First Vineyard/Winery Visit

Yesterday we finally had a fun day in class after nearly a week of presentations (not that the presentations were bad, it was just long and tedious. We went to Green Creek Winery, a small winery located just over the border in North Carolina.All the wines made there are estate wines, which means the grapes are grown there, pressed and fermented there, and the wine is even bottled there. The winery's little claim to fame is that it is the only place in the world that makes a red champagne. The owner had the idea of letting chardonnay must (the grape juice that makes wine) mix with the skins of Chambourcin grapes (a grape that has very red skins high in pigment content) at low temperatures so the color but not the flavor of the Chambourcins would be added to the chardonnay. It was pretty good.
They had a whole cute little set up in the back for us with food (though it wasn't a wine pairing/tasting). We tasted 5 wines, and my favorite was the 2008 Chambourcin semi-sweet rose. (I bought a bottle to drink this weekend once I'm finally done with class work! Hooray!!!)