Press Release: Palmetto Signature Six

The Palmetto Wine Competition announces the 2018 Palmetto Signature Six.

October brings harvest in South Carolina vineyards and we celebrate South Carolina grown fruit by presenting our inaugural selection of home grown award winning wines, the Palmetto Signature Six.

Six award winning wines produced entirely from South Carolina grown fruit. This year’s award winning group includes three whites and three reds produced from vineyards spanning from the Low-country to the Upstate.

Presenting The White Wines

Woodsy White – Wellborn Winery – Travelers Rest

An unique blend of Syval Blanc and Traminette create this award winning off-dry white. Two French-American Hybrid varietals grown in Wellborn’s modest vineyard rooted in Northern Greenville County.

Vineyard Owners – Tony Beninati & Debbie Sikora
Winemaker – Tony Beninati

Curiously White – Enoree River Vineyards – Newberry

A blend of different white Muscadine varieties. A vineyard planted of Carlos Muscadine  at this Newberry winery, curiously yielded several vines with grape of unknown varieties. Fruit from these specific vines are blended to create this limited production award winning semi-sweet white wine.

Vineyard Owners – Richard & Laura LaBarre
Winemaker – Laura LaBarre

Magnolia – Abiding Vine Vineyards – Laurens

Produced entirely from the single Magnolia Muscadine varietal. The young vines at Abiding Vine Vineyard have thrived in the rich country soil producing this light and crisp award winning white wine.

Vineyard Owner – David Barnes
Winemaker – David Barnes

Taking Notice Of The Red Wines

Carolina Nights – CityScape Winery – Pelzer

Southern Greenville County grown Noble Muscadine and locally grown South Carolina blackberries beautifully blend to produce this award winning semi-sweet medium bodied easy drinking red wine.

Vineyard Owners – Josh and Deb Jones
Winemaker – Josh Jones

Blueberry Jalapeño – Mercer House Estate Winery – Lexington

Complex award winning blueberry wine with just the right amount of extra ummppp! This unique blend produces a bold complex flavorful red wine.

Vineyard Owners – Shannon and Kim Mercer
Winemaker – Shannon Mercer

High Tide – Deep Water Vineyards – Charleston

A light bodied wine produced from grapes of the single Noble Muscadine varietal harvested from Deep Water’s mature vines rooted on Wadmalaw Island. This award winning wine exhibits a robust nose and deep bold flavors.

Vineyard Owners – Jesse and Andrea Friewald
Winemaker – Jesse Friewald

Snap Apple Sassy and Strawberry Kisses

Our wines tonight are the Snap Apple Sassy and the Strawberry Kisses from Old Rock Quarry Winery in South Carolina. These two sweet fruit wines are really good and refreshing.

Old Rock Quarry Winery is located just off Interstate 26 in Upstate South Carolina. Siri knows the way! The winery is open until 8 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday along with Sunday until 4.

Remembering Our Visit To The Upper Hiwassee Highlands AVA

This is a repost of a blog Jenni wrote about a year ago and some notes I had added to her post. As we quickly approach our return to Highlands, thought it’d be a good time to revisit.

Saturday we took off to Hayesville, NC to Eagle Fork Vineyards.It was well worth the drive! We enjoyed several of the wines and brought a bottle of their Classic Chambourchin home. We also enjoyed a glass each of their wine slushy in their gazaboo. It is one of the very few slushies I can have as it does not have any fruit juice in it. Most of the vines are not on the property where the tasting room is. In fact back in May, Dennis & I had attempted to go to this same winery when we were in Highlands and the vinowine app had the old address of the tasting room. They moved the tasting room to it’s current location about 2 years ago. Laura, who poured our tasting, was super sweet and very accommodating to us. We enjoyed several of their wines but had to make a choice as to what to take home.

We left there and headed to Nottely River Valley Vineyards. To say we had a good time there would be a serious understatement! The owners, Steve and Karen were very sweet and a lot of fun! We meet some wonderful people who allowed us to share in their birthday party. There were also 6 late 20 something ladies who were also a delight to talk too. Dennis and I shared a bottle of their Strawberry Wine and brought home a bottle of their Peach. I included the picture of the wanted grape stompers sign just because I thought it was funny!

Sunday we stayed close to home and went back to Burntshirt Vineyard. This winery will always be special to us for a couple of reasons. One it is the first winery/vineyard Dennis & I went to together and it is also where he proposed. They have several wines that we enjoy, but on Sunday, we enjoyed a bottle of their Sunset Sippin. The atmosphere is so nice and they have live music on Sundays. And we met a new “friend” Sunday.

We left there and headed towards home and stopped by Russian Chapel Hills that is in the Green Creek area of NC. Andrey and his wife are so sweet! The 3 dogs are always there to greet us when we get there! They are so sweet and just love the attention they get from us. Their names are Leila, Bernard and Skif (that’s the order of the pictures below).

We each had a glass of his blush. Usually we get either the Chamourchin or the Mosaic, but since we had had a white earlier in the day we went with the Rosé. The vines are loaded with grapes ready for harvest.

This is a fun small little winery that a lot of people don’t know about. There’s a part of me that wants to keep it that way as we enjoy the tranquility there, but a much larger part of me wants to see them thrive. So I am telling all of you if you are in that area or just want to short drive, head that way.

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Notes from Dennis Below:

Thought I’d jump right in on Jenni’s blog post and post a few of my own thoughts and pics.  Eagle Fork was nice. We sat under the gazebo and just chilled on the hanging swing as we sipped on our wine slushies.

We tasted Chambourchin grapes freshly picked form right off the vine. These are full of juice and ready for harvest.

Snapped this picture of the front sign as we were leaving.

Nottely River Valley Vineyards was indeed really tranquil. The view from their tasting room is of three states, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. We had so much fun making friends as we enjoyed a bottle of Strawberry Wine under their covered patio.

On the way back Saturday evening we stopped and played along the banks of the Natahala River.

As Jenni mentioned, Burntshirt is one of our favorites, they were very busy this Sunday. The weather was nice for sitting outside and a really good cover band was playing.

Stopping at Russian Chapel Hills on our way home is somewhat of a tradition for us. Looking at the grapes on the vines at Russian, leads me to believe it’s going to be a good year for wine in the region.

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Maggie Muscat – Parker-Binns Vineyards

Celebrating #NationalWhiteWineDay

So naturally we chose one of our very favorite white wines as our wine tonight. Maggie muscat wine from Parker-Binns Vineyards in the Tryon Foothills.

Serve well chilled.

Medium-pronounced nose of pink grapefruit, lemon-lime, white peach, banana, and bright floral notes.

Beautiful pale lemon in color.

On the palate this off dry estate grown Muscat is bright and crisp with medium-plus acidity.

Bursting with tropical notes on the tongue, mango, tangerine, pink grapefruit, hints of lemon, lime, and star fruit fading to a lingering complex finish of banana and pineapple somewhat reminiscent of the tropical notes found in a comforting stick of juicy fruit gum.

Maggie stands up and delivers! Indeed, an excellent white wine!

Varietal: 100% Muscat Giallo

JenNis Beverage Marketing score of 91 points.

Gold Medal worthy!

13 % ABV

Priced at $20 a bottle.

Winemaker: Justin Taylor

A Few Things We Love About North Carolina Wineries.

It’s safe to say our hobby has turned into an obsession. What started as a way to spend time together, has turned into a way of life. Therefore, we celebrate 2018 North Carolina wine month with our 2nd annual post of a few things we love about #NCWine.

Still love that Burntshirt Vineyards in Hendersonville was the first winery we ever visited together. It was also where I proposed. Love sitting under their portico, enjoying the Meritage or the Sunset Sippin’.

Love that Cabo Winery stays open late and offers fun wines such as Hissy Fit (Strawberry) and the Bless Your Heart (Coconut) and Over Yonder (Chocolate Covered Cherry).

Love the million dollar views at Raffaldini and Piccione in Ronda, and Silver Fork in Morganton, and Parker-Binns in Tryon.

Parker-Binns
Raffadini

Love the incredible improved Mountain Brook Vineyards.

Love enjoying a glass by the fire pit at Baker Buffalo Creek Vineyards.

Love Henry the Peacock at Catawba Farms Winery.

Love the White Merlot on the back patio at Brandon Hills Vineyards .

Love brick oven pizza and live music on Sunday Funday at Parker Binns.

Love that overnight accomodations are available in a treehouse at Treehouse Vineyards.

Love that Biltmore Winery is the most visited winery in the country.

. Love sipping on wine slushies at Eagle Fork Vineyards. 

Love the Killer Bee spirits from the distillery at Windsor Run Cellars. 

Love the Four off Nine in the Tryon Foothills area – Parker Binns, OverMountain, Mountain Brook, and Russian Chapel Hills.

                       

Love the Bordeaux style at South Creek Vineyards.

Love JW’s style at JOLO Winery and Vineyards.

Love the bourbon barrel aged Cab Sauv at Baker Buffalo Creek Vineyards.

Love strolling through the vineyard to St. Anna’s Chapel at Russian Chapel Hills. 

Love the listening to the river while enjoying a glass on the porch at Roaring River Vineyards. 

Love the Outer Banks Ice Wine from Sanctuary Vineyards.

Love that the oldest vine in America, the Mother Vine on Mateo in the OBX is still producing grapes.

Love the beautiful grounds at Daveste’ Vineyards.

Love the 360 degree mountain views at Point Lookout Vineyards.

Love the “Love” Alchemy Herbal Mead from Addison Farms Vineyard.

Love that Duplin in Rose Hill is the largest Muscadine producer in the World!

Love that Hinnant is the largest Muscadine Vineyard in state.

Hinnant Vineyards sure has racked up many awards!

Love that even though we have visited almost 120 North Carolina wineries there remain nearly 80 more for us still to visit, and more opening each year.

Happy weekend wining! Get out this September and celebrate North Carolina Wine Month by visiting and enjoying the nearly 200 North Carolina Wineries!

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Tryon Foothills: Four off Nine

Tryon boast a rich viticulture history of growing quality grapes and producing fine wines.

Four wineries are keeping this tradition alive. Each with its own unique vibe. All four of these wineries located just off North Carolina Highway Nine.

When driving North from the South Carolina state line, you’ll find in the below order. All four within 15 to 20 minutes of each other. Your GPS knows the way.

Russian Chapel Hills Winery cultivates 17 acres under vine. The vineyards and winery are under the direction of Andrey Medvedev, who normally greets arriving guest with a smile.

Russian Chapel is growing Chardonnay, Muscadine, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec. Russian Chapel Hills Kagor is produced of the estate Cabernet Sauvignon.

A short walk through the vineyard takes you the beautiful St. Anna Chapel which majestically overlooks the vineyard.

Mountain Brook Vineyards is a small craft winery nestled atop a foothill with stunning Mountain Views.

Approximately 7 acres under vine growing Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. Mountain Brook wines have won awards from coast to coast. The winery features live music and stunning 360 degree views from the wrap-around porch. Strongly recommend one of their fruit sangrias.

OverMountain Vineyards is a family owned boutique vineyard and winery featuring distinctive French style wines. Owner Frank Lily and his daughter Sophia are the winemakers. Frank studied in California and North Carolina and Sophia holds a degree in Biology and for most of her life apprenticed under the guidance of her Father. The vineyard features seventeen acres under vine growing Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Petit Menseng.

OverMountain has a distinctive “Sonoma” feel with it’s spacious patio covered with ginormous red umbrellas. The patio steps lead to a beautiful lawn area just above the Northern sloping vineyard.

Parker-Binns Vineyards owned and operated by “retirees” Roberto and Karen Binns along with their daughter Kelly, offers a fun-time laid back vibe. We use the “retiree” tag loosely as these guys are always hopping on the weekends. Each weekend is capped with Sunday Funday offering live music and free brick oven pizza.

Growing Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Menseng, on mostly Southern sloping hillsides. Parker-Binns features two tasting rooms, the garden and also the barn which is nestled on higher ground overlooking the vineyards. The barn is often used for events and offers exceptional mountain views and a large wrap-around bar. The garden tasting room is a more cozy and intimate environment.

The Four off Nine in the Tryon Foothills make for a great wine trail. The wineries have began the process to have the area recognized as an American Viticultural Area which would be known as the Tryon Foothills. Make a point to try some “Tryon Grape” in your wine glass!

Cheers,

Dennis & Jenni

Winery Escapades

South Creek Vineyards and Winery – Nebo, N.C.

Saturday August 19, 2017 – Jenni and I visited the Morganton area and our first stop was South Creek Vineyards and Winery. 

A Bordeaux style winery, owner James Rowley shared with us tales of a recent visit to several French Bordeaux Vineyards. A learning experience to ensure their wines are living up to the standard.

Highly recommend a full tasting, costing $10. Each wine should be experienced and you’re certain to find one to your liking. My favorite was the Cabernet Sauvignon and I also enjoyed the Cabernet Franc. Trust me, I’m a true Cab Sauv Snob, and this one is good.

The winery has a nice shaded patio, where we enjoyed a glass while listening to the smooth sounds of singer, songwriter, storyteller, and musician Thomas Aaron Garlow.

We chatted with Dana Kendall, owner/executive driver of Asheville Premier Transportation. She had chauffeured a large bridal party in for a tasting.

South Creek is well worth a visit, a little slice of Southern France in Nebo. Happy weekend Wining!  Dennis

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Grape History of Tryon

Below is an excerpt of a current writing project.  

In the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, Tryon table grapes and wines produced from grapes grown in the region were served in the finest restaurants all over the United States of America. It was often heard in New York, “give me Tryon grape.” The wines became known for quality to the wealthiest of connoisseurs and these wines were shipped all over the country.  Many of the Tryon vineyards were planted in the late 1800’s and some twenty plus vineyards existed in the early 1900’s growing grape varieties such as Muscadine, White Niagara, Red Delaware table grapes, and even European Vinifera.

The vineyard owners and winemakers of the early 1900’s are as likewise of intriguing interest. Harold Doubleday, nephew of Abner Doubleday of baseball fame. Sidney Lanier Junior, son of famed poet. Alex Lamort, immigrant from Bordeaux, France, brought to the United States by George Vanderbilt. Lamort’s 1916 obituary mentioned his wines as being known favorably all of the world. George Edward Morton, founder of Tryon’s first newspaper. William T. Lindsey, whose grapes were honored at the 1893 New York State Fair.

The favorable growing conditions of Tryon have been long promoted. At roughly 1400 foot of elevation along the southern slopes of the area’s mountain foothills exist a weather phenomenon known as the Thermal Belt. In the Thermal belt, frost is rare. The Tryon Foothills Thermal Belts are considered some of the more pronounced in the country. Temperatures in along these belts range about 20 degrees warmer than along the base of the foothills. It is this climate that not only makes the area ideal for growing grapes, but likewise contributed to the area becoming a summer resort destination. The later also contributing to the development of the Tryon Foothills in Polk County as a respected wine region.

In the early 1900’s, travel by train was the popular means of travel up and down the East Coast. Trains traveling from Miami to New York stopped in Tryon as often as 10 times each day. The area growers would peddle their fruit and wine at the train depot. Tryon wine gained notoriety as it was transported up and down the East Coast. Tryon wines are known to have been served at the Waldorf Astoria during the 1920’s. Tryon became to be known as one of the finest grape producing regions of the country.

Old Rock Quarry Winery- Reblog

In celebration of their one year anniversary at Old Rock Quarry Winery, we are reblogging this post from 2017.

So kind of on a whim Dennis & I decided to go to Old Rock Quarry Winery. Best decision ever! We met Debbie & Lindy Glidden. Sadly for us, the other owner, Linda, wasn’t there. We laughed, shared & tasted wine. She told us a story about Grapa from Germany that was also too spicy to drink. At the end of our tasting she asked which of their wines was our Grapa. We told her none! They have mostly sweet wines but we loved them all! A bottle of their Plum Crazy & one of the Snap Apple Sassy came home to the Turner wine collection. This is one that we will visit many more times!

Update: 9/8/2017 from Jenni:

We started our weekend with a second visit to Old Rock Quarry in Enoree after dinner since they’re open until 8 of Friday and Saturday. While the attached picture is not so flattering of me, I wanted you to “meet” the two lovely ladies that own the winery, Debbie and Linda. To say we love these 2 ladies would be an understatement. They are so funny and sweet! I would encourage all of you to make the drive (short from Spartanburg, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Clinton and Columbia) to see these two. We shared a bottle of their peach, brought a bottle of that and a bottle of their Snap Apple Sassy home.

Now that the weather is cooler, Old Rock quarry has a really cool gas fire pit to help keep warm. The tables are made from wooden large cable spools and have a cut out in the center for the ice bucket to keep your bottle chilled. All makes for a really nice evening experience.

Visiting Old Rock Quarry Winery is reminiscent of visiting old friends.

Happy Weekend Wining!

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Carménère Review – CityScape Winery

Carménère grape imported fresh from Chilè.

Grape hand crushed and destemmed.

Single barrel aged.

Limited Release, only 300 bottles produced.

Dark Crimson in color.

Floral and spicy on the nose. Excellent aroma!

Medium to Full bodied.

Medium tannins.

Bold notes of black pepper on the tongue, black cherry, over ripe dark plum, and a strong spicy finish.

Would benefit from decanting.

Paired exceptionally well with the smoked brisket.

Personal scoring on the American Wine Society twenty point scale.

Appearance: 3

Aroma: 5

Taste: 5

Aftertaste: 3

Impression: 2

Total: 18 — Gold Medal worthy!

Priced at $28 a bottle.

Should age beautifully.