• My first contributing article on the Wines of Yadkin Valley
• My first wine related event in North Carolina
• My first time visiting Yadkinville and the Yadkin Valley area
• My first real appreciation of NC wines

Last week I came across some information about the Yadkin Valley Grape Festival 2009 to be held this past Saturday with 24 wineries available for tastings and thought that would be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Since I started my wine accessories internet business earlier this year I have not really been able to spend much time exploring the NC wine industry, and thought this a great way to start. My husband and I decided to make this a family outing and loaded both kids up in the SUV Saturday morning for the relatively short drive to Yadkinville – note to self, leave the kids at home next time!
 

We had a nice drive up, though got a bit concerned as we were coming across Highway 421 and saw black smoke billowing into the air near the area I thought we were headed. We found out later that thankfully it was from a controlled burn of a condemned house that the local fire department was using for training. The directions I had were great and we very easily found the festival in the middle of town, found a spot to park and made our way in. We paid for our wristbands and glasses and set out to experience my first ever wine/grape festival.

In a word, great!

The atmosphere of having 24 wineries set up in one place where wine lovers like myself can taste many different varietals, talk to the folks from the wineries about how they make their wine and where their names came from, and talk to other festival goers about what they were seeing and enjoying was a lot of fun for my husband and I. You could easily see who the experienced wine tasting event people were by the wine glass holders they had around their necks – even bought two myself.

I confess that I was only able to get to 6 of the wineries for tasting, but spent a fair amount of time at each tasting, chatting and learning. I really enjoyed hearing/seeing the enthusiasm the wineries staff had for their various wines and wanting you to try and hopefully like them. We did find one Chardonnay that we really liked and came home with ½ case of it as a matter of fact.

There was also an assortment of food vendors with delicious looking and smelling foods, arts and crafts tables with a variety of items, live music and drawings for free bottles of wine to cap it off. I thought my kids might get into the grape stomping in the children’s area but that was not to be.

So what was not so great about the day? Well, it was a bit colder and windier than I think most people were expecting. Some were more prepared than others for the elements but my family fell on the less prepared side. The kids had sweatshirts with hoods on, but that does not help when you are 9 and 11 and you are being dragged along to an event that Mom has interest in and not you. Also, as our time at the festival progressed we determine that our youngest was actually coming down with some sort of bug such that she fell fast asleep in the car ride home. I really wished I had had the time to visit with more of the wineries but factors were lining up against me so we had to call it a day.

Now for a confession related to the final ‘My First’ above. Until recently I have been a wine snob when it comes to NC wines due primarily to being exposed to just a few wines from our fair state that held no appeal for me whatsoever. I have bought and consumed wine from primarily the west coast and from a few other countries but have intentionally avoided NC wines because of assumptions I have had. I would ask for your forgiveness now and state wholeheartedly that I was wrong and have found that the wine industry in NC has really come of age and is producing some great wines that easily hold their own in the national and international arena.

I look forward to exploring more of the Yadkin Valley wine region as well as other wine growing areas of the state, tasting great wines, meeting new people and learning more about the industry that I have delved into with my internet business. And I look forward to contributing more on this site as my journey continues.