2018 Weekend 1

Saturday we head out to Morgan Ridge Vineyards in Gold Hill, NC. I had wanted to go back there for quite sometime and Dennis made it happen this weekend. We first stopped in Historic Downtown Gold Hill and met some really interesting and fun people. We shopped in the antique store and found a Merlot key hook that we had to have. Then we headed over to the general store. We found some black bean and corn salsa for Dennis. He had found some in another little town that he really liked but the ones in our local grocery store were not as good. He tried it when we got home and said it was amazing!
We then headed on over to the winery. Just as a side note, in the historic area, there is a tasting room for Morgan Ridge. I think the next time we are in that area we will visit there.

Maggie did our tasting and was so sweet and knowledgeable. We did the premium tasting that was $10 each & we got to taste 10 wines each. They have 13 wines to choose from so between the 2 of us, we were able to taste them all. We had several favorites, but picked the Joile Blanc and the Applelicious to bring home. We also got to meet Kim the manager. Everyone there was so nice. We decided that we needed a little snack and asked for recommendations from the staff. They all said the brisket nachos. Let me tell you they did not disappoint! Our server for the nachos was Tara. We met some super sweet people there and had a great time mingling with everyone. We also found the cutest sign that we just had to buy to take to Josh & Deb at City Scape. It said Peace Love and Pinot. It was a must for them!

We decided to head over to another winery that we had been to before, Old Stone Winery. The tasting room is another that has the old diner feel to it. Shannon did our tasting and she was much fun! All their wines are muscadine, even the pomegranate and peach have muscadine in them. They had a white muscadine grape that we were not familiar with. It's called Sweet Jenny. Even though Jenny isn't spelled the way i do, of course I'm interested in this grape. They have 13 wines, 7 dry and 6 sweet.

Sunday after church and lunch, we headed over to City Scape to take the sign to Josh & Deb. Sadly Deb was not there as she has been under the weather. However, Josh was there and just loved the sign! We shared a bottle of the Mueller Two Goats, visited with some of the other patrons and then headed to Greenville to the Spice and Tea Exchange. I needed some more Tuscan spice blend and we also brought home some southwestern spice and cilantro.

Winery Escapade- Weekend 48 2017

Wow this past weekend so much fun! Honestly I did not want it to end! We left early Friday afternoon and headed to Elkin, NC.

Our first winery stop was at Grassy Creek Vineyard. We had a blast with Wayne and Joyce chatting and learning about the property. We brought several bottles of wine home with us, with 3 that are going to be Christmas gifts, a t-shirt for me and a horse shoe for Dennis. The entire property was horse pasture and the tasting room was a horse stable once upon a time.

 We left there with a recommendation from Joyce to have dinner at Southern on Main. Man was she right! The food was fantastic and our waitress was terrific! I had pork medallions and Dennis had crab cakes. Neither one disappointed. Even though we were rather full, we diet splurged and shared a Crème Brûlée for dessert. Then we walked around downtown Elkin as it was Light it Up Friday. 

Saturday morning started out with breakfast at Breakfastime which was right beside out hotel. We left there and wandered around Antique Mall of the Foothills that was near by. First of all, the store is deceptively large. It just kept going and going. We were in there for well over an hour and I am certain that we missed a lot of good stuff. We came home with 2 gorgeous blue wine glasses, a beautiful crystal heart paper weight for my desk and a super cute snowman that lights up. 

From there we headed to Midnight Magdalena Vineyards. This is a rather young vineyard but man were the wines good. Apparently there was a 7 vineyard event going on that you could visit them all and taste what is called a vertical flight of one of each of the vineyards wines. Midnight Magdalena was doing their Merlot, 2017, 2016 & 2015. Unfortunately we didn't know about that event, but we were able to do the vertical flight at Midnight Magdalena. The winery is owned by a set of sisters and their husbands. The venue itself is beautiful and Krista (one of the sisters) was a delight! We enjoyed a glass each and listened to some live music. 

Our next stop was Dobbins Creek Vineyard which was our 100th NC winery stop since this journey began. Dennis will be posting a special blog about this stop. We met our friends Will & Pam there along with fellow bloggers The NC Wine Guys. 

Our final stop of the day was at Laurel Gray Vineyards. We shared wine and laughter with Will & Pam and brought a bottle of the Peach wine & their BBQ sauce home wtith us. Dennis & I have a soft spot for peach wine. 

Sunday started with breakfast at the hotel and then we had to go on a quest for tennis shoes for me as some how I had a shoe blow out. After finding the shoes we headed to  Jones von Drehle Vineyards. This is a lovely family vineyard that has 30 acres under vine. We spent some time chatting with one of the owners, Chuck Jones. The property is so lovely and they have some amazing wines. We brought a few bottles home (yes we brought SEVERAL bottles home this trip). 

                

Next up was Mcritchie Vineyards and Ciderworks. We had a lovely time there and brought some wine and cider home. We got to chat with Sean McRitchie for a little bit.

                           

And our final stop for the weekend was Slightly Askew Wines The original purpose for stopping was to get a bottle of the Spiker Dude. We ended up doing a tasting again and getting 2 bottles of the one we went after. 

As you can tell the weekend was full and we had a blast!