like all the previous dessert/wine pairings, was skillfully executed and a delight to the palate.
I hope that the dessert event will take its place alongside the annual red and white wine events annually staged in Yadkin County and the participating vineyards and wineries. Based on my perceived success of the dessert event and the number of wineries that participated, I must be optimistic that the dessert event will become a regular and anticipated occasion. Other AVAs and groups of vineyards and wineries would be well advised to emulate the formula for success that Yadkin County works to perfection.
THE PAIRINGS: Hanover Park Vineyards featured a banana pudding paired with blueberry wine; Midnight Magdalena paired a mini goat cheesecake with its Half Moon Rosé wine; RagApple Lassie featured a peach cobbler with the First Blush wine; Shadow Springs Vineyard paired its Sunlight wine with a citrus glazed pound cake.
Arthur Barham has been showcasing North Carolina wines this past May for NC Wine Month. Every day he talks about a new wine and winery. Check out what he had to say about Brandon Hills Vineyards.
“Happy Day No. 10 of #NCWineMonth. Today I feature a bottle from one of the first #ncwineries I ever visited in #YadkinValley @brandonhillsvineyard located in #YadkinvilleNC. This family owned winery believes in staying small to ensure the best grapes and the best wine. ��
I have always been a fan of their #Barbera. This award winning wine from the Italian varietal home to the Piedmont of Italy is earthy with notes of cherry soft tannins and high acidity.
Speaking of awards @brandonhillsvineyard is no stranger to making award winning as evidenced by their impressive showing at the recent @NCFinewines competition scoring an impressive 3 silver and 1 Bronze.”
SCREW IT WINE FOLLOWS THE ADVENTURES OF NORTH CAROLINA NATIVE ARTHUR BARHAM AND HIS QUEST TO SAMPLE
By ARTHUR BARHAM @merlot2muscadineThe Swan Creek AVA (American Viticultural Area) has the distinction of not only being the second oldest in the state, but it is the only one that overlaps another AVA. With the northern 60 percent of the Swan Creek AVA also a part of the Yadkin Valley AVA, the lower 40 percent is outside the Yadkin Valley’s boundaries. Lying in the foothills of the Brushy Mountains, this unique AVA is home to an ever-increasing number of vineyards and wineries.
Several years ago, I planted an herb garden to enjoy fresh herbs for my table and cooking purposes. Unfortunately, nearby rabbits and deer had other ideas, and my herb garden was quickly consumed. So, when I found out about the 2022 Herb Festival coming to the Swan Creek area, I jumped at the chance to enjoy some delicious wines and kick start another herb garden –but this time suspended off the railing of my deck 30 feet in the air.
The 2022 Herb Festival consisted of 4 well-known Swan Creek wineries featuring delicious herb-infused foods paired with wine. For $30 per couple, participants were treated to 2 wine samples (1 oz each), 2 food pairings, and 1 potted herb (4”) at each participating vineyard.
Here is where I went and what I sampled. My first stop was at Shadow Springs Vineyard, located in Hamptonville. Here I was greeted with a petite pineapple upside-down cake infused with chopped pineapple sage. This herb, well known for the uncanny pineapple scent of its leaves, was perfect for use in the cake, which was paired with the 2021 Tangled Oak Blanc white wine blend. This blend of Chardonnay and Chardonel began in French oak and finished in a brandy barrel. The acidic yet creamy flavor of the wine paired well with the moist cake.
My next stop just down the road from Shadow Springs Vineyard was Windsor Run Cellars, also located in Hamptonville. I was excited to return here with memories of the dried mango dipped in chocolate they paired with their white sangria during the Yadkin County Dessert event. It was
delicious. They served an orzo pasta for the herb festival mixed with cilantro, scallions, olives, peppers, and carrots in a light, delicate vinaigrette.
The wine pairing was their Judges’ Verdict Bordeaux style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Viognier. The bold wine and tannins were a perfect complement to the textures and flavors in the pasta.
Next along the herb trail was Laurel Gray Vineyards. Here the herb being highlighted was rosemary. It was front and center in their delicious rosemary bread and accompanying salad composed of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, olives, and peppers. But the star of the show was the intensely flavorful vinaigrette that can be purchased at Laurel Gray.
The salad was so good I almost forgot the wine. The wine selected was its Charlotte Rosé blended with Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Pinot Gris. The resulting pairing was refreshing and a delight for the palate.
My final stop along the herb festival trail was at Dobbins Creek Vineyards. I was very fortunate to visit this particular day because they were releasing a new dry Riesling. The winery’s signature white grape and particularly hard to grow, the Riesling came from a premium section on the east slope of Hemric Mountain that combines excellent soil with cooler morning sun and breezes to help this cool climate grape achieve its potential.
This deliciously crisp wine with notes of Asian pear and spices was paired with a thyme laced lemon shortbread cookie that was full of flavor and melted in your mouth, making you want more.
This event was staged over three days, and I am confident all that participated walked away feeling as I did. After tasting delicious wines paired with small bites of perfectly paired food and my very own herb plant to take home and nurture, I felt a great deal of value for the entire experience.
With the red, white, dessert and herb events now behind me, I anticipate my next return to the area. So much to see and taste in such a small area – and that’s the allure of Swan Creek.
Dynamis Estate Wines hosted the team from Screw it Wine for a private tour and tasting, and talked about the five wines they offer on their tasting menu. We pulled excerpts from winemakers Mat Worrell and Katy Kidd. d
The Alpha and Mountain are our two main blends ... we will always have two blends, and we wanted them to mirror each other in style and attitude. The Alpha showcases the depth, richness, and elegance of varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. It’s a blend of everything aged in 225 oak barrels, 600-liter barrels and concrete. We wanted this to be the more elegant side of the blend, while the Mountain is the more aggressive side of the blend. The Mountain is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. – Mat Worrell
“Cab Sauv is very difficult to do here on the East Coast. This Cab was harvested around 24 Brix and done free run. This was made 100 percent in oak fermenters for 22 months, and it makes the body velvety and soft. There are a lot of tannins, but it’s soft tannins.” – Mat Worrell
“We picked this one a little earlier than we would have liked to, and we pushed the style of delicacy and refreshment. This will go well with light cheese and charcuterie or just an aperitif. It was done in concrete, a unique feature we have up here. Anytime we do fermentation in anything porous, like concrete or oak, we take it through malolactic – it adds a little body to the wine.”- – Mat Worrell
“We have just about an acre of Merlot planted, so this is one of our small production wines. It’s stainless steel fermented, and we separated the free run from the press run. It spent some time aging in the concrete egg and 225 new French oak barrels, and then we moved it to 600-liter French oak barrels for ten months before bottling.” - Katy Kidd
“What we wanted to see from the Merlot is the nice floral and herbal notes you get from that varietal, especially if you don’t over ripen it. We don’t add acid or tannins, or sugar upfront.”
- Mat Worrell
By JENNIFER PRIMROSE & DATHAN KAZSUK @trianglearoundtown
At the Millenium Center in Winston-Salem, the 6th annual NC Fine Wines Competition Awards Gala was held on Friday, April 29, 2022. This evening celebrated the state’s wine industry lavishly with a 5-course wine pairing dinner followed by an awards ceremony that featured the best wine varietals in the state based on Wine Spectator’s 100-point scale judged by wine professionals in the wine industry.
This tough competition is judged both blind and mute, meaning no discussion is allowed amongst the judges. All entrants receive judge’s notes following the competition. The varietals must be at least 75 percent of the varietal or entered as a blend and must be 100 percent North Carolina grown and vinified.
The excitement was building throughout the evening leading
up to the awards ceremony, where the case winners were announced. The case is comprised of six category wines and the six highest-scoring wines that did not receive a category award. The categories were white, red, rosé, dessert/port and sparkling.
The North Carolina Fine Wines Society first sprung onto the scene in 2016 with specific goals. The goal of NC Fine Wines is to shine a light on the quality of wines produced in the state, such as vinifera and hybrids. NC Fine Wines also aims to fund scholarships for NC students pursuing careers in Enology, Viticulture and wine-related Hospitality and Agritourism programs. These goals are the organization’s way to continue to pave the way for future growth in our state.
Several wineries are already winning awards in state and out of state in such competitions as the International Winemakers Challenge in San Diego and the San Francisco Chronicle’s wine competition. Awards such as these have helped put North Carolina on the map as a growing wine industry.
Iwould grow what no one else is growing, which is what I did when I planted Sagrantino, Montepulciano and Vermentino, now our three signature grapes. And I wasn’t afraid to rip out a varietal if it did not do well, and I replanted my entire vineyard three times until I finally figured out what grows well on my estate. If push comes to shove, my true love is Sagrantino, one of the rarest grapes in the world.
Choosing a single varietal is very difficult since I have several to recommend. However, if forced to select one, I would have to say Riesling. Riesling is the largest individual planting that we have here at Shelton Vineyards (16.5 acres) and is our top seller. Riesling is an incredibly versatile varietal in that it can handle any level of sweetness and can produce a wonderful sparkling wine. Bone dry styles are vibrant, and our sweet Riesling is both true to German tradition and a crowd-pleaser at the same time. – Ethan Brown
Vermentino would be my varietal of choice due to its thick skins, robust flavors, high acidity, and its acclimation to the climate here in Swan Creek. We are consistently able to grow great fruit and produce great wine from the Vermentino vines year after year. However, it must be grown in the proper location, and it benefits from being grown higher up in altitude and on west-facing slopes on a north/south orientation and in well-drained soil. – Dustin Gentry
–
RAFFALDINI Owner, Raffaldini Vineyards “ “ I would have to say Riesling.– Ethan Brown Winemaker, Shelton Vineyards – Dustin Gentry
– Jay Raffaldini
Varietals at Marked Tree include Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Grüner Veltliner, Chardonel and Vidal Blanc – and let’s not forget the winery’s popular blends, Watershed, Ghost House and the OTTO.
Get in line if you want to join the winery’s wine club. Currently, there is a waiting list to enjoy what this winery is offering.
Address: 2364 Cedar Forest Road, Ronda ShowCase winner: Vino di Lusso 2019
If you like Italian wines and looking for something new to add to your wine cellar, then a visit to Piccione Vineyards has to be on your list.
Address: 1004 Highland Road, Jonesville ShowCase winner: The Mountain 2019
One of the latest wineries to open in North Carolina, Dynamis Estate Wines, is defined by the potential to gain limitless power. And that is represented in its tasting lodge located within the highest point of Jonesville, right off Highway 77 heading into Elkin.
Led by the winemaking duo of Katy Kidd and Mat Worrell, Dynamis is pulling no punches when it comes to visiting its estate. Dynamis is a reservation-only winery that offers its visitors a one-on-one tasting experience, taking its cue from many Napa Valley wineries.
Enjoy the 2.5-mile ride up to the top of the mountain and experience Bordeaux-style wines such as its Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon and its two blends: Alpha and the award-winning Mountain.
Address: 964 Old Railroad Grade Road, Thurmond ShowCase winners: Merlot 2015 and Petit Verdot 2017
Distribution is king, and Jones von Drehle knows all about the benefits of getting out there. This winery, since its inception, has been traveling the state, getting its wines in restaurants and bottle shops from the mountains to the coast.
Jones von Drehle features an array of big reds such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Tempranillo, Petit Verdot and several red blends. But if you like white wines, fear not. Steel and barrel-fermented Chardonnay, Viognier and Petit Manseng are also on the menu.
The winery also features its Sip & Savor wine and food pairings in its newly constructed
events center and just completed construction on a new amphitheater, bringing live musicians to enjoy throughout the year.
Address: 623 Deep Gap Road, Flat Rock ShowCase winners: Chardonel 2021 and Grüner Veltliner 2021
The Hendersonville area is a great place to visit, and one stop that is a must for a wine lover is Marked Tree Vineyard. Located in the small town of Flat Rock, Marked Tree’s owners Tim Parks and Lance Hiatt launched onto the scene, winning awards with its fine wines and not to mention a stylish decor that relieves the stress when one pays a visit.
The winery is situated along the Eastern Continental Divide at an elevation of 2,300 feet, making its climate, soil and sunlight ideal for
The winery, known for its majestic view of the North Carolina mountains, also features a plethora of great wines such as its Montepulciano, Sangiovese, Nero Armaro and the delicious sparkling wine, Vino di Lusso. The winery brings in local musicians and food trucks weekly and hosts many wine dinners held in the owner’s classic car garage on the property.
Address: 450 Groce Road, Ronda
ShowCase winner: Vermentino Superiore 2021
When one speaks of Italian wines, another name comes up that has been doing classic Italian-style vino for over a decade: Raffaldini Vineyards.
Owner Jay Raffaldini, who coined his winery as the Chianti of the Carolinas, thrives on
bringing the state on the map with its awardwinning red wines such as Montepulciano, Sangiovese, Sagrantino and its Grande Riserva blend.
Jay Raffaldini is the co-founder of the NC Fine Wines, an organization with the purpose of spreading the education of Vinifera and Hybrid grapes in North Carolina.
Address: 7005 Caratoke Highway, Jarvisburg ShowCase winner: Double Barrel Red 2019
If you have lived here in North Carolina long enough, you know that growing Vitis Vinifera
from the Triangle east is challenging and that Muscadine reigns supreme. But there is one winery on the coast proving everyone wrong, and that’s Sanctuary Vineyards.
Owner and GM John Wright and winemaker George Butler not only produce a handful of Muscadine, but they also win many awards with other wine varietals such as its Pearl, a classic style Albarino, which received praise from wine writer James Suckling.
Besides the Albarino, the winery also produces Petit Verdot, Tannat, Cabernet Sauvignon, Aglianico, an orange Viognier and several award-winning red blends.
Sanctuary hosts many outdoor events, allows its wine club members explore and purchase library wines, and even teams up with a local boat line for afternoon excursions on the water while drinking the winery’s wines.
And don’t forget its wine club, known as “The Bunch.” Becoming a member gets its guests VIP tastings, tickets to events such as the Seafood festivals and 25 percent off full case purchases at the winery.
“All of our wines are natural except for the Riesling,” Tina Little says of Stone Ashe’s wines. “We don’t do any additives, and that’s because the more you filter, you begin to lose the nose and the flavor.”
Address: 1143 Stony Knoll Road, Dobson ShowCase winner: Vintner’s Bliss Rosé 2021
One of the few “century” farms in the state, Stony Knoll began back in 1896 when the ancestors of Kathy Coe bought land in Surry County. Tobacco ruled the land until 2001, when a small tract of grapes was planted, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Chardonnay. The tasting room opened in 2004, and, as they say, the rest is history.
Today, one can visit the tasting room by driving past the vineyard and explore wines such as those mentioned above, plus Viognier, Merlot, Chambourcin, and some sweet wines and premier series wines.
Address: 6531 Windsor Road, Hamptonville
ShowCase winner: Midnight Run Grand Reserve 2012
Back in 2011, owners Chuck and Jamey Johnson bought what was known to many as Buck Shoals Vineyard. Now named Windsor Run Cellars, one will find varietals such as Petit Manseng, Muscat, Merlot and Traminette thriving – as part of the Johnson’s mass amount of land, which also includes its sister winery, Shadow Springs Vineyard.
Address: 736 Green Mountain Road, Hendersonville
ShowCase winners: Sauvignon Blanc 2021 and Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
For Craig and Tina Little, the dream of owning a winery came while visiting the rolling hills of the Bordeaux region of France.
Today, the two own the winery outside Hendersonville, where they grow many
With the purchase of Buck Shoals, the Johnson’s expanded their wine operations with a tasting room and one of North Carolina’s first legal liquor stills.
Today, the winery is home to WRC Distillery, where you’ll find spirits such as its White Widow, Killer Bee and Shadow Hawk.
They say that beer sales are good in good times and even better in bad times. And that would make sense when you look at the number of Triangle-area breweries that opened second and even third taprooms during COVID.
Two years ago, North Carolina breweries, wineries and restaurants remained closed under a state emergency declaration that began with the spread of COVID 19 in the United States in March 2020. It was the end of May before breweries could reopen to the public.
At least 10 Triangle breweries opened additional taprooms during or right before the pandemic shut businesses down. But according to Chris Creech, owner and head brewer at Durham’s Glass Jug Beer Lab, without COVID, there might have been even more.
Before COVID, brewers understood the profitability of selling beer through taprooms rather than distributing beer to grocery stores and other sales outlets. While a six-pack might cost $10 to $12, with only a slim profit margin going to breweries, there was a higher profit
margin in selling $5 to $6 pints of beer in a taproom, Creech said.
Glass Jug Beer Lab’s original location on the edge of Research Triangle Park had already expanded one time in 2018 from a bottle shop with a tasting bar to a much larger space in the same shopping center, with more indoor space, a bottle shop and an outdoor Biergarten.
That expansion served them well during COVID, Creech said. Having the bottle shop allowed faithful Glass Jug customers to continue buying take-out beer while the taproom was shut down, and bartenders made the transition to beer delivery drivers while that was allowed. And once Glass Jug reopened, having the outdoor space made customers feel more comfortable getting back out.
Glass Jug began looking for taproom space in downtown Durham before COVID and didn’t want to lose the space they had identified near Durham’s Central Park. The ongoing pandemic allowed the business to get concessions to pay lower rent in the event businesses were forced to close again.
The new Glass Jug taproom opened in March 2021. This was the third construction project for the owners, and it went smoothly, despite skyrocketing lumber costs. And then, “we thought we were opening at the end of the
pandemic, but (the variants) Delta and Omicron proved us wrong,” Creech said.
Glass Jug’s downtown location has some outdoor space, but Creech hopes that Durham will soon open the Central Park as a “social district” where drinks from nearby businesses can be consumed. This would essentially turn Durham Central Park into a Biergarten for Glass Jug customers, Creech said.
Across the Triangle, Raleigh’s Gizmo Brew Works was looking for a downtown Raleigh location to add a taproom, along with additional space for brewing, said Joe Walton, co-owner, chief operating officer and head brewer. But the cost to lease space in the area was too high to accommodate the production space.
One day on a visit to Chapel Hill, Walton walked through a familiar downtown alley when he saw a “for lease” sign. He didn’t realize at the time that the space was the former home of Chapel Hill’s iconic Rathskeller Restaurant. In its heyday, customers lined up down the alley, spilling out onto Franklin Street to dine on “the Rat’s” pizza and lasagna that many remembered from days as UNC students.
The building’s owners had spent time and money to bring the space up to code, and it was ready for a new tenant. About the same time, Gizmo’s Raleigh brewery was offered a lease on nearby space for beer production, a move that kept all the brewing in one location. Problem solved.
The Chapel Hill location – much brighter than the former cave-like Rathskeller, opened to the public in December 2019, only to close again in March 2020 due to COVID. And though Gizmo doesn’t serve food, the brewery partnered with two Chapel Hill restaurants to allow customers to order food delivered to Gizmo.
But the brewery didn’t stop there. In late March, the brewery opened a third taproom in a Durham shopping center off 15-501. It is also home to BB’s Crispy Chicken restaurant, a yoga
Gizmo’s Chapel Hill location (above and below) was opened for 3 months before having to close due to the Covid pandemic.
studio, a coffee roaster and 25 outdoor murals.
Sumit Vohra, CEO of Lonerider Brewing Co., opened the brewery’s second location in Wake Forest in July 2019. Both the Raleigh and Wake Forest locations offered drive-through beer sales when the businesses were shut down in 2020, which helped Lonerider keep its staff employed. The brewery also sold hand sanitizer as a service to the community at a time when the product was hard to find on store shelves.
Lonerider planned to open a downtown
Raleigh location before the pandemic, but those plans fell apart during COVID. Vohra was a regular at Raleigh’s The Point restaurant at Five Points, and during the pandemic, the owners let him know they wanted to close the business.
They asked if he was interested in taking over the space. “The Point was my Cheers bar,” Vohra said. “We asked ourselves, ‘is this the right thing to do for Lonerider and our future?’ So we said yes, and we learned how to operate a restaurant.”
The biggest problem with opening a new space during the pandemic was the availability
Jugs RTP location.
People wait in line for beer at GlassNATALIE HAMPTON
of cash, Vohra said. “We had to take a big risk. Because we were opening during the pandemic, we were not eligible for (federal COVID support) money. Everyone was struggling and suffering from it. Everything was inefficient, from supply chains to employees getting sick,” he said.
The new Lonerider location has lots of outdoor space, a benefit during the pandemic for diners and beer lovers. From tables on wooden decks to picnic tables in the yard with bistro lights strung above, the outdoor space attracts families and dog owners. Outdoor TV screens offer viewing opportunities for sports fans.
The food at the new location features pub
The list below includes some of the most significant expansions around the Triangle.
p Gizmo Brew Works, Raleigh: new taprooms in Chapel Hill (2019) and Durham (2022).
p Glass Jug Beer Lab, RTP/Durham, new taproom in Durham Central Park (2021).
p Bull City Ciderworks, Durham, Greensboro and Lexington, opened a taproom in Cary in 2022.
p Lonerider Brewery, Raleigh, opened the second Hideout in Wake Forest in 2019 and a taproom and restaurant in Raleigh’s Five Points in November 2020.
p Bond Brothers Beer Co., Cary, second Cary location in 2021, also a music venue.
p Raleigh Brewing, Raleigh, opened in Cary’s Arboretum in May 2020.
p Cotton House/Triangle Beer Co., Cary, opened a new location in the former Jordan Lake Brewing site in June 2021, where they serve food.
favorites like brick oven pizza and chicken wings. Lonerider plans another expansion outside the Triangle to Oak Island on the North Carolina coast this Spring. It should be open for much of the summer beach season if all goes well.
How has the pandemic changed the brewing industry? Vohra says those changes remain to be seen. Already, he knows that costs associated with brewing are rising, especially the price of grain and aluminum cans. So one change consumers will see is an increase in the price of beer, he said.
Still, pandemic business has been good enough to encourage several Triangle-area breweries to expand.
Inearly March, the Winston-Salem Brewery, Incendiary announced on social media that it purchased a split parcel of the Westbend Vineyard and Brewing located in Lewisville, North Carolina. The new expansion will house a 30-barrel brewing system and multiple 30and 60-barrel fermenters. With over 14 acres of vines, and one of the oldest wineries in the state, Screw it Wine reached out to taproom manager Christian Straus and asked a few questions of what’s to come, after its opening on April 9.
First off, tell us the history behind Incendiary Brewing? Who are the owners and head brewer and how did you come to be?
The owners, Brandon and John, used to homebrew together through college. As time went on and their efforts improved, they started entering competitions and winning medals. They decided to pursue their dream of owning a brewery and opened Incendiary in September of 2018. I am the taproom manager for both locations, and the head brewer for both locations is Matthew Medley.
Talk about the W-S craft beer scene. For the longest time, it was just Foothills, and now there has been a recent explosion of breweries such as yourself, Radar, Fiddlin’ Fish, Joymongers second location, etc. Will this scene continue to grow and thrive? We think there will be more breweries coming and we are excited for it. The more the merrier in the craft beer scene!
Were you looking for a second location before you decided to purchase Westbend? We know the winery has been on the market for years. We were looking for a place that we could make a larger production facility. Westbend Winery happened to have a larger production area, but also the opportunity for its own taproom and space for events.
Can you explain to us how the new location will be used? Taproom, brewing facility, events center, etc.? We will have a larger production area for brewing and packaging. The taproom will be open Thursday through Sunday and we have the opportunity for bigger event space in the future.
We know you are a brewery and not a winery, but you now inherited a lot of vines. I know they are in bad shape currently, but will you eventually get them up and running and produce wine, or maybe sell the fruit to local wineries? We are still exploring all of our options for the vines. We are currently more focused on getting the production area up and running this summer.
p
p Fullsteam, Durham, opened its second brewery in 2010 and opened a taproom that serves food at Boxyard RTP in 2021.
p Fortnight, Cary, opened a second taproom, “Terminal B,” in Cary in July 2019; and has a site set in Wake Forest for another taproom.
I know it’s early, but have you thought about collaborating with new neighbors, Medaloni Cellars and Old Nick Williams Distillery? That’s a little far out. We love to work with neighbors so it’s always a possibility.
What type of events will you have there. You have great space to host beer events and live music events. We have live music and food trucks on the weekends. There is a lot of room to grow but it also takes some time to get the wheels turning.
A long history of winemaking and growing grapes can be traced to the Tryon Foothills. In fact, back around the turn of the 20th century, Tryon grapes were served in many of the finest restaurants in New York, Miami, and Chicago.
The wines from the Tryon Foothills were known for quality to the wealthiest of wine connoisseurs. It seems only fitting, given the history, that wines produced today in the Tryon Foothills be recognized for the uniqueness of the region. The Tryon Foothills American Viticultural Area is pending as perfected with the TTB and poised to become North Carolina’s seventh officially recognized AVA.
It has been said, an AVA is the recognition of the pedigree of a wine region. Even more so, the designation brings credibility to the wine region as being unique and special. The designation then gets placed on wine maps and lists touting the wine regions of the U.S.A., which in turn generates tourism and exposure to wine lovers worldwide.
Current wineries operating in the region are Mountain Brook Vineyards, Overmountain Vineyards, Parker-Binns Vineyard and Russian Chapel Hills Winery. Each winery tends to acres of estate-grown vineyards. The four wineries are located in eastern Polk County, just a few miles off Highway 9 near the Green Creek and Mill Springs communities and near the Tryon International Equestrian Center.
The chosen name of Tryon Foothills is in reference to the location being in the inner foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains – a region of low mountains and hills lying just below the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Though undoubtedly a highly unique feature of the region is the Isothermal Belt. A true weather phenomenon, this thin stretch runs horizontally along the eastern lower slopes of the Inner Piedmont Foothills and low mountains consistently stay warmer with less frost
than the surrounding landscapes.
While limited scientific data indeed examines and explains the phenomenon, more than enough local folklore exists to truly trust the knowledge. What wines will you enjoy during a visit to the wineries of the Tryon Foothills?
Exceptional award-winning vintages of estate-grown Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and outstanding red blends. Beautiful crisp Petit Manseng, which grows exceptionally well in the region, and artfully crafted Chardonnay. Not to mention, several dry and off dry Rosé, Viognier, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc.
While no timeline exists for the final approval of the Tryon Foothills as North Carolina’s newest American Viticultural Area, the petition has been pending as perfected since late last year.
In this use, the term “perfected” precisely means the petition meets the requirements to be officially designated. While several regulatory steps remain and gaining official recognition is not guaranteed, the final stages are usually considered a mere formality.
The current list of pending American Viticultural Area petitions includes locations in California, Tennesse, Washington state and Ohio.
Currently, 261 official AVAs are established by the TTB, with California boasting more than half at 143 AVAs.
The proposed Tryon Foothills AVA comprises approximately one hundred seventy-five square miles of eastern Polk County. North Carolina’s current six officially recognized American Viticultural Areas are the Yadkin Valley, Swan Creek, Haw River Valley, Appalachian High Country, Hiwassee Highlands and the newest AVA, Crest of the Blue Ridge Henderson County.
Let us toast together the pending Tryon Foothills American Viticultural Area and its pending official recognition. Cheers!
Dennis and Jenni Turner operate the website, Winery Escapades, where they explore NC and SC wines.
Are you in love with Willamette Valley like I am? If so, it’s for a good reason. The Willamette Valley, Oregon’s leading wine region, has two-thirds of the state’s wineries and vineyards and is home to more than 700 wineries. It is recognized as one of the premier Pinot Noir–producing areas globally.
Everyone knows about Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, but the times are changing. In fact, 30 percent of Willamette Valley’s grapes are those other than Pinot Noir. The quality of Chardonnay, Pinot Gris,Riesling and lesser-known white grapes capture the attention of wine critics with their balance, elegance and higher acidity.
We tasted six Willamette whites from premier wineries. To round out the picture, we contacted three Willamette Valley winemakers to get their perspectives on the rise of white wines in the region.
Youngberg Hill is a 50-acre estate with 20 acres of sustainably farmed vineyards in Willamette Valley. Proprietor/ winegrower Wayne Bailey and his family are the modern-day stewards of a property that has been a family farm since the 1850s. The first vines were planted on the McMinnville property in 1989. The estate is among the Willamette Valley’s westernmost vineyards and
experiences significant maritime influence.
“Our white program includes Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and sparkling wine,” said Bailey. “However, our focus is on Chardonnay. I believe, like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay is best grown in cooler climates and reflects where and when it’s grown. My goal is for the Willamette Valley to be known just as much for its Chardonnay as for its Pinot Noir And when that happens, you will finally see Willamette Valley Chardonnays on retail shelves and restaurants across the country.”
Dave Specter is the owner and winemaker at Bells Up Winery, a micro boutique winery he operates with his wife, Sara. Specter is a former corporate tax attorney who won two national amateur winemaking competitions, encouraging the couple to purchase a former Christmas tree farm north of Newberg, Oregon, and establish their vineyard. Today the winery produces about 600 cases annually
“Regionally, and broadly speaking, there is a tendency toward producing crisper, balanced white wines that showcase the minerality of the area’s soils,” said Specter “You don’t see many oaked whites made here compared to other winemaking regions, which makes them distinctive.
“For whites, I’m trying to achieve approachability and elegance through balanced acidity with a creamy texture that comes from a few months spent stirring the wine on its lees. That gives them a fuller-bodied presence, allowing our white wines to be enjoyed solo or accompanied by a meal. We’ve seen great pairings with oysters or creamy Mediterranean lamb stew for the Rhapsody Pinot Blanc, and fish tacos or asparagus with lemon for the Helios Seyval Blanc, which is the only planting of that varietal in the Willamette Valley (thereby making it a very unique white here).”
Iris Vineyards is a family-owned estate winery in the foothills of the Oregon Coast mountain range in southern Willamette Valley. It’s located on an 870-acre estate, with almost 50 acres of vineyard framed by restored woodlands.
Winemaker Aaron Lieberman’s philosophy is to create bright, fruitforward wines that honor their source with crisp acidity and low alcohol. Lieberman is approaching his 13th vintage as winemaker for Iris Vineyards.
“There are white wines produced in other parts of the world that are very similar to Willamette Valley wines,” said Lieberman. “For some white wines produced here, the combination of the climate and soils derived from volcanic
For Stephen and Gloria Reustle, the jump into the wine world originally stemmed from a successful marketing company. Providing top-notch products to a loyal fan base and moving to Oregon’s Umpqua Valley eventually led to the couple growing 40 acres of vines within their 200acre estate.
According to Reustle, each grape varietal, clone and rootstock were carefully selected to match the microclimates on the property. And only using fruit grown on the estate, Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyards is producing some of the finest wines in Oregon.
Take, for example, the winery’s Grüner Veltliner. When Reustle produced the first vintage of Grüner back in 2005, it was the first winery in the U.S. to make a Grüner Veltliner.
“I was in Austria on a motorcycle tour of the Alps in the 1990s and went into an expensive restaurant,” Reustle says. “I asked the waiter to bring out what he thought was the best example of Austrian white wine, and he brought out a Grüner Veltliner.”
Never forgetting that wine, years later, Reustle consulted with Greg Jones, a climatologist with Southern Oregon University. They discovered that the soil inside the Umpqua Valley was suitable for growing Grüner Veltliner.
“From the very first vintage, I was immediately impressed with the fruit and crisp acidity of the Austrian varietal and have been overwhelmed by the positive response from International Wine Competitions,” he says.
Since 2007 Reustle’s Grüner vintages have won a total of 25 awards, which includes recently a double gold “best in class” at the 2021 Great NW Invitational Wine Competition and a “best of show
parent material does make these wines unique.
“My focus for the Willamette Valley Pinot Gris is to respect the varietal (varietal character) and end up with a balanced, easy-to-drink wine. Cultural practices in the vineyard, picking decisions, and grape handling in the winery all contribute to this,” he says. “All of the above applies to the Blanc de Noirs and Sweet Amalia. An additional focus for the BdN is persistence and quality of mousse (foam). Additionally, for Sweet Amalia, we strive to create a product that appeals to tasting room visitors and club members who demand a sweet wine. At the same time, I want this wine to have a complex flavor profile and to improve with age.”
While the Willamette Valley’s reputation for white wine was previously built on Pinot Gris, the cool climate and unique soils that bring forth standout Pinot Noir are also ideal for another Burgundian grape: Chardonnay.
We were also impressed with the range of whites reviewed, from Pinot Blanc to a sparkling Blanc de Noir and a Seyval Blanc and Pinot Gris, delivered in a dry and sweet style.
Areté is the premium range of wines from Iris. This wine is 100 percent Pinot Noir but delivered in a “blanc” style. We began our tasting event with this wine, and the foamy perlage delighted the crowd. Wonderful crisp grapefruit notes mingled with lemon and peach. The wine features small and refined bubbles. $33.99.
BELLS UP RHAPSODY 2021 PINOT BLANC
This wine immediately gained fan-favorite status with our group. I was expecting a more austere wine, but the Rhapsody (named for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue) delivered nectarine and lemon zest flavors in a jazzy way. The wine gets six months of sur lie aging for a fuller body without dampening the crispness. $32.
Bells Up has the first and only Seyval Blanc planting in Willamette Valley (second in Oregon). The variety is found mainly in the Midwest and East. Tropical fruit and green apples surround a swirling minerality. There is a unique flinty twang on the finish. Minimal availability of 64 cases. $40.
Named after the winemaker’s youngest daughter, this Pinot Gris has a pleasing fruitiness perfect to pair with spicy food. Juicy apricot and floral notes mingle with tropical fruit flavors and mineral tones. This is classic Willamette Valley Pinot Gris! $35
IRIS 2020 PINOT GRIS
Bright citrus flavors wrapped in juicy pear. Whole-cluster pressed for additional depth of flavor. This is an easy-to-love wine with a refreshing juiciness, and the acidity adds to the structure and balance. $15.99.
IRIS 2019 SWEET AMELIA PINOT GRIS
This was one of the big surprises of our tasting. I’ve never heard of a dessert wine Pinot Gris, let alone tasted one. We had two guests who refused to leave without taking what was left in the bottle. This is a delicate wine, not viscous or sticky. There are touches of honey and orange marmalade. Even with the sweetness, it maintains balance and a crisp finish. $18.99.
Dave Nershi is the publisher of the VinoSphere wine blog. A former newspaper and magazine editor, Nershi is an awardwinning writer focusing on wines, wineries, and related travel.
Emanating from Greek mythology, Oregon’s Eola Hills Wine Cellars’ name is an hommage to Aeolus, the Greek God of the Winds. Aeolus, son of Poseidon, played a pivotal role in Homer’s Odyssey – and racing parallel with Aeolus, Eola Hills has a crucial role in the Oregon wine industry.
According to the Portland Business Journal’s list of the largest wineries in Oregon, Eola Hills Wine Cellars comes in at number 13, producing 83,923 taxed gallons of wine in 2020.
The winery is in good company, with wineries such as Sokol Blosser, A to Z Wineworks, Ken Wright Cellars, King Estate Winery and Willamette Valley Vineyards on the list – which produced a stunning 460,000-plus gallons of wine in 2020.
Eola Hills came into existence
STEVE ANDERSONaround 1982 when winery founder Tom Huggins, who worked in the agricultural insurance business, decided the lifestyle of growing grapes and watching hawks circling overhead was more his speed.
While having a conversation with one
of his clients, Huggins asked if there were any properties for sale in the EolaAmity Hills valley because he would be interested in a plot of land. Sure enough, there was, and shortly after that exchange, Huggins was the owner of 40 acres.
In 1986, four years after the land purchase, Huggins had grapes – but not many of the 33 wineries in Oregon at that time needed to buy his crops. So, he decided to keep his grapes, rent a building 10 miles west of Salem in the small town of Rickreall, and create Eola Hills Wine Cellars.
Steve Anderson entered the picture in 1993 as a cellar rat. Shortly after arriving, he was promoted to assistant winemaker for five years before landing the role as Eola Hills’ head winemaker and general manager.
“When Eola Hills first started, we produced 2,000 units, but seven years later, around 2015-16, we were
“ “ There’s a lot of science blended in with the artistry of the individual or team.
–
Winemaker, Eola Hills Wine CellarsEOLA HILLS WINE CELLARS Oregon’s Eola Hills Wine Cellars is one of the largest wineries in the state, producing wines such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.
producing close to 80,000,” Anderson says. During that time, which was at a peak for Eola Hills, Anderson says the numbers could have been as high as 100,000 gallons produced with the winery doing select custom crush deals.
Today, a winery that started with 40 acres now has 235 acres under vine, with an additional 6 acres presently being developed for more vines. According to Anderson, Eola Hills Wine Cellars is predominately Pinot Noir (roughly 70 percent) and grows some Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer and Muller-Thurgau.
The wines Anderson produces for Eola-Hills run the gambit from Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon to Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. But explore a little further, and you’ll find some hidden gems such as a Muscat Ottonel, a sparkling Chardonnay and dessert wines in the likes of a late harvest Sauvignon Blanc and Gewurztraminer and the Colheita Port.
“There’s a lot of science blended in with the artistry of the individual or team,” Anderson says. “Ultimately, wine is something you will put in your mouth. I might think it would be perfect by the numbers, but it can still taste like garbage. You have to use the art, intuition, experience, and science
and technology.”
That’s precisely what Anderson and Eola Hills Wine Cellar are doing to produce one of Oregon’s top-producing wines in Oregon and along the West Coast.
Winemaker Steve Anderson and Eola Hills Wine Cellars produce over 20+ wines that are available at the winery, or by ordering online. They range from sparkling wines such as a sparkling Chardonnay and Müller-Thurgau; reds like the barrel-select Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, to dessert wines such as a late harvest Sauvignon Blanc.
white” at the 2022 San Diego International Wine Challenge.
During a recent trip to the East Coast, Gloria and Stephen visited Raleigh for a unique blind tasting putting four of his wines up against other wineries worldwide.
“Many winemakers won’t do this, but I’m not afraid,” Reustle says. “If I do lose, it’s to some of the best in the industry.” The tasting was offered to members of the American Wine Society’s Triangle Chapter, which Jeff Price and Lisa Tillis facilitated.
The 25 members who attended first started blind tasting the 2019 Grüner Veltliner Green Lizard ($36) versus the 2019 Alzinger “Smaragd” ($80) from Austria. The Alzinger rated over 90-plus points by Wine Enthusiast and Wine Advocate.
Screw it Wine’s Dathan Kazsuk and Jennifer Primrose attended the event, and during this first tasting, the two had already split sides in the tasting. Primrose selected the Reustle, while Kazsuk selected the Alzinger – but after the final tally came in, Reustle won that round.
Round two had Reustle’s 2019 Pinot Noir ($45) go up against a Pinot Noir from France’s Dominique Lafon ($99). This time around, Kazsuk and Primrose agreed, and the winner for us was the French Pinot.
In round three, the members of the AWS moved on to tasting two Syrah wines. Reustle put up its 2019 Syrah Winemaker’s Reserve ($45) against Dumien Serrette Cornas’ Paton 2019 Syrah ($65) from France. This was another close battle, with Reustle coming up short by just a few points.
The last tasting pitted the 2018 Tempranillo ($42) from Reustle Prayer Rock versus the 2018 Artadi Valdegines single plot wine ($70) from Spain. Like every other round, the wines were all fantastic, and it was challenging for each member to decide. After the points were tallied for the final round, Ruestle squeaked past the Artadi by a few points.
Reustle doesn’t deal with a distributor, and you can only get its wines via wine club or at the winery. If you find yourself in a situation where you have a friend with a bottle of this wine – buddy up to him.
– Jennifer PrimroseTake advantage of the Roaring River Vineyards Wine Club! Members receive amazing wine with zero hassle, plus exclusive offers and discounts throughout the year.
Wine club is FREE to join – We only require each member to purchase at least one case (12 bottles) of wine per year.
Wine Club members receive the following benefits:
• 12 bottles of Roaring River Vineyards wines (3 bottles either shipped or free pick-up), processed at the end of each quarter: March, June, September and December.
• Special wine only offered to club members
•1 free wine tasting or 1 free glass of wine per quarter per club member.
• 10% discount on wine-related purchases in the tasting room or online
• One night lodging packages and private fishing and RV camping privileges
• $65 charged quarterly (plus 7% NC sales taxes and, if applicable, $25 shipping cost).