9-21 Wine tasting in parts Unknown- NC

I find it a unfortunate that some people remain closed minded about new wine producing regions. A few years ago, when I was in Houston for Thanksgiving, I asked my family if we to take a day trip to the Texas wine country with me. Everyone was happy to tag along except my dad and my youngest sister. My sister had a great excuse, A&M (her school) was playing Texas that day. That was HUGE! I'm pretty sure they lost, but at least my sister didn't feel like she wasn't supporting her team. My dad claimed to also have serious ties to the outcome of the game, but while he was investing quite a bit of money in A&M at the time, it was pretty evident when it came time to tasting what we brought back with us from our tasting trip that my dad had some ulterior motives for staying home. While we also sipped on our Texan juice, he decided to pop open a Silver Oak (aka serious Napa Cabernet). To be fair to dad, he's a lot more open now, but I'd like to claim credit (Dad, you can agree by commenting below). By the way, the winery we visited that day was Messina Hof. The winemaker there had worked at BV in his past, which was the reason for my interest. They have a nice restaurant and a fun, cozy tasting room. The wine we liked enough to bring home was called Paulo (eponymous of winemaker Paul Bonariggo). Now that was quite a few years ago (like maybe 6), but they still make that wine and its still winning awards in Texas.

So when I recently found myself in North Carolina, which happens to be one of the first wine producing regions in America - stunted by Prohibition, I was ecstatic when it was suggested that we visit one of the local wineries. We were staying in Winston-Salem (better known for a vice of a different sort), but nearby Lexington, NC had one of Wine Enthusiast's top 25 wineries in America, Childress Winery. Childress is owned by race car driver Richard Childress. Now before you go on making any comments about a winery owned by a race car driver, I will remind you that in Napa the Andretti family has a winery and in Sonoma we've got serious race car traffic at Sear's Point. And besides, I also know of a few veterinarians and dentists that own wineries, which is just as strange.

My friend Kelly and I were accompanied to the winery by her husband and mine, along with their son. All of us newcomers walked up to the winery a bit amazed at how beautiful the place was. They'd had a Tuscan-inspired architect from Georgia (the only non-local part of the whole establishment) design an appropriately themed estate. Kelly had given about 100 (or maybe 1000) disclaimers on how the wine probably wouldn't be very good, but I still had an open mind, and if nothing else the setting was gorgeous. The estate was surrouned by rolling hills and vineyards, live music was playing outside, and the sound of laugther and clanking glasses was everywhere. This ambience is something I will give much more credit to non-Napa wineries for. There is a bit of glory in not being the premier wine region in the country, something enjoyable and laid back about just being good to drink.

And the wines (at least most of them) were good to drink. We tasted two of the three categories of wines Childress makes, the Classic and the Varietal. While none of us had much of a liking for the Classic wines (the least expensive), we found just about every one of the Varietal wines to be tasty, and of good quality (I was really the only one judging that). The Varietals were all very reasonable priced as well, between $9.99 and $19.99 at the wineries price (which is often the most expensive you will find a wine). I had a special taste for the Sauvignon Blanc and the Sangiovese. Both wines were dry, which is usually the first fault of any young (newer) wine region, the wines often having a bit of residual sugar (the wine word for sweetness). The Sauvignon Blanc was also light and zippy with lots of citrus and melon and a hint of herbs. The Sangiovese was smooth with a nice black cherry flavor and a good finish (meaning it lingered a bit). We decided to skip the Signature tasting, but were assured by a very knowledgable host that they were the best (well of course...). I was very impressed by the education and enthusiasm of all of the staff, from the tasting room to the tour guide. The woman who poured for us had just returned from 2 weeks of career development in Napa where she visited something like 40 wineries. The woman who guided our tour answered a few of the tougher questions I asked (like how does sugar % in grapes compare with brix-which is the term I am most familiar with to describe the level of sugar in grapes). The tour guide was also genuinely excited to have someone from Northern California on the tour, and introduced me to the winemaker to further my dialogue. I was also very impressed by the wineries focus on being "green", which they pushed during the tour. I learned how bad synthetic corks are for the environment compared to screw caps (who knew!). They claimed cork was 50/50, good and bad, better for recycling, but not necessarily good for the trees it comes from.

We took two bottles home. We'd only brought enough packing materials (a two bottle styrofoam box) for that many (and have no room in our apartment for any more). We bought one of the Classic wines that we liked just enough, the white, because of the race car themed label and capsule (the metal foil on the top of the bottle) and a bottle of the Varietal Sauvignon Blanc.

I've been to tasting rooms in almost as many states as I've been to: Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New York, Texas, Virginia, Maryland, and of course California. While I wouldn't say that I've had anything better than the wines of California, Oregon and Washington, I will say that I've had some good wines in all of them, some very interesting wines at some of them, and a great experience every time (and I spit!)

If you're in NC, you have to try some wine made from Scuppernog or Muscadine. They are two regionally native grapes that are wild throughout the area we visited. The wine isn't good, but it's wierd enough to be interesting. By the way, Napa doesn't have any native grapes that they make wine from...