Helpful Tips to Celebrate N.C. Wine Month

Burntshirt Vineyards in Hendersonville, North Carolina

By Jennifer Primrose

Twitter: TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | Instagram: trianglearoundtown | Pinterest: TriangleAT | Email: trianglearoundtown@gmail.com

*Note: Originally published for 2017 N.C. Wine Month, this blog has been modified and updated.

N.C. Wine month is celebrated during the month of September.  Are you looking for ways to celebrate? Are you new to discovering wine or what the state has to offer? Are you an experienced N.C. wine connoisseur, but looking for something different and unique to do? We hope to have you covered with our ways to celebrate this month.

TAKE A DAY TRIP

Gather up your friends and discover what this state has to offer when it comes to wineries and head out for a day-trip, or even a weekend getaway, and visit all the wineries in a wine trail. Check out ncwine.org for some wine trail recommendations.

Tip: Know before you go! If you have a discriminating palate or know that you are strictly a sweet wine drinker or a dry wine drinker, do your homework before you venture out for a more enjoyable experience. Or, if you are an adventurous wine drinker, be sure to try all the winery has to offer. You never know, you may find a new favorite!

Related Story: Raleigh Wine club visits the Swan Creek Vineyards

ASK A WINEMAKER TO SIGN A BOTTLE OF WINE

If you are fortunate enough while visiting your favorite, or new favorite, winery, inquire if the winemaker or owner is around and ask him or her to sign a bottle for you. This makes for a great souvenir!

Tip:  We always have a wine bottle pen marker on hand just in case the opportunity arises.

Jones von Drehle's winemaker Dan Tallman signs a bottle.

PACK A PICNIC

Pack a picnic and head out to your favorite winery with the best scenery, buy a bottle of wine and relax in a beautiful setting. Many wineries also host local musicians on the weekends. Check out this blog from NC Wine Guys on Wineries Perfect for Summer Picnicking.

Tip: Several wineries sell picnic items and/or may have a food truck on site. Be sure to look for Carronni's Handcrafted Creations. They do pita crackers, cheese wafers, stone ground and dijon mustards and other items perfect for that winery themed picnic. You can find their products in several wineries across the state.

Related Story:  Carronni's Hand Crafted Creations have N.C. wineries in mind

Related Story:  Music In The Vineyard ... Featuring James Vincent Carroll

Take a picnic out to one of N.C.'s 120-plus wineries.

GOOD OLE FASHION GRAPE STOMP

If you want to get up close and personal with the grapes, participate in a grape stomp. Wineries such as Gregory Vineyards in Angier, Duplin Winery in Rose Hill, Cypress Bend Vineyards in Wagram, Treehouse Vineyards in Monroe and even Childress Winery in Lexington all host grape stomps and Harvest Festivals.

Tip: Check the winery website for event information before you go, some may be ticketed events. Many have fun events scheduled throughout the day such as Lucy look-a-like contests, arts & crafts vendors, food, music, winery tours and tastings. Fun for the whole family!

Grape Stomp at Duplin Winery in Rose Hill          Photo c/o Duplin Winery

 TAKE A TOUR

Take a winery or vineyard tour to see exactly what takes place from grape to bottle. Some wineries offering tours are Shelton Vineyards in Dobson, Childress Winery in Lexington, Biltmore Winery in Asheville, Duplin Winery in Rose Hill, Treehouse Vineyards in Monroe - to name just a few. Check out ncwine.org for more wineries with this option.

Tip: Some wineries only do tours on certain days and times. To avoid disappointment, check out the winery website ahead of time. The tours can be very interesting and informative. Get the most out of the experience.

JOIN A WINE CLUB

Joining a wine club is a great way to enjoy your favorite North Carolina wine all year round as well as being a part of special perks and benefits that members get along the way. 

Tip: Most wineries do offer wine clubs. Be sure to look over the perks and decide what is best for you. Typically, a wine club shipment would consist of 3 bottles every quarter, 6 bottles twice a year or 2 bottles every other month. In other words, a case a year! And many wineries, if not all, will ship your wines to you or even hold your wines until you are able to make the trip back for pick up. 

Piccione Winery Wine Club Installment

HOST A TASTING

Host a local North Carolina wine tasting with friends. After visiting your favorite wineries, or discovering new ones, pick up a couple of bottles and have friends over for a themed evening of wine and BBQ. Why not throw in a Raleigh beer or two to also celebrate Raleigh Beer Week, coming up in late September.

Tip: If you are doing a more "formal" tasting, do your homework on the wines you plan to open. This way you will be able to talk about the wine and shine in front of your friends with your knowledge of the N.C. wine industry.

Related Story: Going Local with NC Wines and Raleigh Beers

Triangle Around Town's wine club, the Falls River Wine Club in Raleigh.

SHARE YOUR NORTH CAROLINA WINE ADVENTURES WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

As you go out and explore NC Wine country, share your photos with us on social media. Be sure to use the hashtags #NCWine, #NCWineMonth, #DrinkLocal, #GotToBeNC and #TriangleAroundTown. You can find Triangle Around Town on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram ... and recently even on Pinterest!

Shadow Springs Vineyard

Nothing Can Be Finer: Wine and Beer to be served at NC State Fair

The N.C. State Fair is right around the corner, Oct. 12-22, and this year there is some exciting news for wine and craft beer drinkers. North Carolina Commissioner, Steve Troxler, announced Tuesday, Aug. 29 at the Kickoff to N.C. Wine month event, that for the first time, the State Fair will allow flights of craft beer and wine to be purchased. 

And, on more exciting news, they are building a new facility, the Our State Public House at Heritage Circle, sponsored by Our State magazine. The new location will include 40 breweries and 40 wineries from across the state. So no more hiking over to the Horse complex to sample wine or beer, although there will still be some available for sampling only at this location. 

Each wine or beer tasting flight will contain four samples – wine will be 1.5 oz. each and beer will be 4 oz. Tickets are $10 and will be sold from noon until 8:30 p.m. One ticket per person and IDs will be checked.

We were so excited to hear this news and looks like we'll be heading to the State Fair again this year after all. The new Public House is a partnership between N.C. Craft Brewers Guild and the N.C. Wine and Grape Council.

Celebrate 2017 N.C. Wine & Grape Month

By Jennifer Primrose

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

September is N.C. Wine Month. It's time to celebrate all North Carolina has to offer when it comes to wine. And 2017 has certainly been good to the state's wineries. Several wineries brought home some bling from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition earlier this year, which included Biltmore Estate, Jones von Drehle, Mountain Brook Vineyards, Raffaldini Vineyards and Winery and Sanctuary Vineyards.

Several wineries also found themselves celebrating wins at the inaugural N.C. Fine Wines competition with "Best in Show" and "Best Red Vinifera" going to Raffaldini Vineyards and Winery for its 2014 Montepulciano Reserve.

Related Story: N.C. wineries win awards in largest American-made wine competition               

A huge collaboration leapt onto the scene with two of the state's finest winemakers joining forces. Some newer wineries, such as Roaring Rivers Vineyards, Midnight Magdalena and Westbend Winery and Brewery, are all buzzing with activity - and in the Fall of 2016, UNC-TV debuted "From the Vineyard," highlighting local wineries and vineyards with host Lisa Prince. The show also features certified Sommelier, Henk Schuitemaker, joining in with a "Tasting Room" segment in each episode.

Related Story: Autumn in N.C. Wine Country welcomes two new wineries in 2016

Westbound Winery in Lewisville, N.C.

Midnight Magdalena in Jonesville, N.C.

As for Triangle Around Town, we continue to make our way out to as many wineries as we can, paying a visit to our favorites and exploring those we have yet to discover.

This year, we once again took part in the Yadkin Valley Winter Reds and Herb Fest of Swan Creek. We were fortunate to attend the unveiling of RaRa Sisboombah, the collaboration wine between Raffaldini and Jolo, which we plan on opening later this month. We even ran the Shelton Vineyards Running the Vines 5K and stopped by the Yadkin Valley Wine Festival in Elkin that same weekend. In August, we attended the Riedel Varietal Wine Tasting at Hanover Park where Dathan and I had to settle an argument once and for all - does the glass really make the wine taste different?

Related Story: Made in Heaven? N.C. winemakers blend award winning wines in collaboration

Yadkin Valley Winter Reds 2017 
at Ragapple Lassie

We always have a great time exploring the state with all of these vineyards and love seeing all the great events happening with the wine industry. Follow along with us this month as we explore the different wine regions, grapes and types of wine, wine trails, events and anything else we can think of.

Cheers!

Felicia Trujillo's passion leads to cuisine brilliance

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH ...

Food-Seen's Felicia Trujillo.

 By Dathan Kazsuk

Felicia Trujillo was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Going to Pepperdine University in Malibu, she received her Bachelor's Degree in history with a minor in art, as well as a Master's in business. 

Photography for Felicia had always been a hobby of hers, and eventually she started doing photo shoots here and there to make extra cash during grad school. That eventually led to her shooting for local events and weddings in LA's premier wedding venues. Then in 2013, she decided to make a move across the country, and along with her husband, Max, they moved to Raleigh.

Once in Raleigh, Max quickly found a gig running Midtown Grille, and that led to Felicia taking photos in and around the kitchen at the restaurant. Instantly, she fell in love with food photography and engaging with the chefs and the dishes they created. She then started taking over Midtown's social media accounts and website. The passion was continuing to grow, and out of that passion came her own business, Food-Seen, which was created in 2014.

We recently caught up with Felicia, whose boutique marketing firm offers photography, social media management and website design for the food, beverage and tabletop industry in North Carolina. 

In today's world of social media and smart phones, just about everyone with a phone and an Instagram account think they're a "food photographer." What exactly are your thoughts on this, especially being a professional photographer? There's a time and a place for everything. Taking great food pics and using them on social media is a great way to promote your food business or to promote a business you're a fan of, but there's just some things that cannot be captured by a phone. The control of light, composition, focal length, details and the dish's story cannot be truly mastered without using those tools made available by professional equipment and a true understanding of food. 

If you have a business and want to brand your business as a quality food product, you have to invest in the quality of your content as well. You want to tell your potential customers that this food product is as amazing as the picture tells you it is. If you have an amazing food product and poor imagery of your product, you're sending a confusing message.

Tell us some of the local clients you have worked with in the past, and how they came to contact you? You have shot for Replacements Ltd in McLeansville and even photographed Jamie DeMent's latest cookbook, The Farmhouse Chef. All of my projects come to me via word of mouth – that includes social media, referrals and networking face-to-face. I have had the opportunity to work with so many incredible people and businesses in the community. In addition to the aforementioned, I have worked with Vietri, Southern Foods, Bauscher Hepp, MRC Creative, Durham Distillery, Treforni Pizza and several other food businesses and restaurants in North Carolina.

What's the hardest part of being a food photographer? Having to eat or not eat all the food you are taking photos of? The hardest aspect of photographing food is helping clients to understand the cost, production and value of the final product. All the other stuff is super fun and easy for me. I don't typically eat on set and am willing to take some risks to get the right shot ... within reason.

Rounding back to the challenge ... I can show up at a mom and pop shop with just a camera and a good window, shoot as many dishes as I can in an hour and be done. The images will be really good and the client hasn't had to spend too much money. Conversely, I can create an entire set with stylists, props, assistants, lighting, etc. The cost would be thousands of dollars a day, and the images would be amazing in terms of concept and quality. And then you have everything in between. A client's vision doesn't always match what they can and are willing to pay.

How physically or mentally demanding is a job as a food photographer? I guess depending on the clients and jobs, you can be running all around the state to shoot at a location. It can be both physically and mentally demanding. It really comes down to what the project is, where it is and if I can bring in a team for support. Typically, I have really amazing clients that know my style and let me do my thing. 

I have shot fish in giant refrigerators, hung from cherry pickers in a warehouse, sweated behind the line in a kitchen, shot a fall scene outside in 100 degree weather and sat in a chair hitting the shutter release from my laptop after the stylist staged a scene. It's the variety of projects that keeps it so fun and interesting.

Let's do a two part questions here. 1) What advice would you give to anyone looking to get into the business and 2) What would you say is the hardest type of food to photograph? There are so many photographers in the digital camera age. In order to stand out from the crowd, you have to be authentic, and leverage that to create relationships. That's how you get the business. You also have to work very hard at building your portfolio. If you photograph food because it's a popular thing to do, it will translate and reflect in the quality of the work.

The hardest food to shoot ... anything that's primarily brown and orange or anything that's taco like (i.e. soft shell tacos, arepas or gyros). It's difficult to showcase the ingredients because the item is floppy and the ingredients are hidden inside. Adding a green garnish or spice to a bland colored food works miracles.

Riedel wine glasses spotlight red wines at N.C.'s Hanover Park

WINE & WINERIES

Riedel's Doug Cohn, left, teaches a class of roughly 30 wine drinkers at Hanover Park, owned by Amy and Michael Helton. Hanover Park is located in Yadkinville, North Carolina.

By Dathan Kazsuk

It's been a bone of contention in the Triangle Around Town household for years now. Do Riedel glasses actually change the taste of wine? I always tell people that I've drank wine from one side of the U.S. to the other. I've drank a lot of great stuff, but I've never seen one glass that can make me believe there's one all-powerful glass that can miraculously change the DNA of a liquid inside a bottle of wine.

This originally was going to be Jen's blog, but we decided that I am in the minority on this subject, we decided I should take the reigns to prove my point.

Related Story: Warning! Riedel glassware may effect wines taste and smell ... in a GOOD way!

I'm so use to hearing people say "My Riedel glass totally changed the taste of my wine!" Buzz ... Wrong! No glass, unless it's God's chalice, can change the DNA structure of a wine. 

But then, after a Riedel varietal red wine tasting at Hanover Park Vineyards, Jen and I finally think we're on the same page. Using words such as perception, intensified and muted, Riedel's Northeast Regional Sales Manager, Doug Cohn, helped the two of us come to a mutual conclusion.

The wine does indeed taste different, due to the glassware – but unlike people thinking the glass changes the DNA structure of the grape, we learned that each glass is designed around the DNA structure of the grape. So in other words, the wine glass, your olfactory system hard at work and a lot of perception – makes the wine's palatableness appear to change.

Doug seemed to do a great job at helping everyone understand. "The vessel you put your wine in ... the shape, the size, the design of the glass ... makes a difference in how you perceive it," he says. Most people don't know this, but your wine glass can be the least expensive, but most important wine tool in your household.

During our 90-minute tasting and educational class, we experimented with three of Hanover Park's red wines, taken straight out of the oak barrels for the event. While seated in the winery with around 30 other wine drinkers, we sampled a Mourvedre, a red blend (Michael's Blend) as well as a Chambourcin. One by one, pouring each sample in its proper wine glass, as well as the other two glasses on the table, we noticed how everyone's perceptions changed, wine after wine.

Taken straight out of the barrels, we sampled three red wines at Hanover Park's Riedel red wine tasting.

From left to right, right to left, we noticed that each wine was either more or less intense as we went down the line. All three of the wines had a long finish, which typically means the wines are good – at least in my opinion. And that held true, particularly with the last wine we tried ... the Chambourcin.

At the end of the event, Hanover's co-founder, Amy Helton asked me if my thoughts have changed. I explained to her that they haven't changed, but that I see the new way of looking at this subject. If people only said that their wine  seems to taste different, due to the intricate design of these fine crystal wine goblets – I might be fine with the response.

As I noted to Helton, at one point you even said one of the wines tasted better ... "because [Doug] told me that it should in this glass."

Riedel does craft one of the best wine glasses around, hence us having an immense collection at home. And I do admit that these glasses can make sometimes even the cheapest of wines seem a little more palatable. Just watch how you describe your wine in a glass to me in the future.