Brewery Profile: Blowing Rock Brewing Co.

Blowing Rock Brewing Company opened in 2013.

Blowing Rock Brewing Company
152 Sunset Drive, Blowing Rock, NC 28605
Phone: (828) 414-9600
Hours: Monday: 11:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Tuesday: Closed; Wednesday: Closed; Thursday: 11:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Brewery tours available on Saturday from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.   

Blowing Rock Brewing opened in 2013 when Jeff Walker and Todd Rice decided it was time for the town of have its first brewery. Located in the heart of Blowing Rock's downtown community at 152 Sunset Drive, the brewery is also home to a restaurant and an Inn – and is a nice place to stop when exploring the small shops the town has to offer.

In 2014 Blowing Rock Brewing opened another brewery and restaurant facility in Hickory, which is called American Honor Ale House & Restaurant located inside the historic Hollar Mill.

Blowing Rock's beers have been broken up into the Legacy and Ale House series. The Legacy features beers such as its Blowing Rock IPA, High Country Ale and Mountain Shadow Black IPA. While the Ale House series features more selections of stouts, porters, IPAs, Belgium beers and a Barleywine.

We were in Blowing Rock during the weekend of its food and wine festival, SAVOR, and were able to sample a few Blowing Rock beers such as its Big Chocolate Porter, IPA and a brand new release, Ridge Radler grapefruit IPA. While at the brewery we tried the Double IPA along with a Gouda burger and flatbread. We thought the beers were alright, but can always find something to enjoy while kicking back in the restaurant, hanging out at the small bar or out in the back playing a friendly game of corn hole.

If you decide to stay at the Inn, they feature five rooms and all are named after beer terminology such as Stout, Hops, Pint, Amber and Wheat rooms.

While visiting or staying in Blowing Rock, we recommend visiting these other places:

Sunset & Vine | 150 Sunset Drive | A wine store that sells local North Carolina wines and wines from all over the world. Stop in to see if they're doing a free wine tasting.

The Spice & Tea Exchange of Blowing Rock | 1087 Main St. #4 | Reminds us a lot of Raleigh's Savory Spice in Lafayette Village. Tons of spice and rubs for grilling and an assortment of loose teas.

Ugga Mugga Bakery | 1107 Main St. | A new find for us and a pleasant one. Stop in for homemade cakes, muffins, pies and Macaroons. Also grab some coffee while you're there.

Canyons Restaurant | 8960 Valley Blvd. | You have to make your way out of downtown Blowing Rock, but this restaurant has a nice scenic view of the mountains, a good menu, and something we love for dessert called the Chocolate Enchilada, a chocolate crepe filled with chocolate mousse and topped with a chocolate Ganache sauce and whipped cream!

Upcoming 19th Annual 2017 Blowing Rock Winterfest!

Chilly and Crystal are the Winterfest mascots. They're always spotted during the Polar Plunge at Chetola Resort.

Jennifer Primrose | January 15, 2017
Twitter: @TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | Instagram: @trianglearoundtown

The 19th Annual Blowing Rock Winterfest is right around the corner. This annual event, sponsored by the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce, will take place January 26-29, 2017. In addition to the annual events, this year brings even more fun for winter and snow lovers. Blowing Rock just happens to be one of our absolute favorite small towns in North Carolina, and if you have the chance to visit, we highly recommend it.

The first Winterfest took place in January of 1998 after several business owners in the area decided to create a festival to celebrate winter. We attended our first Winterfest back in 2013 and had a great time, especially if you are lucky enough to experience some snowfall while you are there. The festival includes so many great events that just keep evolving over the years and the best part is the money raised all goes to various charities and you cannot beat that!

Related Story: Looking forward to Blowing Rock's 2014 Winterfest!

Here is just a sampling of what you can expect at the 2017 Blowing Rock Winterfest:

• The Polar Plunge
• WinterTastings and Auction at the Green Park Inn
• WinterFest Family Night at Appalachian Ski Mountain
• WinterFeast at Chetola Resort
• Beer and Wine Tastings
• Cork and Canvas Classes
• Silent Auction and Raffle
• Hayrides
• Ice Sculptures
• Bonfire
• WinterFashion Show
• WinterPaws Dog Show
• Pancake Breakfast

Related Story: Wines flow at Green Park Inn's Winterfest wine tasting

And new for 2017:

• First ever Beer Garden! From what I've read, this event will feature local breweries sampling their "Hops and Barley Pops" under the tent at the Inn at Ragged Gardens. It will also feature a new chili challenge with local restaurants competing to beat The Best Cellar's 2016 Chili Champion!

• Appalachian State WinterFest Snowflake Parade featuring the Appalachian State University Mountaineers Football team

• Friday evening, the WinterFest Ice Stroll, where you can take a stroll after dark through Blowing Rock to see all the ice sculptures crafted by Travis Dale, owner of Artisan Ice Sculptures.

If you are looking for some winter weather, weather permitting, or even if you've had enough, come on out to Blowing Rock and "Don't hibernate. Celebrate!"

Click here for the full schedule of events 2017 Blowing Rock WinterFest Schedule of Events

Wine and Food highlights Blowing Rock's SAVOR festival

Biltmore Estate was pouring its wines at the SAVOR Grand Tasting on Saturday, April 22.

By Dathan Kazsuk & Jennifer Primrose | April 26, 2017

Twitter: TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | Instagram: trianglearoundtown

Blowing Rock, North Carolina. A small town in Western Carolina that has a population of roughly 1,200 people. The town is host to annual events, such as its yearly Winterfest which draws in people for its Polar Plunge and wine tasting events. But the town is also home to the food and wine festival known as SAVOR Blowing Rock. Entering its 12th year, this 4-day extravaganza features a handful of food and wine seminars, wine tastings as well as a 5K and a Grand Tasting to end the numerous weekend events. SAVOR welcomes roughly 3,000 attendees each year to sip, savor and learn about the delicacies the event has to offer while taking in the serenity of this quaint mountain town.

Being the wine and beer fans that we are and having attended Winterfest a handful of times we decided it was time to check out this event. Unfortunately, with limited time, we had to plan carefully. So, after perusing the list of events, that range from wine, liquor and beer seminars to restaurant showcases and cooking demonstrations - all ranging from $28 to $125 per person - we finally settled on the Corkscrew and Brew 5K at Chetola Resort and the Grand Tasting event, both taking place on Saturday.

Related Story: Upcoming 19th Annual 2017 Blowing Rock Winterfest

Our adventures began on Friday, arriving in town a little after noon. We decided to head over to Grandfather Winery as we had only been once before and wanted to give it a second try before heading to the Alpine Village Inn to check into our room. GPS decided it would be a wonderful idea to take us on a route that included driving down a gravel mountain road as we prayed GPS would not let us down. We arrived safely and enjoyed our time sampling what Grandfather Winery has to offer. 

Grandfather Winery, Banner Elk, NC

After checking into the Alpine Village Inn and being surprised with a free bottle of wine for staying two nights, we checked out the schedule of evening activities and decided to head over to Sunset and Vine wine shop for a free wine tasting and then to the Sip and Shop Downtown - which featured 21 shops along Blowing Rock's Main Street pouring samples of wine while you shop between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. 

We had a great time at Sunset and Vine chatting with the distributors and Christina from Shelton Vineyards. Next, we headed to Main Street to see what the shops were offering. Unfortunately, we found the Sip and Shop a little disappointing, as many of the shops we checked into were not pouring any wine. We didn't go into every shop, but of the 6 or so we went into, only half had wine or drink readily available for its patrons. The plus is that we discovered some shops we had not yet had the opportunity to check out on our previous visits. We decided to end the night with dinner at Blowing Rock Brewing Company.

Christina with Shelton Winery pours wine inside Sunset and Vine wine shop.

Related Story: Brewery Profile – Blowing Rock Brewing Company

We thought about calling this next section, 'What were we thinking?,' but decided against it. For some reason that we can't quite figure out – not only did we decide to sign up for the Corkscrew and Brew 5K, but also decided to select the beer/wine option because that is what non-runners do. Sign up for a 5K - in the mountains - while drinking. Bucket list item - CHECK! Would we do it again? Probably. To read more about our adventures, check out our Corkscrew blog.

Related Story: SAVOR: Corkscrew and Brew 5K at Chetola Resort

Drinking wine and beer at 9 a.m. while jogging a 5K in the mountains ... it was a bucket list.

We spent the afternoon at the Grand Tasting, held on April 22, that offered patrons an opportunity to sample close to 100 different wines from around the state and U.S. The event also featured other small businesses and distillers who were pouring samples of their favorite poisons.

Some N.C. businesses included Banner Elk Winery, Linville Falls Winery, Crude Bitters, Call Family Distillers, Covington Vodka, Ugga Mugga Bakery and others. While some of the big names in distributors such as The Country Vintner, Fine Wine Trading and Advintage touted some great wines from California and the West Coast.

All in all, we had a great time at our first SAVOR Blowing Rock and look forward to future events and visits to one of our favorite small NC towns.

Looking forward to Blowing Rock's 2014 Winterfest!

TRAVEL

By Dathan Kazsuk | Jan 4, 2014
Twitter: @TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | Instagram: @trianglearoundtown

It was back in 2006 … the first time I visited the small town of Blowing Rock. It was for Jen’s birthday in October, and we went to see North Carolina’s wonderful Fall weather up in the mountains. The amazing autumn colors were very picturesque for my first trip there. We visited The Blowing Rock, where I learned the legend behind the infamous rock. We shopped on the Main Street. We stayed at the historic Green Park Inn, which was built back in the 1880s. The hotel’s Queen Anne Style architecture has seen many historic figures stay the night there, including Annie Oakley, J.D. Rockefeller, Calvin Coolidge and Eleanor Roosevelt – just to name a few.

Since 2006, we’ve been back at least five other times. A Valentine’s Day weekend back at the Green Park Inn. A cold and windy October at the Alpine Village Inn, where we stayed in a corner suite with a indoor jacuzzi. A July gallup through town prior to a friend getting married in Banner Elk. And earlier this year to partake in our first Winterfest, where we stayed at the Ridgeway Inn. Let’s not talk about my car getting stuck in the ice, please!

And now we’re going back in 2014. Jen and I will be going to the annual Winterfest festival on Jan. 24-26, and this time with some good friends of ours. We decided to go back to our favorite – the Green Park Inn. To me, it has some sentimental value attached to the hotel. And they have a great package deal, which includes tickets to the chili challenge and the grand wine tasting held there at the hotel.

There’s also a handful of new places that sprung up since our last visit. The new Blowing Rock Ale House & Restaurant. The new Public House & Hotel. Also a new restaurant inside Green Park, the Chestnut Grille, which is run by executive chef James Welch.

One staple of Blowing Rock which will be dearly missed is Crippen’s. Luckily, this past January we shared a couple beers with friend, and owner of the B&B, Jimmy Crippen.

But it’s a new year! I’m looking forward to spending it with Jen, drinking good wine, having nice meals, possibly signing up for the Polar Plunge, where I’ll give myself a heart attack jumping into the icy cold Chetola Lake. Maybe I can talk my friend Dave into donning a costume and jumping in the lake with me!

Blowing Rock Winterfest: Wine tasting at Green Park Inn

 

A couple tries the 2015 Klinker Brick Tranzind from Fine Wines Trading Company.

By Dathan Kazsuk | January 30, 2018

Twitter: TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | 

Instagram: trianglearoundtown | Pinterest: TriangleAT

It’s probably one our favorite places to stay while in Blowing Rock – the Green Park Inn. We’re both big into history and this historic inn has been part of western Carolina since 1891. It’s actually one of the last grand manor hotels and the state’s second oldest operating resort hotel.

And this is where we find ourselves on this dreary, raining afternoon in Blowing Rock. We sat in the front lobby getting some work done prior to Winterfest’s annual wine tasting and auction. Jen’s taking notes on the laptop of our previous night, while on the iPad, I check out our daily page views for the day. It’s around 2 p.m. and we have an hour before the tasting actually takes place. One by one we start seeing the wineries and distributors make their way through the white double doors of the hotel. Set up has commenced.

The old hotel baggage cart, which has seen better days, is going above and beyond helping the vendors situate wine in either the tea room, library or the inn’s history museum. The lobby starts to fill up. The mix of vendors and wine drinkers start to blend together. You can see the anticipation start to build. We’re going to have an incredible January, I think to myself, page view wise. And then simultaneously we sense someone approach us.

As we both look up, we notice that Diana Jones, co-owner of Jones von Drehle has caught us hard at work. Well, by this time I was done working and actually playing Ballz on the iPad. “Hey guys. Nice to see you here,” Jones says. She knew we were in town, as a few Instagram and Facebook comments made that clear. She had more setting up to do, so our talk was short, but promised to catch up once the tasting was in full swing. T-minus 15 minutes and counting.

By this time we already had our green wristbands on, and decided to check in to receive our wine glasses. We also picked up our wine tasting guide and looked it over. Jones von Drehle. Linville Falls. Banner Elk Winery. Grandfather Vineyards. All ones we’ve been to in the past. In the distribution world, Tryon and Fine Wine Trading were here as well. It’s nice having NC wines, but it’s also good to sample nectar from other parts of the world.

We formed a game plan, which we usually do for any tastings or events. We are usually very organized and efficient when it comes to things like this. We decided to start towards the back, while everyone else hits up the tea room and museum first. And that paid off for us. It was still around 10 minutes before the tasting was to officially begin, but the women over at Linville Falls were already set up and ready to pour. So it begins.

THE WINES

Beginning with the Riesling we made our way through the three wines Linville Falls had to offer. The other two being a Merlot and a sweet blackberry wine. Out of the three we both preferred the blackberry as our favorite, but from there, Jen thought the Riesling was second, while I put it behind the Merlot. But everything we tasted was pretty good.

Our next stop was suppose to be Fine Wine Trading Company, since they were set up in the library as well, but since the guy wasn't ready yet, we thought it was time to go talk to Diana. There we tried the four wines she was pouring – a white, a rosé and two reds, including the recent award-winning Cabernet Franc. There was no need to take any notes here, since we haven't had a wine produced by this winery that we didn't like – maybe that explains why we are wine club members.

Next, as far as North Carolina wines go, we paid a visit to Grandfather Vineyards, Lake James Cellars and finally Banner Elk Winery. Each winery offered up four to five samples for drinkers to try. There were some hits and misses in sampling all these wines – at least for us. Grandfather's Vidal Blanc was a nice semi-dry white that we both enjoyed, but we thought the reds tasted a tad too tart and had an almost "chemical" aftertaste that didn't settle well with us. At Banner Elk we liked the white blend and thought the blueberry wine was the best of the bunch. We really wanted to like the Cabernet Sauvignon (one of our favorite varietals), but thought the wine poured from the bottle tasted more like fruit punch.

Our next stop was at the Wine to Water table. We were slightly familiar with the concept behind this nonprofit charity, as we've had contact with them in the past back in Raleigh. So it was nice to see them at Green Park pouring a collection of wines that included a Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Chardonnay. All the grapes were donated to the organization from California to help makes these wines. Our favorite here was the Zin. We decided to pick up some more info on the organization, since we think this could be a great fundraising event for the wine club we manage back at home.

We followed Wine to Water up with the two distributors – Fine Wines and Tryon. At Fine Wine we sampled the 2015 Antucura Malbec and Klinker Brick Tranzind. Both were nice bold red wines that left the right amount of dark fruit, tannins and spice on the tongue. Although both were good, we both agreed that the Klinker Brick was our favorite here.

As we made our way over to the museum room to try what Tryon had to offer, we knew we were going to come across a problem. Either this was just the popular room or maybe the room was just too small – but a mass crowd of people were stationary in the middle of the room. And if that wasn't enough, a couple gentlemen anchored themselves right in front of the servers, not moving a muscle until they were done with the 7 wines. Hey all, it's called "wine tasting etiquette 101." While you are sipping on that wine in your glass and you feel that breath of hot air on the back of your neck as people wait behind you to taste as well – move over to the side! 

Due to a few of these non-considerate souls, we were not able to finish the entire collection of wines that day. But we did try some of the better reds that were being poured. The Areyna Malbec was a good wine, and we were told that this wine won't be hitting bottle shops here in North Carolina until sometime in mid-February. But our favorite was the Elouan Pinot Noir from Oregon. Elouan is the idea of Chuck Wagner's son, Joe. And if you are unfamiliar with the Wagner family and its long line of fine wines – let me hit you with a couple words: Caymus. Conundrum. Mer Soleil. To name a few.

Related Story: 
Caymus Vineyards Webcast Tasting in Raleigh 
Virtual wine tasting with Chuck Wagner of Caymus Vineyards

Finally it was time to hit up the only distillery that was there for the tasting – Asheville's H&H Distilling. They supplied small thimble-size samples of two of the distilleries products, a gin and a rum. I love my rum, and this Hazel 63 Rum was pretty good, but the Hwy. 9 Gin was the bomb. And I'm not a fan of the taste of Juniper berries, but this was the perfect fusion of berries, lime and other spices that made this one of the highlights of my tasting.


THE AUCTION

Next came the fun and exciting live auction part of the evening. We have been a part of Winterfest's past – at least 3 other times – and we usually walk away with something to replenish our inventory. In previous years a huge assortment of bitters, sparkling wines and California reds have made the trek from Blowing Rock back to Raleigh. So we were anxious to see what was in store for us this year.

With our wine glasses filled, courtesy of a bottle we had in our upstairs room, we grabbed a paddle and waited for the auction to begin. A total of 30 lots were ready for the highest bidder. We were actually seated next to a couple from Raleigh, and decided not to bid against one another. We did have one caveat ... if one of us won the bid for the private in-home wine and Riedel seminar for 10 ... we had to invite the others. Deal. But that was short lived as this lot went for a lot more than both of us were comfortable spending.

Other items that went to the highest bidders included a magnum of 2012 Burly Cabernet Sauvignon; a 90 points-plus California wine package that included Robert Foley, Andrew Murray, Klinker Brick and Burly; and a 3-night stay at Palm Coast Villas in Florida. This is the first time since we've been coming to Winterfest that we didn't walk out of the auction with an item. But we had a great time as always.

Related Story: Wines flow at Green Park Inn's 2014 Winterfest wine tasting

Wines flow at Green Park Inn's Winterfest wine tasting

By Dathan Kazsuk | Jan 28, 2014

Twitter: @TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | Instagram: @trianglearoundtown

It's Blowing Rock. It's Winterfest. It's a lot of wine at one of our favorite places to stay – The Green Park Inn.

The 16th Annual Winterfest Wine Tasting, which is presented by the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the Blue Ridge Mountain Club is the perfect chance to mingle with other wine lovers and try a wide variety of reds, whites and sparklings. And you are getting your drink on for a good cause – as proceeds of the tasting and live auction goes towards helping out the Western NC Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.

With 60 wines available to sample … what was our plan? Start with all the whites available, then double-back for the reds? Go from whites to reds at each vendors table? Just go with the reds? We ended up picking the latter – and did half the wines – which ended up being around 30 samples of red vino.

So we started our wine-drinking adventure in the Garden Room. The Garden Room is hidden on the other side of the restaurant – so Jen came to the conclusion that this would be the best place to start. In that room was the Raleigh-based wine distributor, Juice Wine Purveyors. There we went down the list of red wines:

• Allamand 2012 Malbec, Valle de Uco Argentina
• Highflyer 2009 Centerline Red, Napa Valley
• Pennywise 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon, California
• Rusina 2010 Symposia Red, California
• Sivas Sonoma 2009 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
• Three 2012 Zinfandel, Contra Costa County
• Verso Rosso 2012 Red Blend, Salento IGT Italy

We weren’t too impressed with the first set of wines. The Malbec had a very strange taste. The Pennywise light-bodied Cabernet was somewhat mediocre. Even the Rusina 2010 Cab blend wasn’t something to write home about. I hope this wasn’t a taste of things to come.

Don’t worry … it wasn’t.

Next were the wines in the Tea Room. Skyland, Fine Wine Trading Company and Constellation Brands were the three distributors in this room. There we tried the following:

• Carnivor 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, California
• Don Miquel Gascon 2012 Colossal Red, Columbia Valley
• Emerald Bay 2010 Merlot, Central Coast
• Anderson Conn Valley 2010 Prologue Cabernet Sauvignon, California
• Casarena 505 2012 Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina
• Ramsey 2012 Pinot Noir, North Coast
• Tait 2011 “Ballbuster” Shiraz, Barossa Valley
• Wild Horse 2012 Pinot Noir, Central Coast
• Robert Mondavi 2011 Pinot Noir, California

Live Auction following the Wine Tasting

This batch of wines had some nice standouts for the price. The Tait “Ballbuster” was by far our favorite. Normally selling for $20.25, one was able to purchase bottles for $16.75 that afternoon. We also enjoyed the Anderson Conn Valley Cab and the Ramsey Pinot Noir.  

Now it's back to the Divide Tavern for wines from Raffaldini Winery and Tryon Distributing. We tried the two red wines from Raffaldini – the 2011 Sangiovese and Montepulciano reserves.

The guy pouring for Tyron was a good sport. Originally he was going to set up at the bar, but there were too many people – doing what you do at a bar – drinking! So they moved him to a table between the men’s and women’s restrooms. There we tried four reds:

• CH Les Granges 2011 Red Blend, Bordeaux, France
• Legend of the Vine 2012 Vermentinu, France
• Line 39 Pinot Noir 2012, Central Coast
• Writer’s Block 2012 Counoise, Lake County

The Writer’s Block had mixed reviews from us. I thought the counoise grape gave this wine a unique flavor, while Jen wasn’t too happy with the taste. Probably our favorite at this table was the Vermentinu from France.

Then it was off to the History Room with The Country Vintner behind the table. This room kept pretty busy the over fifteen different wines to select from, and only one distributor pouring for the patrons. Just like all the other rooms, we stuck to the red wines and had the following:

• Besson 2011 Givry Haut Columbier Pinot Noir, France
• Clos Cannon 2007 St. Emillion Gran Cru, France
• La Fleur d’Or 2011 Sauterne, France
• Vinaceous Red Right Hand 2011 Shiraz/Grenache, McLaren Vale
• Vinaceous Snake Charmer 2011 Shiraz, McLaren Vale
• Vinaceous VooDoo Moon 2012 Malbec, Australia

So in the end, I didn’t quite sample half … but almost. In the two hours the event was held I sampled 26 wines. Next step is to see if my local wine shops can order a handful of the ones I really enjoyed.

Cheers.

Celebrating Raleigh’s Culinary Appetite at the Raleigh Food & Wine Festival

LOCAL FEATURE

By Jennifer Primrose | May 30, 2016
Twitter: @TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | Instagram: @trianglearoundtown

What do you think of when you think of Raleigh? Of course, we’re the "City of Oaks,"  and the state Capitol – not to mention our craft beer scene seems to be exploding. But what about Raleigh as a foodie destination? Asheville is well known not just as a foodie-locale, but also a craft beer mecca in the state. Plus, Southern Living magazine has named Durham “The South’s Tastiest Town.” In Western Carolina, Blowing Rock hosts the Blue Ridge Food & Wine Festival, now called SAVOR Blowing Rock.

However, the scene appears, to yours truly, to have picked up a little recognition in the past couple of years here in the Triangle. There are increasing wine dinners centered around the annual Triangle Wine Experience and beer dinners have been springing up left and right just in time for NC Beer month as well as Raleigh Beer week. We have Restaurant weeks with special 3- or 4-course meals hosted by select local restaurants. Could it finally be that Raleigh is on its way to being mentioned in the same vein as Asheville, Charlotte or even Durham as a food destination?

Related: Triangle Wine Experience celebrates 22 years of fundraising

On Sunday, May 22, the second annual Raleigh Food and Wine Festival grand “tasting celebration” took place at Babylon Restaurant and Melrose Knitting Mill. This is actually a four-day event with food and beverage events taking place across Raleigh, which included Mandolin, Lucettegrace, Midtown Grille, Plates, Rye Southern Kitchen, Babylon and many others. The four-day event concluded with the Grand Tasting on Sunday.


We were fortunate to attend this event for the second year now. There were several food vendors from places such as 18 Seaboard, Babylon, Dos Taquitos, Lucettegrace, Café Helios, Midtown, Oro, Rye Southern Kitchen – the list goes on and on! Click here for the full list of vendors who took part in the event. They served up dishes in the likes of samosas, shrimp and cucumber salad, Reuben sliders, fresh-made macaroons and shrimp and grits topped with deep-fried okra.

As we traversed our way downstairs, and then upstairs sampling food, we also had the opportunity to sample wine. There were at least five vendors sampling or pouring wine, some glasses but mostly samples. We enjoyed wines from Ararat Import, Fair Game Beverage, Queen of Wines, Raleigh Wine Shop and Sanctuary Winery. The wines from Queen of Wines, Gem Wines from France, were fantastic – enough for us to pick up a bottle and, due to my “hobby” of visiting NC wineries, I was intrigued to try Sanctuary. I made an assumption with this winery being located in the Outer Banks that I would be trying the sweet, Muscadine wine that I do not care for. I was pleasantly surprised by the dry wines the vendor was pouring and we are now hoping to visit the winery at some point in the near future.

In addition to wine, as the event so aptly refers to ... do not let that fool you! Also in attendance were Bulleit Bourbon, Crude Bitters, Ketel One Vodka, Raleigh Rum Company, Nickelpoint Brewing and the Raleigh Beer Garden. I’m sure I left someone out!

So, everything from wine to liquor, appetizers to meal samples with a little dessert in between!  If you haven’t been, and decide next year is your year. A word of advice – come hungry! Mark my works, you will leave full!