Yadkin Valley AVA tour continued

On the second day we visited Elkin Creek winery.  Their wines were generally good.  My favorite was  Classico which is a red blend.  Unfortunately the Classico was sold out.  They had a few bottles left which they used in their tasting room but none to sell. 

An interesting tasting room which always adds to the experience

well tended vineyard and St. Francis watching over the vines

 

The rafters of the tasting room are supported by a central post.

 

view of the top part of the post showing how the rafters intersect

 

We had a cheese tray with a glass of wine at their covered outdoor dining area.

Pictured is a glass of very nice cab sauv the made from estate grown grapes

 

The next vineyard on the tour was Grassy Creek

The show/tasting room was impressively decorated

Lots of wine paraphernalia 

 

The owner was quite friendly.

 

 

 I thought that their white wines were quite good.  The Chardonnay was oaked just right and I did buy a bottle.

 

In downtown Elkin there was a winery named Slightly Off.  We could not resist that.

Turns out that the winery was run very much like Falderal Winery in Hendersonville.  They did not grow or even purchase grapes, rather they bought  juice and made the wine there in 5 gallon carboys.  Any oaking was done by adding oak chips to the carboys. My favorite wine there was a red blend called Roaring River Red.  Many of the wines were sweet, which is not to my liking.

 

 

 We finished the tour with a visit to Carolina Heritage Winery which was just outside Elkin

 

 

 

 A nice rustic Tasting Room

 

The grapes are organically grown,  which is one of the reasons we put this winery on our tour

 

Interesting trellising system

The winery was closed the day we showed up but the gentleman who owned the winery, and the store, and who worked the 15 acres of grapes and made the wine, was kind enough to let us in and give us a free tasting. He grew Chamborcine , Isabella, Muscadine, Traminette, and Norton grapes.  All of these grapes are disease resistant.  Nonetheless, he does have some problems with fungus pressure and this growing season he is experimenting with spraying with compost tea.  He says that he has only been in business for a few years and that the entire operation is a work in progress.

We had tasted Chamborcine wine at other places and were generally disappointed.  The Chamborcine here was excellent.  We bought some.