Author: Ashe County Livery

Fae Nectar is a fantasy-themed meadery and event venue at 2984 Memorial Highway in Lake Lure, NC, tucked between the Blue Ridge foothills and Lake Lure itself, roughly two hours southeast of Boone. It bills itself as North Carolina’s “premiere fantasy themed Meadery,” and the branding is not subtle — a Medieval Tavern, a vaulted Great Hall, and a festival lawn built for costumed events sit alongside the actual mead production. If your group wants a tasting room that’s also a destination in its own right, this is one of the more distinctive options within a couple hours of the High Country.

What Fae Nectar actually makes

At its core, Fae Nectar is a working meadery: small-batch mead brewed from honey, described on their own site as blending “ancient tradition with modern imagination.” The mead is served on tap in the Medieval Tavern, alongside a curated selection of other local beers, wines and ciders for anyone in the group who isn’t a mead person, plus non-alcoholic options like craft sodas and sparkling water.

The venue doesn’t publish a detailed, dated tasting menu of every mead style on offer, so the reliable way to know exactly what’s pouring on a given weekend is to check their tavern hours page or call ahead — the lineup appears to rotate along with the venue’s event calendar and seasonal offerings.

The Medieval Tavern experience

The tavern itself leans into an “Olde-World” theme — candlelight, rustic timber, and a menu the venue calls the Celtic Kitchen: burgers, bratwursts, sandwiches, fries, a hummus plate and a rotating beef stew finished with a stout broth. It’s built for groups to settle in rather than taste-and-leave, and Fae Nectar publishes current tavern hours (Thursday through Sunday, with Saturday running longest) directly on its site — worth checking before you go since these can shift seasonally.

Beyond the mead: events and the setting

Fae Nectar’s calendar goes well past a standard tasting room. The venue hosts recurring immersive fantasy events — masquerade balls, pirate parties, D&D nights and larger fantasy festivals with craft vendors and cosplay — plus live music in the Great Hall and weddings on the grounds near the lake. For a group planning a milestone weekend (a birthday, a bachelorette trip, an anniversary), timing your visit around one of these events can turn a single tasting stop into most of an evening’s entertainment.

The physical setting is a real part of the draw: the property sits between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Lake Lure’s shoreline, and the wedding-facing side of the business markets the grounds as a backdrop for everything from an “elven forest gathering” to an intimate ceremony by the water. Even if you’re not there for a wedding, that same setting is what makes the tavern’s patio and grounds worth lingering on rather than treating the stop as a quick tasting-and-go.

Planning your visit

Lake Lure sits well south of the High Country wine corridor, so treat Fae Nectar as its own day trip rather than a stop you tack onto a Boone-area itinerary — the drive alone is a meaningful chunk of the day. Check the venue’s events calendar before you go; if a private wedding or ticketed fantasy event is running, tavern access may be limited to guests of that event. For a private group outing, Fae Nectar’s site notes that its events coordinator can help set up custom food and drink options for parties booking the tavern or Great Hall directly.

Fae Nectar tends to reward groups who lean into the theme rather than treat it as a standard tasting-room stop — think costumed birthday parties, themed bachelorette weekends, or anyone who wants a genuinely different afternoon than another vineyard porch. Given the drive and the venue’s event-driven calendar, it pairs best as an overnight or full-day trip built around Lake Lure’s other attractions, rather than a same-day loop with High Country stops near Boone.

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Eagles Nest Winery sits inside the gated Eagles Nest community above Elk Park, North Carolina, at roughly 4,000 feet of elevation on Old Beech Mountain Road. It opened its doors in late September 2020, and what makes it worth the drive is the contrast: a rustically elegant converted barn perched on a ridgeline, pouring California-style wines a few switchbacks above the Blue Ridge Parkway corridor. You will not find estate-grown Appalachian grapes here — the winery ships premium juice and grapes in from California in first-use barrels, then blends and bottles everything on-site — but the setting, the views, and the food menu make it one of the more polished tasting-room experiences in Avery County.

From a Neighborhood Idea to a Working Winery

Eagles Nest is a private mountain community built around outdoor recreation — ATV trails, hiking, a fitness center — and the winery grew out of that same instinct to give residents something to do close to home. According to the community’s own account, winemaker Jeff and his team started distilling, blending, and bottling wine using imported West Coast grapes and juice, aiming for Napa Valley quality without leaving the High Country. The winery is home to a variety of ever-evolving reds and whites, including a couple of cabernet variations, a pinot noir, a sauvignon blanc, and a chardonnay, and the lineup keeps shifting as new blends are introduced. Dean Williamson, who fell for the property on his first visit in 2020, has continued that direction, with an emphasis on award-recognized blends and a growing sense of community among regulars.

What to Taste and Eat

A day pass for non-members runs $25 per person and includes a tasting, or $10 off a bottle if you would rather skip straight to a favorite. The kitchen turns out chef-prepared dishes built around the wine list — wood-fired pizzas (the hot peppers and hot honey combination gets called out often in reviews), charcuterie boards, salads, and seasonal desserts. If you cannot make it in person, the restaurant will take to-go orders by phone. This is a tasting room built for lingering over a full afternoon rather than a five-minute pour-and-go.

The Setting

The barn itself has a grand fireplace for cooler evenings, custom wood tables for groups, and nine separate outdoor areas with fire pits and mountain views, all just past the community’s North Pavilion near the highest point of Eagles Nest. Live music runs Friday evenings from 7 to 10 p.m., with Saturday afternoon sets in summer. Because the winery sits inside a gated residential neighborhood rather than along a public highway, first-time visitors should expect a bit more navigating than a standard roadside tasting room — part of why a driver who already knows the gate and the road is genuinely useful here.

Good to Know Before You Go

The winery is generally open Thursday through Sunday, closed Monday through Wednesday, with evening hours Thursday and Friday and earlier openings on the weekend. It skews adult: children are welcome only on Saturdays from November through May and on Sundays year-round, with the space otherwise restricted to guests 16 and older. Hours, pricing, and the age policy can all shift with the season, so confirm directly with the winery before you plan a visit.

Nearby and Worth Combining

Elk Park sits close to several other Avery County pours, which makes it easy to build a half-day loop rather than a single stop. Archaic Alcohols’ meadery in nearby Banner Elk and Linville Falls Winery’s vineyard south toward Newland both pair naturally with an Eagles Nest visit, and if you want to push a little farther into Mitchell County, Little Switzerland Orchard and Winery adds a completely different, off-the-grid farm vibe to the day.

Planning the Trip from Boone or Banner Elk

Eagles Nest is roughly a 30 to 40 minute drive from Boone and closer to 15 to 20 minutes from Banner Elk, depending on traffic through Elk Park, though the last stretch inside the gated community adds a few extra minutes of careful driving on narrow roads. Groups of any size beyond two or three do better with a private vehicle: gate check-in is smoother when a driver who knows the property handles the details, nobody has to track who is pouring what, and the ridge-top roads are far more relaxing to ride than to navigate after a few tastings.

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Burntshirt Vineyards sits on Sugarloaf Road just outside Hendersonville, NC, on a working vineyard that grows every grape in its own wine — no purchased fruit, no shortcuts. The name comes from local legend: workers clearing land on Burntshirt Mountain reportedly tossed their shirts into a fire for good luck before the fields yielded a strong harvest, and the story stuck to the mountain and, eventually, the winery. It’s a genuinely different kind of NC wine stop — high elevation, estate-only grapes, and a production history that goes back to the mid-2000s.

How It Started

According to Burntshirt’s own account of its history, owners Lemuel and Sandra Oates recognized the quality of the fruit growing on their land and decided to move from growing grapes to producing their own estate wines. The Hendersonville vineyard was initially planted starting in 2009, the vines matured for a few years, and the first harvest came in 2011, per contemporary local news coverage. The winery built a dedicated, state-of-the-art wine production facility on the Sugarloaf Road property that opened in September 2013, allowing Burntshirt to make all of its wine minutes from where the grapes are grown.

What to Taste

Burntshirt grows its grapes across two vineyard sites at different elevations — one near 2,200 feet and a second, higher site on Burntshirt Mountain at roughly 3,400 feet, among the highest-elevation vineyards on the East Coast. That elevation split lets them grow both red Bordeaux varietals and white and hybrid varieties, including Gruner Veltliner, an Austrian white grape that’s uncommon in the United States. The wines have picked up recognition over the years: Burntshirt’s Gruner Veltliner and a Merlot medaled in the 2012 International Women’s Wine Competition, and the winery has continued entering and placing in wine competitions in the years since, according to its own site and local press coverage. Ask in the tasting room about what’s currently pouring — an apple wine has also been called out by regional tourism write-ups as worth trying.

The Setting

The Hendersonville property is a full vineyard-and-winery experience: a tasting room, an on-site restaurant (the Vintner’s Table), a vineyard you can walk through, a meadow for picnicking, a private gazebo, and a barn used for photos and small events. Burntshirt’s site describes free vineyard tours offered daily. The property backs up against Burntshirt Mountain to the south and sits near Chimney Rock to the east, with a natural spring-fed pond and wildlife including wild turkey, deer and the occasional bear sharing the land, per the winery’s own description. Live music is a regular fixture, and the winery runs an events calendar for its Hendersonville location separately from its now-closed Chimney Rock outpost.

Note: Burntshirt also operated a Tasting Room & Bistro location in Chimney Rock Village, but that location remains closed as of mid-2026 due to building and infrastructure damage from Hurricane Helene — local reporting from spring 2026 lists it among the last Chimney Rock businesses still working toward reopening. The Hendersonville vineyard and tasting room were not affected and are operating normally.

What Else Is Nearby

Downtown Hendersonville’s Main Street is a short drive from the vineyard and worth pairing with a tasting — it’s a walkable historic downtown known for its public art (the “Bearfootin’” bear sculptures), seasonal festivals like Art on Main, and a strong local restaurant and shop scene. If your group wants a full day, a late-morning tasting at Burntshirt followed by lunch and a wander down Main Street is an easy combination.

Planning Your Visit

Hendersonville sits well south of the High Country proper — plan on roughly two hours from Boone, and similar drive times from Banner Elk or Blowing Rock, mostly via I-40 and I-26. That distance makes Burntshirt a better fit for a full-day trip or an overnight than a quick afternoon stop, especially if you’re pairing it with other Hendersonville-area wineries or Asheville. As with any working vineyard, hours vary by season — Burntshirt’s own site lists tasting room hours that differ between weekdays and weekends and change around major holidays, so confirm current hours directly with the winery before you plan your drive.

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B&C Winery is a small, husband-and-wife-run wine shop and tasting room on Soco Road in Maggie Valley, NC, roughly a two-hour drive southwest of Boone. It’s not a vineyard in the traditional sense — the winery buys grape juice and skins from vineyards around the world and ferments them on-site — but it’s a genuine, working small-batch winery with a loyal local following, a dog-friendly tasting room, and a menu of nearly 40 wine varieties.

The story: Bob and Chris

The name comes from its founders, Bob and Chris — Chris is the winemaker, and the business describes Bob as her “silent partner,” helping with everything from washing glasses to sanitizing equipment. Chris’s path into winemaking started outside the wine industry entirely: she trained as a pharmacy technician, working up to specialized sterile compounding, and the winery credits that background — precise measuring, weighing and “thinking outside the box” — with shaping how she approaches recipe development. Her interest in wine grew out of that pharmacy background in the late 1980s and crystallized around 1998, and it’s stayed a hands-on, small-scale operation since.

What to taste

B&C sources fruit and juice from wine regions across California, Washington State, Australia, Italy, Chile and Argentina, then finishes the wines with fresh mountain spring water on-site in Maggie Valley. The catalog spans red table wines (Old Vine Zinfandel, Argentine and Chilean Malbec, Italian Chianti among them), white table wines (Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay), and a notably deep dessert-wine line — fruit-forward blends like Blackberry Blast Merlot, Strawberry White Merlot and Peach Apricot Chardonnay. Wine flights run three pours for a modest price, and the winery also does custom wines for people who want to build something to their own taste.

The house’s named bottlings — wines like Blue Grass, Golden Rapture in Red, Colorful Wings, Winter’s Warmth, and Rapid Rocks — rotate as best sellers, and the winery periodically introduces limited-run “Limited Edition” wines that are only available for a few weeks at a time. If a particular named wine catches your eye online, it’s worth calling ahead to confirm it’s currently in stock, since B&C’s inventory shifts more often than a large commercial winery’s would.

Beyond the tasting counter

B&C runs regular Paint & Sip events in its tasting room — a wine-and-art class format where the project and materials are included in the ticket price — alongside its standard tasting hours. The shop also carries local specialty foods, including a full line of cheeses from Ashe County Cheese, North Carolina’s oldest cheese maker, so you can build a simple charcuterie pairing on the spot rather than bringing your own snacks.

Planning your visit

B&C is closed Sunday through Tuesday, with shorter hours mid-week and slightly longer hours Friday and Saturday — but as always, confirm current hours directly with the winery before you go, since small operations like this adjust their schedule seasonally. The winery recommends calling ahead for groups of six or more so they can prepare, which is worth doing if you’re arriving by private vehicle with a full group in tow.

Because Maggie Valley sits well outside the immediate Boone/Banner Elk corridor, this is a full-day destination rather than a quick stop between two nearby tasting rooms — plan for real drive time each way and build the rest of your day around it, checking current road conditions on mountain routes before you set out.

If you’re already planning to spend a day around the Maggie Valley / Waynesville area — hiking, a Blue Ridge Parkway drive, or visiting nearby shops — B&C is an easy, low-key add-on rather than the whole reason for the trip. It works especially well for a smaller group that wants a relaxed, unhurried tasting rather than a big production: this is a personal, family-run shop, not a large event venue, and the pace of a visit reflects that.

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Archaic Alcohols is not a vineyard with rolling rows of grapes — it is a small, husband-and-wife meadery built into a shop on Sugar Mountain Drive in the Banner Elk / Newland corner of Avery County, and it makes some of the most distinctive honey wine in the High Country. If you want a tasting experience that leans into dark humor and horror-movie branding rather than mountain-vineyard elegance, and you want to try mead and cyser (a mead-and-hard-cider hybrid) instead of grape wine, this is the stop worth the detour.

A Pandemic Hobby That Became a Business

According to the founders’ own account, Ryon and Liz started making mead as a pandemic-era hobby after their Halloween wedding in 2019. What began as something to fill the time during lockdown turned into Archaic Alcohols, a meadery they still run themselves out of their hometown in Avery County. The business was formally registered in North Carolina in November 2021. Every bottle is hand-filled, corked, and labeled by the two of them, and each one carries a bit of the horror-and-dark-comedy storytelling that runs through the whole brand — from character names on the labels to flavor names built around classic monster and slasher tropes.

What to Taste

The lineup is built entirely around mead and cyser, all brewed in small batches on-site. Flavors rotate, but a few have picked up recognition at outside competitions: a sweet orange-creamsicle mead has taken a silver medal at the NY Finger Lakes International Wine & Spirits Competition; a caramelized-honey bochet mead with a smoky, whiskey-like finish has won both a silver at the Southeastern Regional Winemaker Challenge and a gold at the Finger Lakes competition; and a blueberry-basil mead has picked up bronze medals at both events. Sweetness levels are labeled on a simple scale, which is a nice touch if your group has both dessert-wine drinkers and dry-wine purists in the car.

The Setting

This is a small, low-key tasting counter rather than a sprawling vineyard property — think a shop you’d find in a mountain strip of stores, not a barn on a ridge. That size is part of the charm: it is intimate, the people pouring your tasting are usually the people who made it, and there is no waiting for a table on a busy weekend. It also means groups larger than a handful should call ahead so the space does not feel cramped.

Nearby and Worth Combining

Because Archaic Alcohols sits right between Banner Elk and Newland, it slots easily into a loop with other Avery County stops. Eagles Nest Winery is a short drive north near Elk Park, and Linville Falls Winery’s vineyard and Christmas tree farm is a scenic run south toward Newland on US 221. If your group wants to add a completely different setting later in the day, Little Switzerland Orchard and Winery over in Mitchell County brings ciders, mead, and a working farm into the mix.

Planning Tips

Archaic Alcohols is roughly 20 to 25 minutes from Banner Elk village and around 35 to 40 minutes from Boone, depending on the route through Elk Park or Linville. As of the meadery’s own site, hours have run Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed Sundays — but small, owner-run shops like this one adjust hours seasonally, so confirm directly with them before you build a schedule around it. Because this stop pairs naturally with one or two wineries rather than standing as a full afternoon on its own, it works best as part of a multi-stop route, which is exactly the kind of trip a private driver is built to sequence — no one has to remember which shop closes early, and no one has to be the sober one behind the wheel on Sugar Mountain’s narrow curves after dark.

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• Request a free quote — or call (336) 484-1350

Appalachian Mountain Brewery — AMB for short — is the brewery that opened Boone’s beer scene: its taproom at 163 Boone Creek Drive has been pouring since 2013, which the company itself credits as the town’s first. It sits an easy few minutes from downtown Boone, making it one of the simplest additions to a High Country wine day for anyone who wants beer and cider alongside the wine stops.

How it started

AMB was founded by cousins Nathan Kelischek and Chris Zieber, who built the brewery around their German heritage, a love of North Carolina, and a shared interest in the outdoors and environment. That founding story still shapes the brand: AMB describes itself as brewing “Appalachian inspired beer & cider with a Southern twist,” and the company has since grown beyond the original Boone taproom to add locations in Mills River and Old Fort, NC — but Boone remains the flagship, and the one closest to the High Country wine circuit.

What’s on tap

AMB keeps a rotating lineup of house beers and ciders, and the Boone taproom publishes an updated tap list on its site so you can check what’s pouring before you go. Recent lineups have included IPAs across several styles (a resinous Long Leaf IPA, a hazy Hilly Haze, a New Zealand-hopped Think About It), lighter session options like the Boone Creek Blonde Ale and Mount Krushmore Session IPA, a Honeydew Honeysuckle wheat ale, a Down South American Lager, a French-style Saison Du Blanc, and darker options like the Black Gold American Porter. Several of their beers have picked up award recognition — the brewery notes a GABF silver medal for one of its IPAs — though as with any brewery, the exact lineup rotates seasonally, so check AMB’s current tap list before you go if you have a specific style in mind.

Because AMB brews both beer and cider, it’s a useful stop for mixed groups where not everyone wants wine — cider drinkers and beer drinkers both have real options here, which isn’t true at every stop on a High Country tasting run.

The taproom experience

The Boone location functions as a full taproom and pub rather than a bare tasting counter — AMB’s site references food, spirits and non-alcoholic options alongside the beer and cider list, plus a regular calendar of live music and events booked through the brewery. It’s set up for groups to settle in for a while rather than taste-and-go, which makes it a good midpoint stop on a longer day rather than a first or last one.

Nearby and worth combining

Because AMB sits right in Boone, it pairs easily with other High Country stops without adding meaningful drive time — it’s the kind of stop you can slot into an afternoon that already includes a winery or two on the west side of town. AMB also gives back locally: proceeds from certain releases go to community organizations, a detail that fits the brewery’s broader “of Boone, for Boone” framing.

Planning your visit

AMB’s Boone taproom is close enough to downtown that it’s rarely the reason to build a whole day trip — it’s the stop you add because you’re already nearby. Hours and the tap list change, so check AMB’s site directly before you go, especially if you’re coming with a large group and want to reserve space in advance for an event or private gathering.

Groups that want to bookend a wine-focused day with something more casual often use AMB as the last stop of the afternoon — a place to sit outside, order food, and let the group unwind before heading back to a hotel or rental. It also works well as a starting point if your itinerary runs from Boone outward toward Banner Elk or Blowing Rock, since it’s an easy first pour before the roads get twistier.

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Most tasting rooms in the High Country pour grape wine. Alchemy Elixirs LLC — known on its own label as Alchemy Herbal Wine — pours something rarer: dry herbal mead, fermented from local honey and infused with plant medicine, made at a small production house in Black Mountain, NC, about ninety minutes to two hours south of Boone depending on your route. If your group has already worked through the vineyards closer to home and wants to taste something genuinely different, this is the detour worth making.

What Alchemy Elixirs actually makes

Alchemy’s core product is a metheglin — a dry herbal mead made by fermenting honey and then blending in an intentional mix of herbs, roots, fruits and bark. The maker describes it as an herbal tonic as much as a beverage, built to be “restoring” and “invigorating” rather than just sweet. That distinction matters if you’re expecting something like a dessert wine: this is closer to an herbal spirit in mead form, dry and aromatic rather than syrupy.

The lineup is built around named blends — Eternity, Heart, Love, Prosperity, Synergy and Tranquility are the current core products on their website — each built around a different herbal intention and flavor profile. The winery doesn’t publish detailed tasting notes for each blend online, so the honest way to find your favorite is to taste your way through a flight when you visit.

The story behind the label

Alchemy leans into its name on purpose. The people behind it describe the work as “part science, part philosophy,” tying the fermentation process to the alchemical idea of transmutation — turning a base substance (honey, herbs) into something transformed. It’s a small, intentional operation rather than a large production winery, and the brand voice throughout their site and social presence keeps returning to seasonality, wild-crafted ingredients, and a long tradition of women brewing medicinal meads for their communities. Whether or not the herbal-medicine framing is your thing, the wines themselves are the actual product, and they’re made with real honey and real botanicals sourced regionally.

The setting and what else happens there

Alchemy’s home base in Black Mountain functions as more than a tasting counter — the property hosts a recurring “Makers Market” (a rotating gathering of local music, food vendors, fiber artists, a plant nursery and herbal-beverage vendors) and occasional evening shows with local bands. If your visit lines up with one of these events, you get a tasting room, live music, and a small craft market all in the same stop, which makes the longer drive feel more like a destination and less like a single tasting-room checkbox.

Planning your visit

Because Alchemy is well outside the immediate Boone/Banner Elk cluster — this is a Black Mountain address, not a High Country one — treat it as an anchor for a full day out rather than a quick add-on between two nearby wineries. Groups doing a High Country wine day usually pair a stop like this with something else near the Asheville side of the drive rather than trying to loop it in with Boone-area stops in the same afternoon. As with any small producer, hours, tasting fees and current availability can shift with the season, so confirm directly with Alchemy before you commit a whole day to the trip.

For groups traveling together — a bachelorette weekend, a milestone birthday, a corporate outing — the appeal of a place like this is exactly that nobody in the group has to be the designated driver on unfamiliar mountain roads for a two-hour-plus round trip. That’s where having someone else behind the wheel changes the day from “an errand” to “an occasion.”

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• Wedding venues we serve — 40+ High Country venues
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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

MenaRick Vineyard & Winery: A Yadkin Valley Winery Built on Two Old-World Traditions

MenaRick Vineyard and Winery traces back to 2006, when Rick and Mena bought a piece of foothills farmland in Ronda, North Carolina to build a winery unlike any other in the Yadkin Valley. Rick grew up around winemaking in California; Mena grew up in Portugal, surrounded by her family’s vineyards. Together they set out to build something shaped by both traditions — “Bem Vindos!” (welcome, in Portuguese) is how they still greet every guest. The first 3.5 acres of vines went into the ground in 2008, and Rick — who had spent years building homes and doing construction — put those same skills into designing and building the winery and tasting room himself.

What sets MenaRick apart in a region full of familiar Bordeaux-style reds and native muscadine wines is its focus on Spanish and Portuguese varietals, a rarity in North Carolina. The winery has been recognized in TravelAwaits magazine’s roundup of the best wineries in North Carolina, and visitors consistently mention how personally Rick and Mena run the tasting room — pouring the wines themselves and sharing the story behind each one. One guest summed it up simply: “Great owners that are passionate about their wines, and who are fun and interesting to share a glass on the patio with.” Another described it as “an excellent little winery hidden away in the NC farm country,” making Portuguese-style wines that are “fuller bodied with depth and character” — unusual, and memorable, for this part of the state.

The Wines of MenaRick Vineyard & Winery

MenaRick farms 8 acres of vines on its 40-acre foothills estate, growing Syrah, Merlot, Chardonnay, Albariño, Grenache, Tempranillo, and Touriga Nacional — a lineup built almost entirely around Iberian grapes rather than the French-derived varietals that dominate most of the Yadkin Valley. The wines are bottled unfiltered, a choice the winery makes deliberately to preserve the full aroma and flavor of each grape. Guests often describe the reds in particular as fuller-bodied and more structured than they expect from a North Carolina winery — a reflection of the Portuguese and Spanish winemaking Mena and Rick grew up with.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 328 Luffman Road, Ronda, NC 28670
Hours: Friday & Saturday 11am – 5pm, Sunday 12pm – 5pm

MenaRick keeps its visit options simple and unpretentious:

• Guided Tastings — a seated or bar tasting through the current Spanish- and Portuguese-inspired lineup, poured by the tasting room staff (often Rick or Mena themselves).
• Wine Flights — a self-paced way to sample several wines side by side.
• Wine by the Glass or Bottle — for guests who already know what they like, or want to relax on the patio without a formal tasting.
• Picnic on the Grounds — MenaRick explicitly invites guests to bring a picnic and enjoy the vineyard view with a glass or bottle in hand.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: MenaRick is a small, family-run operation, so the pace is unhurried and conversational rather than a scripted tour — expect to actually talk with the people who make the wine. Because the tasting room is only open Friday through Sunday, this is a winery you need to plan around rather than fit in on a whim. We recommend budgeting at least an hour here, longer if you bring a picnic and want to sit out on the porch overlooking the vines — several visitors specifically mention the porch view as a highlight.

Where MenaRick Fits in Your Tour Route

MenaRick sits in Ronda, right in the cluster of wineries around Elkin and the Surry – Wilkes county line, one of the most winery-dense corners of the Yadkin Valley. That makes it easy to pair with a couple of neighboring tasting rooms on the same day without much drive time between stops. Because its hours are limited to Friday through Sunday, we typically build a MenaRick visit around one of those three days and route the rest of the tour to match.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time. Most tasting rooms in this part of the valley open between 11am and noon, which lines up well with MenaRick’s own Friday and Saturday 11am opening — a good reason to make it a first or second stop of the day. Because the wines here lean so heavily on Spanish and Portuguese grapes, it also makes a nice contrast stop if the rest of your day is built around more classic Cabernet- and Chardonnay-focused wineries — guests often tell us MenaRick’s Albariño or Touriga Nacional was the wine they remembered most from the whole tour.

Related reading

• Thistle Meadow Winery: Unique Wines & Mead in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

• Yadkin Valley Wine Tours — Explore NC’s premier wine region
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• Airport Transfers — CLT, AVL, GSO & TRI
• Request a free quote — or call (336) 484-1350

Medaloni Cellars: A Family Winery in the Heart of Yadkin Valley

Medaloni Cellars sits on twenty rolling acres just ten minutes outside Winston-Salem, in Lewisville, North Carolina — close enough for an easy afternoon trip, but far enough to feel like a proper escape into the Yadkin Valley wine country. Owner and winemaker Joey Medaloni built the winery around a simple mission: craft boutique wines that reflect the region while making every guest feel like they are coming home. “From our vineyards to the barrel to the bottle, we share our passion for wine, connecting hearts and homes with each exquisite sip,” is how Medaloni describes it, and that hospitality-first philosophy shows up everywhere on the property, from the tasting bar to the sunset views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Beyond wine, Medaloni Cellars has become a genuine destination — a venue for weddings, family reunions, birthday parties, and private events, with on-site lodging so guests can extend the visit into a full weekend getaway. Guests describe a private barrel-room tasting booked for a 60th birthday party as an unforgettable, personal experience, complete with a rustic-elegant setting, multiple glassware pairings, and a knowledgeable server walking the group through the wines — the kind of hospitality that keeps people coming back for out-of-town guests and repeat celebrations alike.

The Wines of Medaloni Cellars

Medaloni pours an unusually broad boutique portfolio for a winery this size, organized into Signature and Flight series. Whites include Traminette, Sauvignon Blanc, Valvin Muscat, Petit Manseng, Kerner, Vermentino, Chardonnay, and Viognier. Reds run from Merlot and Chambourcin to Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, an MJ Red Blend, Sangiovese, Carignan, and Zinfandel. Rounding things out are a Muscadine Noble, a Skin-Contact wine, a rosé, and several sparkling options including a Sparkling Red and a Sparkling Rosé. It is a lineup built for exploration — guests looking for a classic Cabernet and guests looking for something they have never tried before both find something here.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 9125 Shallowford Rd, Lewisville, NC 27023
Hours: Wednesday & Thursday 4pm – 8pm, Friday 12pm – 8pm, Saturday 11am – 6pm, Sunday 12pm – 6pm (private events available Mondays and Tuesdays)

Medaloni does not take reservations for standard tastings or flights — there is plenty of room for walk-ins — but the seated and private experiences do require booking ahead:

• Guided Tastings — $20, includes a souvenir wine glass. A selection of the winery’s most popular whites, rosés, and reds, poured at the tasting bar.
• Self-Guided Flights — $20, includes a souvenir wine glass. Choose your own wines, served in a carry wine tower so you can sit anywhere on the property.
• Premier Tastings — $90 per couple. Reserved seating, five wines in a Riedel glass to keep, paired with a charcuterie board. Reservations required.
• White Wine & Cheese Board Tasting — $60 per couple. Five white wines with a cheese board pairing. Reservations required.
• Red Wine & Charcuterie Board Tasting — $75 per couple. Five red wines with charcuterie. Reservations required.
• Private Tasting Experience — $125 per person for groups of 4–8. A guided barrel room tasting with charcuterie, by reservation only.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: Medaloni welcomes leashed dogs on the covered patio and outdoors (though not inside the tasting room), and it is a genuinely family-friendly stop for well-behaved kids. Outside food is welcome both outside and in the tasting room, though outside alcohol is not permitted. If your group is ten or more, it is worth having the winery know in advance, even though reservations are not required for standard tastings. We recommend budgeting at least ninety minutes to two hours here — longer if you are booking one of the seated pairing experiences, since those are meant to be lingered over.

Where Medaloni Cellars Fits in Your Tour Route

Medaloni sits on the eastern edge of the Yadkin Valley wine trail, just across the Yadkin River from the dense cluster of wineries around East Bend and Hamptonville. That makes it a natural stop to pair with one or two of those wineries on the same day, especially since Medaloni’s afternoon-into-evening hours (opening at noon or later most days) work well as a second or third stop after a morning tasting elsewhere in the valley.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time between stops. Because Medaloni does not open until midday on most days, it is a good anchor for the back half of a tour rather than a sunrise start. If your group is celebrating something specific — a birthday, an anniversary, a girls’ weekend — we often recommend making Medaloni the final stop of the day and booking one of the seated pairing experiences in advance, so the tour ends with a slower, more indulgent pace rather than another quick tasting-bar stop.

Related reading

• Surry Cellars: The Wine Label Behind Surry Community College's Teaching Vineyard
• Erik Martella Wines: A Chemist's Fine-Wine Case for Muscadine

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

• Yadkin Valley Wine Tours — Explore NC’s premier wine region
• High Country Wine Tours — Mountain winery service
• Wedding Transportation — Luxury transportation for your big day
• Airport Transfers — CLT, AVL, GSO & TRI
• Request a free quote — or call (336) 484-1350