Author: Ashe County Livery

Botanist & Barrel’s Asheville outpost is a small, playful downtown tasting bar and bottle shop at 32 Broadway St — the city cousin of a farm and winery based hours away in Cedar Grove, NC, near Durham. The Asheville location is self-described as “the nerdiest bar in the South,” and it’s built for exactly the kind of unhurried afternoon or evening that makes a chauffeured stop worthwhile: no rush to get anywhere else, flights of natural cider and wine, and a menu of local cheese, charcuterie and tinned fish rather than a full dinner.

A Farm-First Story, Told from Two Cities

Botanist & Barrel was founded in 2017 by siblings Lyndon and Kether Smith along with Kether’s husband, Deric McGuffey, on a family farm property in Cedar Grove, NC — a rural community outside Hillsborough, closer to Durham than to Asheville. Kether Smith’s path into cidermaking started with kombucha and fermented vegetables before she picked up wine and cider skills, including a cider certificate program at Cornell University; Deric grew up farming in rural Georgia. The trio describe the brand’s mission as making wine and cider that “tastes like the South” — built from local fruit rather than imported juice, and using old-world, minimal-intervention techniques like spontaneous fermentation. Botanist & Barrel calls itself the South’s first natural cidery and the first in the Southeast to make pét-nat (pétillant naturel) style ciders, a French method that predates Champagne-style carbonation. The company’s Asheville tasting bar and bottle shop opened its doors in downtown Asheville in mid-2021, giving the brand a second, more urban home base separate from the working farm in Cedar Grove. (Sources: Botanist & Barrel “About” page; newsoforange.com reporting on the Cedar Grove opening; Asheville food news coverage of the 2021 Asheville opening.)

What’s Pouring

The Asheville bar’s focus is squarely on the glass: a rotating selection of cider flights and wine flights, plus local craft beer and non-alcoholic options for anyone not drinking. Botanist & Barrel’s ciders and wines under the DeFi Wines label lean into heirloom apples, muscadine grapes, and foraged or farmed fruit like blueberries and cherries, made unfiltered, gluten-free, and without pasteurization. Signature releases have included pét-nat ciders with a fine natural sparkle, a Spanish-style cider called Curate, and carbonic muscadine pét-nat wines — small-batch, funky, and intentionally different from a standard grocery-store cider or wine. Curated tasting flights at the Asheville bar have run roughly $18–$28 depending on the flight, and you can also build your own. (Sources: Botanist & Barrel Asheville tasting bar FAQ; CiderScene coverage of the brand’s pét-nat and Spanish-style releases.)

The Setting: A Small, Playful Downtown Bar

Unlike a farm tasting room, the Asheville location is an indoor storefront bar with bar seating, small tables, and larger tables that can seat parties up to six without a reservation; larger groups are asked to reserve ahead. Outside food is allowed if you want to bring in takeout, on top of the bar’s own boards of local cheese, charcuterie and tinned fish. The bar hosts a regular events calendar that has included weekly Friday night wine tastings, chef pop-ups, live music and comedy — it functions as much as a low-key evening hangout as a tasting stop. (Source: Botanist & Barrel Asheville tasting bar FAQ.)

What Else Is Nearby

Being right on Broadway in downtown Asheville means Botanist & Barrel’s tasting bar is walkable to a dense strip of other Asheville restaurants, bars and shops — this is a stop you fold into a walking evening downtown rather than a standalone drive. If your day includes other Henderson County cider and wine stops like Bold Rock Cidery, plan Botanist & Barrel’s Asheville bar as an evening cap to the day rather than a midday tasting, since the vibe here is more bar-and-bites than vineyard tour.

Planning Your Visit

From Boone, the drive to downtown Asheville is roughly two hours, making this a full-day trip rather than a short outing — most High Country groups pair it with daytime stops at wineries or cideries further out (Mills River, Fairview, or Henderson County) and end the day downtown at Botanist & Barrel. Current hours have run from around 1pm to 8 or 9pm most days, with slightly later closes on Friday and Saturday, but confirm directly with the Asheville bar before you go since restaurant and bar hours shift. Because seating for parties larger than six requires a reservation, larger groups should plan ahead and book a table before arriving. Note that the winery and working farm most of Botanist & Barrel’s marketing describes is in Cedar Grove, NC near Durham — several hours from Asheville — so if you’re picturing vineyard rows, this downtown stop is the tasting bar and bottle shop, not the farm itself.

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Bold Rock Cidery’s Mills River, NC location is the operation’s much larger sibling site — a full production cidery, brewpub-style restaurant, and outdoor Cider Garden about 20 minutes south of downtown Asheville. Where the original Virginia cider barn started as a hunch on a Nelson County farm, Mills River is where Bold Rock became, by its own account, the largest independently owned cider company in the country. If you want a working-farm feel with a full kitchen, live music, and room for a group to spread out, this is the more turnkey option among the wineries and cideries around Asheville.

How a Virginia Farm Became a National Cider Brand

Bold Rock was founded in June 2012 by John Washburn and Brian Shanks — Washburn a Virginia farm owner who’d bought land on the Rockfish River in Nelson County back in the mid-1980s, and Shanks a New Zealand-born cider expert with decades of production experience. Washburn had been mulling a cidery on his farm since around 2009; teaming up with Shanks turned the idea into an actual production facility, and the pair opened their first “cider barn” in Nellysford, Virginia in 2012. The North Carolina expansion followed a few years later: Bold Rock announced plans to build in Henderson County in 2014, broke ground on a site that had been a corn field, and opened the Mills River cidery to the public in October 2015. (Sources: boldrock.com “Our Story”; Ashvegas reporting on the Mills River groundbreaking and opening; Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development.)

What’s on Tap

The Mills River taproom pours the range of Bold Rock’s core hard ciders — from dry and crisp styles to sweeter, fruit-driven ones — made from apples sourced from Henderson County orchards, which supply a large share of North Carolina’s apple crop. All of the cider is gluten-free. Because Mills River is also a full brewery site, the taps extend beyond cider into craft beer from sister brands under the same corporate umbrella, including Southern Tier Brewing Company, Sixpoint Brewing Company and Victory Brewing Company — so a group with mixed preferences (cider drinkers and beer drinkers) isn’t stuck choosing one venue over the other. The kitchen, run as the “Bold Bites Mobile Kitchen,” serves a from-scratch food menu built to pair with the drink list, and outside food isn’t permitted since the on-site kitchen covers that need. (Source: millsriver.boldrock.com “Our Story” and FAQ pages.)

The Setting: A Working Cidery with Room to Spread Out

Bold Rock’s Mills River site sits on farmland in the fertile bottomland around the Mills River area, and the property is built around an expansive outdoor Cider Garden with a band shell and picnic tables — a setup one local reviewer described as having “brewery vibes” more than a formal tasting room, with plenty of room for kids to run and dogs on leashes at nearly every table. The taproom offers views into the production floor and bottling line, so you can watch part of the actual cidermaking process rather than just reading about it on a plaque. Free daily tours of the facility have been offered in the past, though as with any production schedule, availability depends on staffing on the day you visit — worth asking about when you arrive rather than assuming it’s guaranteed. The venue runs a regular calendar of live music nights in the taproom in addition to weekly food and drink specials. (Sources: millsriver.boldrock.com; Belly of the Blue Ridge review; Agribusiness Henderson County success story page.)

What Else Is Nearby

Mills River sits close to several other Henderson County cider and wine stops, which is part of why it works well as one leg of a multi-stop day rather than a solo destination — Botanist and Barrel’s Asheville tasting bar and other Henderson County producers are all within a short drive. Downtown Asheville itself, with its restaurants, breweries and River Arts District, is roughly 20 minutes north, making it easy to pair a Bold Rock stop with an afternoon or evening in the city.

Planning Your Visit

From Boone, plan on a genuine day trip: Mills River is well over two hours away by car, on the far side of Asheville, so this isn’t a quick afternoon out-and-back from the High Country. Groups coming from Boone, Banner Elk or Blowing Rock typically build a full day around it, often combining Mills River with one or two other Asheville-area stops given how much driving is already required to get down there. Current taproom hours have run Monday and Tuesday 11am–8pm, Wednesday and Thursday 11am–9pm, Friday and Saturday 11am–10pm, and Sunday 11am–8pm, but confirm directly with Bold Rock before you go since restaurant and taproom hours can shift seasonally. The Cider Garden’s open-air layout makes it comfortable for larger groups, and because it’s dog- and kid-friendly, it’s a flexible stop for mixed-age travel parties.

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Black Mountain Cider + Mead runs its taproom and production facility out of a corner of a reclaimed furniture factory in Black Mountain, NC — a former manufacturing building now shared with a distillery and a brewery, about fifteen miles east of Asheville. It’s a working cidery, not a polished tasting room built for tour groups: you walk in among fermentation tanks, order a flight, and if you ask a question about the process you’ll usually get an answer from the person who actually made the cider.

Two Former English Teachers and a Trip to Britain

David and Jessica Bowman started Black Mountain Ciderworks + Meadery after a 2009 trip to England, where they tasted the dry, complex ciders of the West Country and couldn’t find anything like them back home. Both had backgrounds as English teachers and hobbyist brewers and winemakers, and the trip turned into a project: sourcing apples from nearby Henderson County — which grows roughly 65% of North Carolina’s apple crop — instead of importing juice concentrate the way many commercial “cider” brands do. Their first batches were pressed on an old hand-cranked farmer’s basket press, the kind of tool you’d expect next to a butter churn. By 2014 they were making enough cider to open a taproom to the public, and the business has been running in Black Mountain since. (Source: Edible Asheville, “Cider City, USA.”)

The company’s roots go back further on paper — state registration records list the business as founded in 2013 — but the throughline in every account of the Bowmans’ story is the same: a couple who wanted North Carolina apples to taste like North Carolina, the way wine grapes are supposed to express the soil and elevation where they’re grown.

What’s in the Glass

Black Mountain’s ciders are fermented in small batches from heirloom and local apples, never filtered, pasteurized, or built from concentrate — a point the Bowmans are vocal about, since a lot of mass-market “hard cider” is closer to an alcoholic apple soda than a fermented fruit beverage. Their lineup changes with the harvest: early fall brings brighter, more acidic ciders from Ginger Gold and Golden Delicious apples, while cooler months bring spiced and flavored releases — cider brewed with chai spice, and one built around sweet potato, have both been part of their seasonal rotation. On the mead side, the taproom focuses on hydromels — lower-gravity, sessionable meads around 6–8% ABV that are less sweet and more approachable than traditional high-gravity mead. Flavors have included coffee, almond, pistachio, sweet potato and beet, made with honey sourced mostly from beekeepers in Buncombe and McDowell counties. Because both cider and mead are naturally gluten-free and the taproom doesn’t serve beer, there’s no cross-contamination risk for gluten-sensitive drinkers — one of the more practical reasons cidery-only stops appeal to mixed groups. (Sources: Black Mountain Ciderworks + Meadery website, cider process and FAQ pages.)

The Setting: A Reclaimed Furniture Factory

The taproom sits inside Eastside Business Park, a multi-tenant industrial complex built out of a former furniture manufacturing building dating to sections built in 1926, 1932 and 1967, now home to around 40 small businesses. Black Mountain Cider + Mead shares the site with Pisgah Brewing Company and Oak & Grist Distilling, and there’s often a food truck parked next door, since the cidery itself doesn’t serve food — you’re welcome to bring your own or order delivery. Both kids and pets are allowed in the taproom, and no reservation is required. The taproom and the production tanks are in the same room, so there’s no separation between where the cider is made and where it’s served — ask about the apples in your glass and you’re often talking to the person who pressed them. (Sources: Eastside Business Park website; Black Mountain Ciderworks + Meadery FAQ page.)

What Else Is Nearby

Downtown Black Mountain is a short drive from the taproom and worth the extra half hour if your group has time: it’s a compact, walkable Main Street with more than 20 locally-owned shops and over 20 restaurants, plus long-running craft galleries like Seven Sisters Gallery, which has been showing regional fine art and craft since 1981. The town sits right off I-40 about 15 miles from Asheville, so it’s an easy add-on if your day already includes stops in Asheville proper. (Sources: Visit Black Mountain; Seven Sisters Gallery.)

Planning Your Visit

Be honest with yourself about the drive: Black Mountain is roughly 105–115 miles and about 2 hours from Boone by the fastest routes (typically via US-221/I-40), and a similar range from Banner Elk or Blowing Rock. That distance makes this a full-day trip rather than a quick afternoon out — most groups from the High Country pair it with one or two other Asheville-area stops (like Bold Rock Cidery or Botanist and Barrel) rather than making the drive for a single tasting. Because the taproom is small and informal, it works well for groups of a handful of people rather than a large party; there’s no official tour schedule, but staff are happy to talk through the production process when things aren’t busy. Confirm current hours directly with the taproom before you go, since cideries this size sometimes adjust days seasonally.

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Mead — honey wine — is the oldest fermented beverage in the world, and it’s having a real moment in North Carolina’s High Country. Williamson Mead and Brewing, tucked into Glade Valley in Alleghany County about an hour from Boone, is one of the small stable of producers keeping that tradition alive, and in 2024 the state took notice: their honey-strawberry-black cherry mead “Freya” was named Best Mead at the North Carolina Wine Competition.

Reviving an ancient craft in the mountains

Williamson describes itself as having been established in Alleghany County to craft mead and cider “in the heart of North Carolina’s wine country,” combining old-world honey-wine tradition with what they call a proprietary, faster fermentation process. It’s a small, community-rooted operation — the tasting room sits right on the family property on Shawtown Road, and the winery has become one of the stops on the NC Mead Trail, a statewide list curated by the NC Mead Alliance to spotlight the state’s growing mead scene.

What to taste

The lineup runs across meads, ciders and a few beers, with honey as the throughline. Their award-winning “Freya” blends honey with strawberry and black cherry, and the broader menu of meads and ciders is built to appeal to both first-time mead drinkers and long-time enthusiasts — expect fruit-forward, approachable pours rather than the heavy, syrupy meads some visitors expect. Because the lineup rotates with the seasons and what’s fermenting at any given time, ask what’s currently on tap when you arrive rather than expecting a fixed menu.

The tasting room experience

The Glade Valley tasting room is designed as an unhurried, welcoming space — described by the winery as a warm spot for the community as much as for visitors passing through. It’s the kind of stop where you can take your time working through a flight of meads you’ve likely never had anywhere else, since most tasting rooms in the region pour wine, not honey wine. Reviewers frequently note the staff’s willingness to walk newcomers through the differences between mead styles, which is worth taking advantage of if this is your first time trying it.

Why mead is worth the detour

Most High Country tasting rooms pour grape wine or apple cider, so a dedicated meadery is a genuinely different stop on a wine-tour day. Mead starts from fermented honey rather than fruit, which gives it a different body and sweetness curve than either wine or cider — some styles come out light and floral, others rich and almost port-like, depending on the honey and what’s blended in. Williamson leans into that range rather than making one “safe” style, and the fact that a panel of judges picked their mead over the state’s cider and wine entries for Best Mead in the 2024 NC Wine Competition says something about how seriously they’re taking the craft. If your group has already done a few tastings at grape-based wineries, this is the stop that resets the palate and gives people something to talk about on the ride home.

Nearby and worth combining

Glade Valley sits in Alleghany County near Sparta, on the northern edge of the High Country wine map — a different pocket from the Boone/Watauga cluster, which makes it a good candidate to pair with a day that also includes Ashe County stops like Molley Chomper in Lansing or a swing through West Jefferson. It’s mountain country the whole way, with the kind of two-lane, curving roads that make a dedicated driver worth having if you’re planning to actually enjoy what you taste. Alleghany County itself is worth a slower look if you have the afternoon — Sparta’s small downtown and the surrounding farmland make for an easy walk or a short stop before or after your tasting.

Planning the drive

From Boone, Glade Valley is roughly an hour’s drive — about 57 miles by road — so it’s a full outing rather than a quick detour. Hours have varied by season on their site, with recent listings showing Wednesday through Friday afternoons and longer weekend hours, so check their current schedule or call ahead before you head out, particularly midweek. Because it’s a bit further out than some of the Watauga County wineries, it works well as an anchor stop for a half-day trip rather than one of several quick pours.

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The Vineyard at High Holly sits on nearly 30 acres of the Highlands Plateau in far western North Carolina, on Scaly Mountain between Highlands, NC and Dillard, GA. It’s worth being upfront about geography: this is not a quick trip from Boone. It’s a destination in its own right, in a different corner of the mountains entirely, and it’s best treated as a full day or overnight excursion rather than a stop you tack onto a Boone-area wine afternoon.

A family project on the Highlands Plateau

The vineyard is run by Connie and Jim Mercer along with their daughter and son-in-law, Lesley and Eric Galloway, who bought the property and now live there full-time raising their family on-site. The Mercers split their time between Florida and North Carolina. The Galloways describe the place as centered on a working vineyard, and the property has grown to include an award-winning dahlia garden, tennis courts, a pond with waterfalls, an event pavilion and walking trails across the hillside — more a full mountain retreat than a simple tasting room.

What to taste and eat

On-site, Barrel & Vine is the vineyard’s restaurant and bar, pouring wines by the glass, bottle and curated flight alongside a seasonal, chef-driven food menu of light bites, entrées and desserts. There’s live music and themed dinners on the events calendar, and the restaurant operates without reservations, so you can show up, taste, and stay for a meal without planning weeks ahead. Because it’s also a working vineyard, the pours you get in the tasting room are tied directly to fruit grown on the property.

The setting

What sets High Holly apart from most High Country tasting rooms is the sheer scale of the property. Guests can walk the grounds, sit by the pond, wander the dahlia garden, or play tennis or cornhole in a community area built around a fire pit. The vineyard is family- and pet-friendly, and there’s on-site lodging if you want to turn a visit into a stay: five cottages that each sleep 4–6, a farmhouse that sleeps 4–6, and a restored 1890s homestead cottage for two. Because the property regularly hosts weddings and private events, it’s worth checking their calendar before you go — they note the vineyard may be closed some Saturdays for exactly that reason.

What else is nearby

The Highlands and Scaly Mountain area is its own outdoor destination, with ziplining, hiking, waterfalls, horseback riding, rafting, fishing and golf all within about 30 minutes of the property, plus the shops, restaurants and antique stores of downtown Highlands a short drive away. If you’re making the trip out from the High Country, it makes sense to build in at least a night in the area rather than treating it as a single stop.

Planning the trip from Boone

This is the honest caveat: Scaly Mountain sits on the opposite side of western North Carolina from Boone, closer to Highlands, Cashiers and the Georgia border than to the Blue Ridge Parkway corridor. Straight-line driving estimates between Boone and the Highlands area run in the range of three to four hours depending on route, so this isn’t a same-day add-on to a Watauga or Ashe County wine day — it’s a separate trip, and one best paired with an overnight stay either on-site or nearby. If a group is already planning an extended High Country getaway that includes a swing toward Asheville and beyond, High Holly is a worthwhile detour; if you’re looking for a winery stop within an hour or two of Boone, the other producers on our list are a better fit for a single afternoon.

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Old Barn Winery sits on Beaver Creek School Road just outside West Jefferson, NC, on land the Sexton family has farmed for more than a hundred years. It isn’t a winery that showed up chasing a trend — it grew, almost literally, out of a Christmas tree farm, and that backstory is part of what makes an afternoon there feel different from a typical tasting-room stop. You’re drinking wine made by the same family that planted the fir trees on the ridge behind you.

From Tobacco to Christmas Trees to Wine

The Sexton family’s farming roots in Ashe County trace back to Byron Sexton, born in 1912, who started out growing tobacco like most mountain farmers of his era. In 1960 Byron made a bet that reshaped the family’s future: instead of planting a cautious one-acre trial plot of Fraser fir seedlings as advised, he planted 80 acres. That decision helped position Ashe County as what would become known nationally as the Christmas Tree Capital of the United States. Byron’s son Kenneth carried the tree business forward through the 1970s and 80s, and by the 2000s a third generation — brothers Greg and Jimbo Sexton, working alongside their mother Joann and Greg’s wife Robin — was running the farm.

The wine side of the story starts in the mid-2000s, when Greg and Robin began experimenting with homemade wine with friends, learning fermentation as a hobby before it became anything more serious. They started planting grapevines on the farm to see what the mountain soil could do. Old Barn Winery officially opened its doors on July 4, 2022, in a barn on the same property where the family’s Frosty’s choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm operates — a fourth-generation Sexton project sitting on land the family has worked since before the Great Depression. (Source: Old Barn Winery’s own “Our Story” page.)

What to Taste

Old Barn’s list is organized simply: reds, whites, sweet and fruit wines, plus a specialty lineup of ciders, meads and sangrias, and non-alcoholic options including TÖST and a non-alcoholic sangria. The winery describes its reds as ranging from easy-drinking to bold and complex, its whites as bright and citrus-forward with both dry and off-dry options, and its sweet wines as berry-driven and built for casual sipping. There’s also a rotating “previous wines” archive of bottles that get retired and occasionally brought back — a sign of a working, evolving list rather than a fixed set of six wines that never change. As with any small winery, exactly what’s pouring on a given weekend shifts with the season, so it’s worth checking their current wine menu online before you go.

The Setting and the Experience

The winery occupies a working farm with mountain views, and the property still grows Christmas trees and grapevines side by side — the same barn that anchors Frosty’s tree farm each winter is the building that now houses the winery. Old Barn also leans into live music, with a regular calendar of afternoon sets that lately has included a strong TropRock/Jimmy Buffett-inspired lineup — the kind of laid-back, beachy sound paired with a wine slushie that feels a little unexpected at 3,000 feet in the Blue Ridge. They’ve also run food collaborations with Bocca Bistro for wine-and-dine evenings. None of this is loud or produced — it’s a family farm that added a tasting room, and it still feels like one.

What Else Is Nearby

West Jefferson itself is worth building time around. The town is known locally as the “Town of Murals,” with a self-guided walking tour of more than a dozen colorful downtown murals depicting mountain life and Ashe County history, plus working artist studios and galleries in its small Arts District. If your group wants to turn a winery stop into a full afternoon, pairing Old Barn Winery with a wander through downtown West Jefferson’s murals and shops is an easy add before or after your tasting.

Planning Your Visit

Old Barn Winery is roughly 20–25 minutes from Boone by car via US-221, and a similar short hop from Jefferson. From Banner Elk or Blowing Rock, plan on more like 35–45 minutes depending on route and season — mountain roads and Blue Ridge Parkway traffic can add time in summer and fall. The winery has told visitors it’s open every day, but hours, tasting fees and live music schedules change seasonally, so confirm directly with Old Barn Winery before you go. For groups, note that a single vehicle keeps everyone together for the drive back down winding two-lane roads after a tasting — worth factoring in if your group is splitting across multiple cars.

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Molley Chomper Cider set up shop inside the old Lansing School, a fitting home for a cidery built around the idea of putting a small mountain community’s fruit — foraged, farmed and forgotten varieties alike — into the bottle. It’s about 25 minutes from Boone in Lansing, in Ashe County, and it has become one of the more distinctive stops in the High Country precisely because it isn’t trying to make wine taste like cider or cider taste like beer. It’s doing its own thing with real, whole fruit from real regional farms.

From farm to old schoolhouse

The cidery grew out of Bent Apple Farm, the Ashe County property where the founders first got curious about the apple trees already growing on their land and started a small experimental orchard they now call The Little Orchard. What began as a way to make a small farm work turned into a full cidery and wine bar housed in the old Lansing School building on Piney Creek Road. Cidermaker Tim Arscott has described the sourcing side of the business simply: “Farmers keep showing up with wonderful stuff. Foraged apples, pawpaws, purple raspberries, trailer loads of pumpkins.” That relationship with small growers is the backbone of everything they make — in 2024 alone they fermented 109 different apple varieties, and more than 90% of their fruit came from farms within 60 miles of the cidery.

What to taste

Because Molley Chomper works on a harvest cycle rather than a fixed recipe, the lineup changes year to year, but a few ciders have become signatures. Mountain Maelstrom blends more than thirty apple varieties sourced from small farms across Ashe, Watauga and Avery counties. Barrel 19 uses old-fashioned Winesap apples grown at Bent Apple Farm, left to spontaneously ferment on the pomace before aging in barrel — dry, a little funky, with deep red-apple character. Carpenter Hill is made with organic purple raspberries grown along Helton Creek in Ashe County, using a heirloom variety developed by a local family in the 1960s. There’s also Old Orchard Creek, a bubbly fruit wine built on Ashe County blueberries and blended with long-aged cider, and a ginger cider made with fresh ginger pressed from a Zionville, NC farm. None of it uses concentrates, aseptic purees or artificial flavoring — everything starts as whole fruit.

The setting

The cidery occupies the old Lansing School, with a dog-friendly patio and a policy of welcoming outside food, so it’s an easy place to turn a tasting into an afternoon. Alongside their own ciders and fruit wines, they pour a curated selection of natural and organic wines by the glass or bottle — recent visits have featured Jones von Drehle, another North Carolina winery, as a rotating guest pour. Bottles are available to take home, and cider club members get first access to limited releases.

Beyond the tasting room

Lansing sits close to both West Jefferson and Boone, in a stretch of Ashe County known for hiking, fishing and cycling, and Molley Chomper’s own Bent Apple Farm has a rental cottage available for guests who want to stay in the area overnight. If you’re spending a day in Ashe County, this is a natural anchor for a farm-to-glass afternoon that doesn’t require a formal wine-tour itinerary to enjoy.

Planning your visit

Current posted hours show the cidery closed Monday and Tuesday, open afternoons into evening Wednesday through Sunday — but hours have shifted between seasons on their own site, so confirm before you drive out, especially midweek. From Boone it’s roughly 30–40 minutes depending on route, and it pairs naturally with a swing through West Jefferson or a stop at another Ashe County producer on the same trip.

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• High Country Wine Tours — Mountain winery shuttle service
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• Wedding Transportation — Luxury shuttles for your big day
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• Airport shuttles by town: Boone · Blowing Rock · Banner Elk · West Jefferson · Linville · Beech Mountain
• Ashe County Livery — Premium transportation in NC’s High Country
• Request a free quote — or call (336) 484-1350

Fifteen minutes north of downtown Boone, past Lowe’s Foods and out along Tom Jackson Road, a working vineyard and orchard now sits on a stretch of land that Native American hunters once used to track bison through the mountains. That history is the whole point of Mill Camp Wines & Ciders: it’s a newer tasting room, but it’s built on genuinely old ground, and the Jolley family that runs it wants you to feel that when you walk in.

A family farm, not a franchise

Mill Camp is owned and run by the Jolley family — Christopher Jolley handles the winemaking, his brother Mark Jolley makes the ciders, and Taylor Zinda, a sommelier, runs the beverage and guest experience. The family planted the vineyard and orchard themselves, on land they describe as sitting along an old Buffalo Trail once used by bison, the Native Americans who hunted them, and later by fur trappers moving through the Blue Ridge. They left other careers to build this place, and the tasting room officially opened to the public in September 2025, with a full grand-opening celebration in October that year drawing the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce out for a ribbon cutting.

What’s in the glass

The list splits cleanly between wine and cider, and both sides are made on-site in small batches. On the wine side you’ll find a stainless-steel Chardonnay built for crispness rather than butter, a high-acid Sauvignon Blanc, a 60/40 Merlot–Cabernet Franc rosé (still and sparkling versions), an off-dry Vidal Blanc, a Traminette with honeysuckle and rose notes, and reds that include a barrel-aged Mill Camp Red field blend and a two-year-barrel Malbec. The ciders lean into the farm’s own fruit: High Country Apple is made from apples grown at 3,300 feet on the property, Tart Cherry is the tasting room’s best-seller, and Old Buffalo Trail and Hewes Crab ciders use heirloom apple varieties pressed right there. The orchard and vineyard sit on steep, south-facing slopes with a granite-based Clifton loam, which the family says shapes both the grapes and the apples that come off the land — and beyond wine and cider, they also tap maple syrup, harvest birch bark for birch beer, and keep bees for their own honey.

The setting

The tasting room itself is set up as a gathering spot rather than a formal wine bar — there’s an indoor stone fireplace for cooler days and outdoor seating that looks out over pasture and mountain ridgeline. Kids and well-behaved dogs are both welcome, food is allowed in (they also sell some in-house), and outside beverages are the one thing they ask you to leave in the car. It’s a low-key, unhurried kind of place, closer in feel to a farm gathering than a formal tasting counter, which fits the “rural escape” the family set out to build.

Beyond the tasting room

Mill Camp sits along the route to some of the region’s better outdoor recreation — fly fishing, tubing and kayaking on the New River are all a short drive from the property, and the farm itself backs up to land used historically for hunting and travel through these mountains. If you’re building a High Country day around water and wine, this is a natural stop on the way.

Planning your visit

Mill Camp is open Thursday through Monday, roughly noon to 7 p.m. in the warmer months (Tuesday and Wednesday are closed) — but hours shift seasonally, so confirm on their site or by calling ahead before you go, especially outside summer. Groups of eight or more are asked to call or text in advance so the team can prepare. The property has a gravel parking lot with designated accessible spaces, and the tasting room and patio are wheelchair accessible. From downtown Boone it’s a straightforward 12–15 minute drive north on NC-194, and it’s an easy add-on if you’re also headed toward West Jefferson or the New River corridor for the day.

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• High Country Wine Tours — Mountain winery shuttle service
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• Airport Shuttle Service — CLT, AVL, GSO & TRI transfers
• Airport shuttles by town: Boone · Blowing Rock · Banner Elk · West Jefferson · Linville · Beech Mountain
• Ashe County Livery — Premium transportation in NC’s High Country
• Request a free quote — or call (336) 484-1350

Little Switzerland Orchard and Winery is a family-run farm, campground, and tasting room perched near the village of Little Switzerland in Mitchell County, at around 3,455 feet of elevation just minutes off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is not a polished vineyard estate — it is chickens, horses, hiking trails, and a small-batch orchard operation making wine, cider, mead, and beer — and that unpolished, come-hang-out feel is exactly why it has built a loyal following. Nearly every recent review mentions the same thing: the drive up a steep gravel road is a little rough, and it is completely worth it once you arrive.

A Mom-and-Pop Farm That Grew Into a Destination

The property describes itself as a mom-and-pop orchard, cidery, winery, brewery, and campground, built on a mountaintop in the village of Little Switzerland. A newer organic orchard and residence opened in fall 2023, expanding what visitors now call a “mountain-top oasis.” It is run by an owner reviewers know simply as Tony (Anthony), along with his wife, and the small scale shows in the best way — this is a place built and maintained by the people who also pour your drink and feed the chickens.

What to Taste

The lineup spans small-batch wines, ciders, meads, and beers, all made on-site. Ciders are the clear specialty: flavors like “Just Peachy” (apple cider fermented with peaches, available sweet or dry), a “Chai in the Sky” spiced cider, and playful varieties along the lines of pickle cider and a riff on the classic Johnny Appleseed profile show up repeatedly in reviews and drink-tracking apps. The orchard also makes cider margaritas, and there are house wines and mead alongside the cider list for anyone who wants to build a full flight. Expect the menu to rotate with the season and the harvest, since this is a genuinely small production operation rather than a large commercial winery.

The Setting

The roughly seven-acre property has room to walk, sit by a fire, and explore — there are hiking trails on-site, a clubhouse, and farm animals including horses and chickens that visitors are welcome to admire (feeding them is generally left to staff). It also operates as a working campground with RV sites, hot showers, and a clubhouse with Wi-Fi, so day visitors share the space with overnight guests. Live outdoor music, ghost-story campfires, and other seasonal events show up on the calendar from time to time. Dogs are welcome with proof of vaccination. Because the last stretch of road is gravel and includes a steep section, larger vehicles and trailers sometimes need four-wheel drive, and the drive itself is part of the adventure rather than an inconvenience to be avoided.

Nearby and Worth Combining

Little Switzerland sits on the Mitchell County side of the Avery County wine cluster, close enough to Linville Falls Winery to combine the two in one loop, with Archaic Alcohols in Banner Elk and Eagles Nest Winery near Elk Park both reachable as a longer add-on if your group wants a fuller day of tastings across two counties.

Planning the Trip

Plan on roughly 45 minutes to an hour from Boone or Banner Elk, most of it on the Blue Ridge Parkway or connecting mountain roads, plus the gravel driveway itself at the end. Days and hours have varied across different listings and seasons — some show a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule, others a five- or six-day week — so check current hours directly with the orchard before you drive up, especially if you’re coming a distance for a specific day. Because the approach road takes some care and the setting encourages a slow, multi-hour visit with food, drinks, and animals to see, this is an easy stop to enjoy fully when someone else is handling the driving, both up the gravel and back down the mountain afterward.

Related reading

• Appalachian Ridge Artisan Cidery: Orchard-Grown Cider in a 1920s Barn Near Hendersonville, NC
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Explore More from Ashe County Livery

• High Country Wine Tours — Mountain winery shuttle service
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• Wedding Transportation — Luxury shuttles for your big day
• Wedding venues we serve — 40+ High Country venues
• Airport Shuttle Service — CLT, AVL, GSO & TRI transfers
• Airport shuttles by town: Boone · Blowing Rock · Banner Elk · West Jefferson · Linville · Beech Mountain
• Ashe County Livery — Premium transportation in NC’s High Country
• Request a free quote — or call (336) 484-1350

Linville Falls Winery sits on US 221 just north of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Linville Gorge, on a 40-acre farm that grows wine grapes, Christmas trees, and berries side by side at roughly 3,200 to 3,400 feet of elevation. It is worth the drive for the story as much as the wine: it is the winery Jack Wiseman built at 80 years old after decades of running a Christmas tree operation on the same land, and it has become one of the more relaxed, unpretentious tasting rooms in the Appalachian High Country.

A Lifelong Dream, Fulfilled Late

Jack Wiseman was raised outside Crossnore, served as a U.S. Army medic during the Korean War, and later built a large Fraser fir Christmas tree business by buying up mountain farmland between Charlotte and Avery County over many years. He started planting wine grapes on part of that land around 2005, and after roughly seven years of tending vines, he opened Linville Falls Winery in October 2012 — a lifelong dream realized at 80 years old. Today the winery is still family-run, with Jack’s grandchildren taking on more of the day-to-day work while he continues to be involved. The name comes from the small community of Linville Falls, itself named for the waterfall a few minutes’ drive away near mile marker 316-317 of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

What to Taste

The winery grows Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, Noiret, Marquette, Petit Verdot, and Marechal Foch on the property, with Riesling as its flagship grape, all part of the Appalachian High Country American Viticultural Area. The tasting list runs from a dry Riesling and sweet Riesling to a chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, rosé, several red blends including a brandy barrel-aged cabernet sauvignon, and fruit-forward options made from the farm’s own blueberries and blackberries. The Cherry Bounce — a fortified cherry wine — comes up again and again in visitor reviews as a favorite, even among guests who normally prefer dry reds. Wine is available by the glass, bottle, or as a flight of four to five pours, and seasonal extras like wine slushies and spiked hot cider show up when the weather calls for them.

The Setting

Reviewers consistently point to the same things: an outdoor wood-burning fireplace, plenty of seating between the tasting room and the grounds, live music on busy weekends, and a pizza food truck that shows up regularly. The property still functions as a working farm — there’s a red barn where visitors can pick up free apples in season, and the Christmas tree fields are visible from parts of the grounds. It photographs well enough that an episode of Southern Charm reportedly filmed there. Because it’s a genuinely working farm rather than a manicured event venue, expect a casual, come-as-you-are atmosphere rather than a polished wine-country production.

Nearby and Worth Combining

Linville Falls Winery sits centrally enough in Avery County to anchor a whole day of tastings. Archaic Alcohols’ meadery in Banner Elk and Eagles Nest Winery near Elk Park are both a short drive north, and Little Switzerland Orchard and Winery over the county line in Mitchell County adds cider and mead to round out a longer route.

Planning the Trip

Expect roughly 35 to 45 minutes from Banner Elk and closer to an hour from Boone, most of it on scenic but winding mountain roads. The winery has generally run daily hours in the noon-to-six range, though exact hours and any seasonal closures should be confirmed on their site before you go, especially around the annual fall Grapestomp event when hours and crowds both shift. With live music, a fire pit, and flights meant for slow sipping, this is a stop where you want your group relaxed and unhurried rather than watching the clock — which is much easier when nobody in the car is also the designated driver home.

Related reading

• Jeter Mountain Farm: U-Pick Apples and a Hard Cider Taproom Outside Hendersonville, NC

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

• High Country Wine Tours — Mountain winery shuttle service
• Yadkin Valley Wine Tours — Explore NC’s premier wine region
• Wine Loop Shuttle — Hop-on hop-off winery tours
• Wedding Transportation — Luxury shuttles for your big day
• Wedding venues we serve — 40+ High Country venues
• Airport Shuttle Service — CLT, AVL, GSO & TRI transfers
• Airport shuttles by town: Boone · Blowing Rock · Banner Elk · West Jefferson · Linville · Beech Mountain
• Ashe County Livery — Premium transportation in NC’s High Country
• Request a free quote — or call (336) 484-1350