North Carolina Wineries

Over Labor Day weekend, David and I flew to North Carolina to visit my mom and to meet up with my dad, who was preparing a presentation for some of his colleagues at Duke. David and I hadn’t been back to North Carolina since last Thanksgiving, so we were both excited for the short trip home. My mom suggested that David and I take my dad to some wineries in North Carolina since it would be a nice drive and we might find some fun wineries to visit, so David and I decided to make a day of it. The first winery we visited was Childress Vineyards, owned by the race car driver Richard Childress:

The tasting room is really large and feels newly built and people actually say that the grapes used in the wines made at Childress are actually shipped in from other states. I could see it since there is no way the grapes on their property could produce as much wine as they sell. Some pictures from the Childress vineyard:

Very sour grapes:

My dad and I by the water:

A little picnicking area by the grapes:

After Childress, we drove to another winery, Westbend Winery:

Westbend Winery was relatively quiet to Childress, but they’ve won numerous awards for their chardonnay. After Westbend, we drove to the final winery of the day so David and I could take this picture:

All of the wineries are kind of spread out by 20 or 30 miles (not like Napa where everything is pretty close together). We had a fun day driving around, but the wines weren’t that great. It’s a fun and scenic drive and since North Carolina vineyards are pretty new, they have fun festivals and activities to draw people out.