Author: Ashe County Livery

Jeter Mountain Farm sits on 400 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains just outside Hendersonville, NC — a first-generation apple orchard built by a fifth-generation farming family that has turned itself into one of western North Carolina’s most complete agritourism destinations. Beyond the u-pick apples, it’s home to a hard cider taproom, a smokehouse, a bakery, a coffee house and a full retail market, which makes it a genuinely full-day stop rather than a quick tasting-room drive-by.

A Florida Tomato Farm’s Fifth Generation, Planting Their First Apple Trees

Jeter Mountain Farm is owned and operated by the Hunsader family — brothers Jared and Tyler, along with Jocelyn and Kelsey — who represent the fifth generation of a farming lineage that traces back to a roughly 1,000-acre tomato operation in Florida. The Hunsaders acquired the 400-acre property, previously used as an equestrian farm, in 2005, and it took until 2014 for the family to plant its first apple trees, working alongside patriarch Mike Hunsader. The farm began growing commercial tomatoes in 2015, but apples became the centerpiece: today the orchard grows more than 20 varieties of apples plus peaches, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, elderberries and pumpkins across roughly 75 acres devoted to agritourism. Jeter Mountain Farm opened to the public for its first u-pick season in fall 2020, and by their own account is now in its sixth-plus year of business.

What to Taste — and Do

The centerpiece for visitors who want something to drink is The Cider Co., the farm’s on-site hard cider taproom, where all ciders are crafted, kegged and canned from apples picked and pressed right on the property. The taproom debuted with a single tap of “The Original” hard cider and has since grown into a rotating six-tap lineup, with flights, pints and mix-and-match four-packs available. For several years, the taproom also served as the featured pour location for Flat Rock Cider Company’s fruit ciders — including blackberry, mango, pineapple and cherry varieties — so a visit here can double as a tasting of both brands. Beyond cider, the farm runs the 1813 Smokehouse for in-house smoked barbecue, an Orchard Coffee House with locally roasted coffee, the Orchard Baking Co. for scratch-made goods, and the Orchard Scoop for small-batch ice cream — plenty to round out a visit that started with u-pick apples.

The Setting and the Experience

Jeter Mountain Farm leans hard into being a family destination: a 6,000-square-foot indoor children’s play area, weekend live bluegrass, a large farm market and gift shop, and a 6,000-square-foot back porch with a bar and mountain views. U-pick requires a reserved time slot — apples, berries, flowers and pumpkins depending on the season — but general admission to walk the farm, shop, eat and visit the taproom is free. The property is largely handicap accessible, including the market, taproom, coffee shop, bakery and back porch, with a wheelchair lift available on one of the orchard wagons. Dogs are welcome per the farm’s pet policy.

What Else Is Nearby

Jeter Mountain Farm is a short drive from both downtown Hendersonville and Brevard, two of the more walkable small-town centers in the region, and a quick trip from Asheville. That geography makes it easy to pair with a Flat Rock Cider Company stop, another Henderson County cidery, or a walk through downtown Hendersonville’s Main Street shops and galleries as part of the same day.

Planning Your Visit

From Boone, plan on roughly 105–115 miles and about 2 to 2.25 hours of driving each way via US-221 and I-40 — this is a full-day trip, not an afternoon errand. Jeter Mountain Farm’s hours change seasonally: as of the current season the farm has been open Saturdays and Sundays 10am–5pm during the summer, with added Thursday and Friday hours in the fall harvest season, and the farm notes that the last u-pick wagon heads out at 3:30pm — so arrive with enough daylight left if u-pick is on the agenda. A reservation is required for u-pick time slots but not for general admission. Given the distance and the winding roads on both ends of the trip, a private vehicle with a professional driver lets your whole group enjoy the taproom and the orchard without anyone needing to stay sharp for the drive home.

Related reading

• Flat Rock Cider Company: Orchard-to-Glass Hard Cider from Henderson County, NC
• Black Mountain Cider & Mead: Real Cider from a Reclaimed Furniture Factory in Black Mountain, NC
• Molley Chomper Hard Cider: Farm-to-Bottle Cider in an Old Schoolhouse in Lansing, 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
• Best Apple Orchards and Fall Festivals Near Boone: A Family Day Trip Guide

Flat Rock Cider Company makes its hard cider from the orchards of Henderson County, NC — the largest apple-producing county in the state — and runs its “Orchard to the Glass” motto with a production facility in Dana, just outside Hendersonville. It’s a newer, growth-focused cider company rather than a legacy farm winery, and for High Country visitors it works best as one stop on a broader western NC day, paired with the u-pick orchards and cideries that dot the same stretch of Henderson County.

Built Around Local Apples, Not a Legacy Name

Flat Rock Cider Company was founded in 2018 by Jeff Schenk, a beverage-industry veteran with decades in the business — he spent years with Gallo Wine and PepsiCo before running his own restaurant beverage consulting company, Beverage Builders, since 1994. Schenk built Flat Rock Cider Company as an “Orchard to the Glass” operation, buying and pressing apples grown in Henderson County — sourcing from up to fifteen varieties across roughly a dozen local farmers — and pressing, fermenting and packaging everything by hand at one facility. The company’s cidermaking is led by Robby Pitt, a certified cidermaker through Cornell University and the Cider and Perry Producers of America, who started home-fermenting cider in 2014 and turned pro in 2016; operations manager Jeremiah oversees day-to-day production, drawing on a background running breweries and tasting rooms.

What to Taste

Flat Rock’s ciders center on the county’s apple crop, built as fruit-forward, approachable hard ciders rather than dry, wine-style ciders. Past lineups have included the company’s original apple cider alongside blackberry, mango, pineapple and cherry variations, all made from local NC-grown fruit and canned or kegged at the Dana production facility. Because Flat Rock focused for years on retail distribution rather than an on-site tasting experience, the easiest way to taste a wide flight in one place has actually been at their taproom partnership rather than the production facility itself — worth knowing before you plan a visit, since offerings and availability shift with the season.

The Setting and the Experience

For roughly its first five years, Flat Rock Cider Company operated without its own public tasting room, focusing on off-premise retail and distribution across western North Carolina. The company opened a tasting room at its production facility to meet what its team described as overwhelming customer demand to see the process and taste limited releases in person. Separately — and usefully for trip planning — Flat Rock ciders have also been the featured pour at the hard cider taproom at Jeter Mountain Farm in Hendersonville, which for several years served as the de facto public tasting room for Flat Rock’s lineup inside a working u-pick orchard setting. That connection means a single stop at Jeter Mountain Farm can double as a Flat Rock Cider Company tasting for groups who want the orchard atmosphere along with the cider.

What Else Is Nearby

Henderson County is one of the most cider- and apple-dense corners of western North Carolina, home to dozens of u-pick orchards, roadside stands and fellow cideries within a short drive of Flat Rock and Dana. Downtown Hendersonville’s Main Street is a walkable strip of galleries, boutiques and restaurants a few miles away, and the county is part of the region’s broader “Cheers! Trail” of craft beverage stops — meaning a Flat Rock visit slots naturally into a day that also includes Jeter Mountain Farm’s orchard and taproom or another nearby cidery.

Planning Your Visit

Henderson County is a long way from the High Country — figure roughly 105–115 miles and about 2 to 2.25 hours of driving each way from Boone via US-221 and I-40, more with weekend or leaf-season traffic. That distance makes a Flat Rock Cider Company stop a full-day trip rather than a quick outing, and it’s worth building the day around two or three nearby stops — Jeter Mountain Farm chief among them — rather than a single tasting. Flat Rock’s Dana production facility has historically kept limited public hours, so confirm current tasting-room hours directly with Flat Rock Cider Company before finalizing your route. With that much driving on winding two-lane roads in both directions, a private chauffeured vehicle removes the single biggest risk of the day: someone in your group having to stay sober enough to drive two hours home.

Related reading

• Bold Rock Cidery in Mills River, NC: A Working Cider Farm with Room to Spread Out

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

FernCrest Winery sits on Main Street in downtown Andrews, NC, in the Snowbird Mountains of Cherokee County — a small-town tasting room a full state away from the High Country, but one that rewards the drive with award-winning wines made largely from grapes grown right there. It’s a two-person operation, still run by the same couple who started making wine as a hobby nearly two decades ago, and every bottle on the menu is named after a fern.

From Home Wine-Making Kits to a Snowbird Mountain Winery

FernCrest Winery is owned and operated by Jan and Kurt Olson, who started as home wine makers using wine-making kits before buying their first grapes — sourced from a vineyard in North Georgia — in 2007. Three years later they planted their own small vineyard of Chardonel, Vidal Blanc and Cynthiana vines in the Snowbird Mountains above the Western Carolina Regional Airport, and began making wine from those grapes in 2013. The winery’s name comes directly from its setting: FernCrest is a nod to the house and winery sitting on the crest of a hill, combined with Kurt’s longtime hobby of growing ferns from spores and identifying wild ferns on sight. The family crest logo — a fern and fiddlehead over a representation of the Snowbird Mountains — carries that theme through to every label, since every FernCrest wine is named after a fern.

What to Taste

FernCrest’s wine list runs from dry to sweet, built from their own estate grapes plus fruit from seven partner vineyards across western North Carolina and North Georgia’s Upper Hiwassee Highlands AVA. Whites include Royal White (Vidal Blanc, floral with peach and pear notes), Ostrich White (Gruner Veltliner with citrus and grapefruit), Southern Lady (a Chardonel that drinks like an unoaked Chardonnay with melon notes, silver medal at the 2025 NC Wine Competition) and Lace White (Cayuga White, grapefruit and peach). On the red and rosé side there’s Autumn Rosé and Mountain Wood Red, both from Cherokee County–grown Cynthiana (also called Norton), and Fiddlehead Red, a dry, full-bodied blend of Cabernet Franc, Mourvedre and Arondell that won silver at the 2025 NC state wine competition after an earlier vintage took double gold. FernCrest’s wines have picked up a steady run of medals at the NC State Fair and the Asheville Wine and Food Festival over the years — the winery is upfront that every wine they’ve entered in judging has come home with some level of medal. They also make blackberry and blueberry fruit wines from local NC berries, wine slushies, and offer local jams from Garnet Gals alongside the tasting menu.

The Setting and the Experience

The tasting room occupies a large indoor space plus an outdoor courtyard in downtown Andrews, and the Olsons describe it as dog- and child-friendly — a real small-town, family-run feel rather than a polished destination winery. FernCrest hosts a Sunday singer-songwriter series and rents the space out for private parties, weddings and reunions; they’ll also bring a customized tasting to you. Because it’s a two-person operation built on relationships with local growers, the visit feels more like meeting the winemakers than touring a production facility — Jan and Kurt are typically the ones pouring.

What Else Is Nearby

Andrews sits in the Nantahala region of Cherokee County, North Carolina’s westernmost county, bordering both Tennessee and Georgia. The area is built around outdoor recreation: the Nantahala River, about 17 miles east, is a well-known destination for whitewater rafting and fly-fishing, and Nantahala Lake and the Snowbird Backcountry Area offer hiking and fishing options nearby. Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center, with its Stecoah Artisans Gallery of regional craftwork, is another stop worth combining with a FernCrest visit if your group wants a fuller day in the area.

Planning Your Visit

Be honest with your group about the distance: Andrews is roughly 175–180 miles from Boone, which typically runs 3.5 to 4 hours of driving each way on US-19 and US-74 through the mountains. That is not a casual afternoon trip — it is a legitimate full-day (or overnight) excursion, and it makes far more sense to combine a FernCrest stop with other stops in the Nantahala/Cherokee County or Asheville area than to treat it as a standalone destination from the High Country. FernCrest’s posted hours run Thursday–Friday 12:30–6:30pm and Saturday–Sunday 12:30–5:30pm from April through mid-December, with reduced Thursday-only hours January–March, and the winery closes on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the day after Christmas, and New Year’s — but confirm current hours directly with FernCrest before you go, since small-winery schedules shift. For a group making the long drive together, having one vehicle and one driver for a nearly four-hour trip each way is less about convenience and more about making sure everyone actually enjoys the tastings instead of watching the clock for the drive home.

Related reading

• Burntshirt Vineyards: Award-Winning Estate Wines at 3,400 Feet Near Hendersonville, NC
• Weathervane Winery: 19 Hand-Made Wines Named After Nature's Biggest Variable
• Stardust Cellars & Taproom: NC's First Biodynamic Winery, Foot-Stomped and Award-Winning

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

DSSOLVR occupies a 1928 building on North Lexington Avenue in downtown Asheville, NC — one of the most walkable, restaurant- and gallery-dense blocks in the city. It started life as a Boston-bred homebrewing obsession and grew into a fermentation company that treats beer, wine, cider and mead as branches of the same craft. For a High Country group willing to make a full day of it, DSSOLVR is a good anchor for an Asheville tasting trip that mixes serious fermentation with a genuinely offbeat, art-forward atmosphere.

From a Boston Basement to Downtown Asheville

DSSOLVR was founded by Vince Tursi and Mike Semenec, who met while working at a liquor store in Boston and spent roughly a decade homebrewing together before turning it into a business. Tursi built his production chops working at Night Shift Brewing and Lord Hobo Brewing near Boston, then moved to Asheville and worked on the Forestry Camp project tied to Burial Beer Co.’s production brewery, while Semenec developed a design and marketing career up north, including work for national clients. The two spent years planning the brewery from a distance before finally opening DSSOLVR’s Asheville taproom on December 13, 2019, becoming the 40th active brewing company in Buncombe County at the time. They chose the historic Tyler Building on Lexington Avenue specifically for its downtown foot traffic and its bones — an 8,000-square-foot hillside space that had sat mostly empty for years after housing a thrift store.

Beer First, But Built for Fermentation of All Kinds

DSSOLVR’s own tagline is “Brewed Until Surreal,” and the brewery’s self-description leans into range: lagers, clear and hazy IPAs, wild ales, big stouts and lighter session beers, brewed with an emphasis on local malts and agriculture. But beer was never meant to be the whole story. DSSOLVR describes its curiosity as rooted in fermentation itself, which is why the lineup has expanded over the years to include wines, ciders and meads made with local, organic apples and grapes, plus non-alcoholic options. The team has also collaborated with fellow Asheville fermenters — including a cider project — reflecting a brewery that sees itself as part of a broader Asheville fermentation scene rather than a beer-only operation competing against it.

The Setting and the Experience

The Asheville taproom keeps DSSOLVR’s reputation for bold, surrealist branding and visual identity — Semenec’s design background shows up everywhere from can art to the space itself. The location includes VOWL, a bar operating out of the same building with its own separate hours geared toward later nights. DSSOLVR also runs a kitchen on-site now, and the brewery hosts a regular rotation of events, from trivia and themed pop-ups to live music, so the calendar is worth a glance before you go. It’s a livelier, more urban feel than a countryside vineyard — exactly the contrast that makes pairing it with a quieter tasting room elsewhere on the same trip worth considering.

What Else Is Nearby

North Lexington Avenue is one of downtown Asheville’s densest strips for independent shops, restaurants and bars, home to well over a hundred small businesses along a few blocks, including French dining, cocktail lounges, boutiques and bookstores. It’s an easy walk from the rest of downtown Asheville’s breweries, galleries and the River Arts District is a short drive away, so a DSSOLVR stop slots naturally into a broader Asheville day that could also include Biltmore Winery or one of the city’s other fermentation-focused stops.

Planning Your Visit

Asheville is roughly 85 miles from Boone — figure on 1.75 to 2 hours each way on US-321/I-40, more if Blue Ridge Parkway traffic or weekend congestion around Asheville is heavy. That distance makes DSSOLVR a full-day trip rather than a quick evening run, which is exactly why a private, chauffeured vehicle makes more sense than self-driving: nobody in your group has to stay sober enough to handle two hours of mountain driving home after a day of tastings. DSSOLVR’s Asheville taproom is currently open Monday–Thursday 3–9pm, Friday and Saturday 12–11pm, and Sunday 12–8pm, though hours and event schedules shift, so confirm on their site or Instagram before you go. Because DSSOLVR sits right downtown, it pairs easily with lunch, a walk through the Lexington Avenue shops, and a second or third stop elsewhere in Asheville on the same day.

Related reading

• VISUALS Wine: Natural Wine and Cider from Burial Beer on Asheville's South Slope
• Noble Cider & Mead: Asheville's Original Hard Cider House in West Asheville, NC
• Black Mountain Cider & Mead: Real Cider from a Reclaimed Furniture Factory in Black Mountain, 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

Deep Creek Winery sits on a quiet dirt drive off Galbraith Creek Road outside Bryson City, NC — deep in Swain County near the boundary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a good three-hour drive from Boone. Owners Robert and Heather Acton converted an old barn into a working tasting room, fermentation room and finishing room, and the winery has built a small but devoted following for wine made from imported grapes in a genuinely off-the-beaten-path setting. It’s a destination for people who want their wine tasting paired with mountain creeks and long-range views rather than a polished event venue.

A Barn, a Physical Therapy Assistant, and a Decade of Homemade Wine

Robert Acton had been making wine at home for close to a decade — starting with a wine kit and later apprenticing under a professional winemaker — before he and his wife Heather turned that hobby into a business. The couple met in May 2014, and Heather (who had been working as a physical therapy assistant and wanted a change) partnered with Robert to launch Deep Creek Winery. They bought a piece of property above their home off Galbraith Creek Road and retrofitted an old barn, with wooden planks from the horse stalls left on the walls as a nod to the building’s former life. The winery was established in 2015 and opened its tasting room to the public in 2016, after running for a period as a wholesale operation that supplied grocery stores and wine shops across the region.

What to Taste

Deep Creek is a winery, not a vineyard — there are no grapevines on the property. Robert imports grape juice from growers around the world and handles the actual winemaking in small batches on site, which helps keep flavor and aroma consistent from batch to batch. The list runs from dry reds to sweet whites, with flights historically built around five tastes at a time so you can move from sweet to dry in one sitting. A rotating “wine of the month” has featured things like an orange-infused sangria and Viognier/Pinot Gris blends. Wine is sold by the glass, by the bottle, or by the case, and cheese and charcuterie boards have been available to pair with a tasting.

The Setting

The tasting room is the converted barn itself, with a handcrafted bar at the entrance and expansive mountain views from the property — reviewers have described the sound of rain on the metal roof as part of the charm rather than a nuisance. It’s genuinely rural: getting there involves following signs down Galbraith Creek Road, onto Stone Pile Road, and up a dirt drive to the barn. Deep Creek does not take reservations — you show up during posted hours and get seated with table service. Because of the informal, working-farm nature of the property, the winery has stated it cannot accommodate pets or children, and everyone in the tasting room must be 21 or older. (Sources: Deep Creek Winery’s own “the winery” and contact pages.)

What Else Is Nearby

Bryson City is a genuine gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park: the Deep Creek section of the park (a different “Deep Creek” than the winery’s namesake creek nearby) is a few miles from downtown and known for three easy-to-reach waterfalls on a roughly 2.4-mile loop trail. The town is also home to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, which runs scenic excursions along the Tuckasegee and Nantahala rivers. Given how far this trip is from the High Country, pairing the winery with a stop at the waterfalls, a train excursion, or lunch in downtown Bryson City makes the drive feel worth it rather than a single-purpose errand. (Sources: Great Smoky Mountains National Park Service — Deep Creek area page; Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.)

Planning Your Visit

Be clear-eyed about the distance: Bryson City is roughly three hours from Boone by car, making Deep Creek Winery a genuine full-day trip, not a quick afternoon stop. Because the winery is far from any other High Country wine tour stop, most groups treat a visit here as the centerpiece of the day, paired with Great Smoky Mountains National Park sightseeing or the Bryson City railroad rather than another winery. The site’s own website has recently flagged that the owners are moving toward retirement and the property has been listed for sale as a turnkey business, so hours, availability and even ownership could change — call ahead before you build a whole day around this stop, and don’t assume current hours (posted as Wednesday–Saturday, 1–6 p.m.) will still be accurate by the time you visit. No pets or children are permitted inside, and reservations aren’t taken — just show up during open hours.

Related reading

• Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville: The Grape, a South Slope Tasting Room from a Flat Rock Estate Winery
• Eagles Nest Winery: A California-Style Tasting Room Above Elk Park, 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

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 are offered at the Asheville bar, 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.

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.

Related reading

• Biltmore Winery: Tasting Wine Inside America's Largest Home in Asheville, 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

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 local 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 — so a group with mixed preferences (cider drinkers and beer drinkers) isn’t stuck choosing one venue over the other. The 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.

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.

Related reading

• Flat Rock Cider Company: Orchard-to-Glass Hard Cider from Henderson County, 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

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 a large majority 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.

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.

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

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 was 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 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 state’s growing mead trail, spotlighting North Carolina’s expanding 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.

Related reading

• Alchemy Elixirs: Herbal Mead and Honey Wine Near Boone, 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

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.

Related reading

• Hidden Vineyard: A Spontaneous Dream on Nine Acres Near Pilot Mountain

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