North Carolina Wine Tour

Haze Gray Winery

Now, I’m not a wine connoisseur by any means, but I have done my fair share of wine tasing and drinking over the years, most recently in Portugal. 

Portuguese wine is really good and delivered all over the world. North Carolina wine on the other hand is fairly new by vineyards standards. In the 90’s when people finally came to the reality that smoking was bad for you, many of the tobacco farms in North Carolina switched to vineyards. Today there are over 400 vineyards in North Carolina and over 200 tasting rooms. Most grapes in North Carolina are not ready for picking for three years and at one of the tastings we were told the vines are only viable for about 7 years. However, there was some discussion later on the bus, that this isn’t true, so who knows.

On this tour, we (me, four friends and 30 others) travelled to four wineries in the Yadkin Valley north of Charlotte near Lake Norman. I was amazed at how green and lush the valley is and quite rural with small to very large homes on acres and acres of land. I don’t know why this was such as surprise to me, but it was.

Haze Gray Winery

The Haze Gray Winery story is heart felt (as it is with most wineries). People don’t start vineyards in North Carolina to make money. This isn’t Napa. Wine making is costly and you must have more than just a passion to be in this business.

The Haze was started by a former Navy pilot (Ted) and his wife (Betty). As such they run a pretty tight ship. When the bus arrived we were shuttled into their wine tasting room where the wine was already poured into small plastic cups with a logo wine glass (we were notified later we could keep the glass). Oddly enough, Betty started with a wine that was a mistake! They didn’t check their filter and the Pinot Grigio they were making ended up with bubbles (not normal). It didn’t taste very good and I thought it was an unusual choice to start with, but Betty was being transparent I guess. One person on our tour actually bought a bottle. He seemed to like it. I really didn’t find any of Haze Gray wines to my liking, but my friend bought a glass of rose to share with us and was really pretty good.

I noticed the vineyard has a rose bush at the end of about every row of vines. Our tour guide suggested the reason was because if the rose bush could survive the elements, the vines would too. He (the tour guide) said this was a myth. It doesn’t have anything to do with a vine or row of vines making it or not.

Hidden Vineyard Winery

The second vineyard, Hidden Vineyard, was a great place and even has a VRBO cabin to rent out.  The wines were better than the first stop and I did get a glass of their wine, Chill, a blush merlot. Many of the others were also tasing and our group did purchase several glasses to have with our lunch. The vineyard is filled with outside tables spattered about the two wine tasing rooms. The owners took over the vineyards and turned it into a winery. Hidden Vineyard had their wine shots in a row so the process of tasting was very quick. The owners are two retired teachers. Since this vineyard was established by selling grapes to other wineries it might be less to run, but it still takes so much money. I was surprised teachers could afford to take their passion to the next level, and yet they have done a great job in making it work.

Adagio Vineyards

At the third vineyard we actually saw the winery in action; oak barrels, steel containers, filling bottles and labeling. Mandy, our host was very enthusiastic, it not only takes owners with the passion for wine, but also employees. 

Mandy showed us how she takes the filled wine bottle with wine and then corks and labels it. Along with every wine (up to 8 tastes), she gave us detained information about the wine, pairings, etc. Unfortunately at this point some of the attendees were well pretty buzzed and rowdy. I thought their Cabernet Sauvignon was the best of the group, but their Petit Verdot was also good. Still not thrilled enough to buy a bottle.

This winery is owned by two doctors and musicians. They will have events at the winery such as weddings and concerts (Judy is a violinist). It was mentioned by our tour guide there are some deep pockets at this winery and I suspect the events do offset costs.

Zoom in to see the grapes beginning to bloom

Davesté Vineyards

We were supposed to only have three tastings, but the tour guide decided to make one more stop at a local (closer to Charlotte) winery, Davesté Vineyards in Troutman near Lake Norman. It is more of a high end, rather than boutique wineries we had been visiting. Not sure of ownership or any tastings really. Some in our group bought glasses and then we had our own tasting. The grounds were lovely highlighted by a waterfall. It seems because it is so close to the suburbs of Charlotte, many  people will bring their families and have a picnic while sharing a bottle.

I am so thankful to my new Charlotte friends for inviting me on this wine journey of North Carolina. It was a great way to spend a Saturday even if I don’t ever buy or drink anymore North Carolina wine.