2018 Weekends 12 & 13

A couple of weeks we ended up just staying super local because of everything we had going on so we didn't do a blog post about those.

Weekend 12 was anniversary weekend for us! I'm amazed that it has already been a year!

So we started our vacation out by just getting a few errands done on Thursday (3/23). After all that was complete we decided to ride up to Parker Binns for a little bit. Those guys are so super fun! We had a nice visit with Karen, Bob, Kelly and Lulu. We met a very nice young man at the winery, Scout McCormick, who is the manager of Hickory Nut Gorge Brewery. Dennis & I cannot wait to go for a visit! While at Parker-Binns, we were treated to a taste of the new Chardonnay and a taste of the hard apple cider they now have. We enjoyed both very much and the art for the label for the Chardonnay is gorgeous! We enjoyed a bottle of the Rosé during our visit.

Friday morning we left early and headed for the Outer Banks. It's a rather long drive so we decided to break it up a tad and stop at Gregory Winery They are predominately a muscadine vineyard with some fruit wine combinations as well as 4 fortified wines. Tasha our server and she was so fun! You can tell she really enjoys what she is doing. Lane (the owner) came in as we were doing our tasting and spent a good deal of time with us. Since we still had several hours on the road, we only did the tasting, but bought a bottle of the peach blend and 2 bottles of the fortified wines. Got to Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks, checked in to our hotel and found dinner.

Saturday morning we walked on the beach a little, went to Kitty Hawk and toured the Wright Brothers National Memorial. As windy as it was, we see why they chose that area to do their testing. Then we drove over to see the Mother Vine. It's amazing! Later in the day we went to Sanctuary Vineyards. Since we had already met our limit of wine purchases we set for ourselves before we left, we just did the tasting here. Even though this vineyard is in a sandy / beachy environment, they are producing varietals other than just muscadine. Dennis had wanted to visit here because we knew that they had a double barrel red blend that won Best in Show at the second annual awards gala of the NC Fine Wines Society. Elton was super busy but managed to share a few jokes with all of us and told us all about the wines. We met some really fun couples and a few ladies that were celebrating their friend who is getting married soon. Look forward to another visit when we can purchase some of their wines.

Sunday afternoon we went to Vineyard on the Scuppernog. The lovely lady that did out tasting was so gracious to us. She really took pride in telling us all about the wines, the name origins and even the art on the labels. I managed to twist Dennis' arm and we bought a bottle of the strawberry wine, Girls of Summer. That one did not make it back to Boiling Springs! We did some other sight seeing, shopping and then headed to Duck Island for our anniversary dinner.

Monday morning we headed to Myrtle Beach. Got checked in and then went to dinner. After dinner we headed over to Carolina Vineyards Winery. The gentleman that did our tasting, Ben, had only been there for 4 days. He did a super job with our tasting. We each got a glass and then walked around the shops for a little bit. The plus about being at the beach when we were is that is was not crowded.

Our vacation came to a close with a visit to La Belle Amie. Boy did we have fun there! The ladies that were doing the tasting were tons of fun!