Wine Pairing Weekend – Summer Whites in Yadkin Valley

The Yadkin Valley Summer Whites event, sponsored by Yadkin County Tourism Development Authority, took place this past weekend, Aug. 25-26, 2018. Being more red wine drinkers, we've attended the Winter Reds event a handful of times but it was now time to help wind down summer with some refreshing whites!

This year's event included 11 wineries and 2 days. Believe it or not, we met some daring wine drinkers who accomplished all 11 wineries in one day. Not us! We decided to take our time and turn this into a weekend getaway. And we are so glad we did.

The Summer Whites event pairs a 2 oz pour of a featured white wine at each winery with a 3 oz food pairing for a $25 fee. It's a great way to visit several wineries and see what they all have to offer.

So, what exciting food pairings did we try? Let’s find out!

Pairing up wines at Laurel Gray, Shadow Springs and Windsor Run Cellars.

Day 1:

We started our tour at Laurel Gray Vineyards. Here we were treated to Mexican street corn pasta paired with pinot gris.

Next, we headed down the road to Shadow Springs Vineyards and enjoyed a serving of meatballs with a golden BBQ glaze and fig sauce paired with a seyval blanc. We have to say, the glaze and fig sauce was quite tasty!

Practically around the corner from Shadow Springs, we came up on Windsor Run Cellars. Here we got a little taste of fall with an apple sausage kabab paired with the winery's apple mead. While there we decided on a tasting of their fortified wines. We had an enjoyable time with our host being sure to keep us on our toes with corny jokes.

Sweets at Dobbins Creek, our ticket for the weekend, pasta salad with traminette at Midnight Magdalena.

We then headed over to Dobbins Creek Vineyards where they were serving up a honey crisp tart paired with its chardonnay. 

It was suppose to be our last stop of the afternoon – as we headed over to Midnight Magdalena Vineyard where we were treated to Mediterranean pasta salad with chicken paired with the 2016 traminette.

At the 4 o’clock hour and the event ending at 5 p.m., we decided to hightail it to one last winery for the afternoon.

We headed over to Brandon Hills Vineyard where they were serving roast chicken sliders with a mango-peach salsa paired with its viognier. This was only our second time visiting Brandon Hill, so we decided to also do a full tasting and had a great time talking with the owner before he had to dash and get ready for a trip to Paris the following day.  

Day 2:

On day 2 with 5 wineries left and only 4 hours to finish them all. Our first stop was at Sanders Ridge Vineyard. Sanders Ridge is also home to Roots Restaurant. The pairing today was blackened salmon tostada with poblano cream sauce, paired with barrel-aged chardonnay. We loved this pairing together, especially the tostada! Yum.

Down the road and to the left, we come up on RagApple Lassie Vineyards where we were served divine liquid center truffles paired with Kaleidoscope Gold. These truffles, filled with, you guessed it – wine, will be a staple there soon. Note: do not bite into the truffle, else you’ll be wearing it.

Sliders, salmon tostadas and a specially-made white chocolate candy.

Our next stop was Sweet Home Carolina Vineyards where we were served corn bread and chicken salad paired with Sweet Dreams. The Sweet Dreams is sweeter wine but paired nicely with the chicken salad and the corn bread was great.

We decided on Cellar 4201 next where we were served lemon pepper grilled chicken skewer paired with a stainless-steel chardonnay. Cellar 4201 was offering $5 tastings along with Summer Whites, so we decided to take them up on their offer since we hadn’t been in a while.  

Our last stop of the day and last stop of Summer Whites was at Flint Hill Vineyards where they paired Hawaiian pizza with Olde Yattken Semi Sweet. We could finally breathe now that we finished all 11 wineries. They, too, were offering $5 tastings so we decided to stick around. The hospitality was top-notch and really enjoyed our time unwining. Before we left, we picked up an extra wood-fired pizza to go and we were back on our way home. 

Cornbread, chicken skewers and pizza ... a nice way to end the weekend.

We truly hate to feel rushed while wine tasting or not patronize these establishments better while we are there, but with 11 wineries and 2 days, we were on a mission. We were, however, grateful that we were able to enjoy some tastings and being able to chat with other patrons and wine owners is always an added bonus. 

This was a perfect way to spend the $25 it cost per ticket. In the two days we got to try 22-ounces of wine, or roughly three-and-a-half glasses of wine, 11 bite-size food pairings and have a relaxing weekend away from the mayhem of home. This was a great way to start our farewell to the summer of 2018.