Wine Tours – Ashe County Livery blog – Page 3
🚐 Book luxury transportation in NC's High Country — (336) 484-1350 | Book Online

Ashe County Livery blog

Category: Wine Tours

Explore the finest vineyards and wineries across Yadkin Valley and the High Country with Ashe County Livery. Our luxury wine tour transportation lets you savor every tasting without worrying about the drive. From intimate couples’ tours to large group excursions, we handle the logistics so you can focus on discovering award-winning wines, scenic vineyard views, and the warm hospitality of North Carolina’s wine country. Browse our expert guides, winery spotlights, and planning tips below.

  • Marked Tree Vineyard: Estate Wines on the Eastern Continental Divide in Flat Rock, NC

    Marked Tree Vineyard: Estate Wines on the Eastern Continental Divide in Flat Rock, NC

    Marked Tree Vineyard sits on Deep Gap Road in Flat Rock, North Carolina, at 2,300 feet on the Eastern Continental Divide, with the tasting room’s patio and lawn opening onto views of Mt. Pisgah to the north and Tryon Peak to the south. It’s a working vineyard built almost entirely by two people with no farming background, and the origin story is as much a part of the draw as the wine itself.

    Two Friends, a Drone, and a Vineyard

    Owners Lance Hiatt and Tim Parks bought the land in 2015, planted their first vines in 2016, and opened the tasting room in 2020. Neither of them came from a winemaking or large-scale farming background — by their own account, the whole venture started with a friend’s drone flight over the property that revealed a dramatic mountain view worth building around. The first money for the project came from selling 25 acres of timber cleared to make way for the vineyard, which also opened up the sightlines to Pisgah and Tryon that define the property today. Marked Tree has since been recognized as one of USA Today’s Top Ten New Vineyards in America, and at a recent NC Fine Wines Competition, every one of the winery’s ten entered wines won a medal. (Sources: Flat Rock Together and Marked Tree Vineyard’s own site.)

    What to Taste

    Marked Tree grows European vinifera and French-American hybrid grapes suited to the mountain elevation, and the winery describes its approach as producing dry, European-style wines with minimal oak influence. Varietals mentioned by the winery and by visitors include Chardonel, Vidal Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Gruner Veltliner — the Gruner in particular is one the winemaking team has described as an ongoing multi-year experiment in vineyard technique. The tasting room also pours rosés and sparkling wines depending on the season. The current pour list changes vintage to vintage, so check their site or call ahead for what’s open that day.

    The Setting and the Experience

    The property is set up for both indoor and outdoor tasting: a striking, open-concept tasting room with large doors that open onto a wrap-around patio in warmer months, plus a “great lawn” area with additional seating overlooking the vines. The long, winding entrance road up the hillside is intentional — the owners have said they borrowed the idea of a “surprise of arrival” from Biltmore Estate, so the view doesn’t reveal itself until you’re most of the way up. Marked Tree also runs a seasonal Chef’s Dinner Series, pairing multi-course meals with estate wines, and the tasting room is family-friendly with leashed pets allowed in designated outdoor areas (not inside).

    What Else Is Nearby

    Flat Rock and neighboring Hendersonville anchor the newly established Crest of the Blue Ridge AVA, and Marked Tree is one of several wineries in the immediate area, alongside historic Flat Rock attractions like the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site and the Flat Rock Playhouse. Downtown Hendersonville’s Main Street is a short drive away for lunch or shopping before or after a tasting.

    Planning Your Visit

    Flat Rock is genuinely far from the High Country — figure on roughly 2 to 2.5 hours each way from Boone, more if you take a scenic route through the Blue Ridge Parkway rather than the direct highway. That drive time makes Marked Tree Vineyard a full-day private trip rather than an evening outing: plan to leave Boone by mid-morning, spend a couple of hours at the vineyard (and possibly a second Hendersonville-area stop), and build in the return drive before dark. The vineyard’s regular tasting room hours have run daily, but hours, reservation policies and event schedules shift by season, so confirm directly with Marked Tree before your visit. Groups should also note the winding mountain access road up to the tasting room — not a drive you want split across multiple unfamiliar cars.

    Wine Tour Transportation to Marked Tree Vineyard

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to Marked Tree Vineyard from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our Marked Tree Vineyard trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your Marked Tree Vineyard tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville · Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard · Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

  • Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville: The Grape, a South Slope Tasting Room from a Flat Rock Estate Winery

    Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville: The Grape, a South Slope Tasting Room from a Flat Rock Estate Winery

    Marked Tree Vineyard’s Asheville tasting room, known as “The Grape,” sits at 14 Aston Street in the South Slope district — the same pour list as the winery’s Flat Rock estate, poured a short walk from Asheville’s dense cluster of breweries, restaurants and chocolate shops. For a group that wants a real Marked Tree tasting without the hour-plus drive out to the vineyard itself, this is the easier version of the same experience.

    An Estate Winery’s Downtown Outpost

    Marked Tree Vineyard’s main property is in Flat Rock, North Carolina, on the Eastern Continental Divide between Mt. Pisgah and Tryon Peak, where owners Lance Hiatt and Tim Parks planted vines starting in 2016 and opened their hillside tasting room in 2020. The winery later added a second, satellite tasting room in downtown Asheville’s South Slope neighborhood, describing it as a way to bring the same estate-grown wines to a more urban setting without requiring every visitor to make the drive out to Flat Rock. Marked Tree calls its 2024 vintage its eighth, and the winery has said each of the ten wines it entered in a recent NC Fine Wines Competition blind judging won a medal. (Sources: Marked Tree Vineyard’s own site, Vine to Wine Guide, MapQuest listing.)

    What to Taste

    The Asheville tasting room pours the same estate-grown lineup as Flat Rock — wines built from European vinifera and French-American hybrid grapes grown at the vineyard’s mountain elevation. Varietals that come up repeatedly in visitor accounts include Chardonel, Vidal Blanc and Cabernet Franc, alongside red blends like the Ghost House Red, described by regulars as a favorite pairing with cheese and chocolate. Marked Tree focuses on estate-grown and locally sourced North Carolina wines rather than bringing in grapes from outside the state. As with any tasting room, the exact wines poured on a given day shift with the season and inventory, so check ahead if you have a specific bottle in mind.

    The Setting and the Experience

    The Grape occupies a South Slope storefront near Asheville’s brewery district — visitor accounts note it’s roughly a three-minute walk from the French Broad Chocolate Lounge, making a wine-and-chocolate pairing an easy, informal add-on. The space has an urban, walkable feel that’s a deliberate contrast to the mountaintop estate in Flat Rock: no long winding driveway or “surprise of arrival,” just a tasting room you can duck into between other South Slope stops. Marked Tree has also hosted Chef’s Dinner events at the Asheville location, pairing multi-course meals from local chefs with the summer wine list. For large-party reservations in Asheville, the winery asks that groups call or email ahead.

    What Else Is Nearby

    South Slope is one of Asheville’s densest concentrations of breweries, cideries and small restaurants, all within easy walking distance of Aston Street. A stop at The Grape pairs naturally with a broader South Slope crawl, and downtown Asheville’s shops, galleries and the River Arts District are a short rideshare or drive away if your group wants to extend the day beyond wine.

    Planning Your Visit

    Asheville is roughly 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours from Boone by car, depending on route and Parkway traffic — a meaningfully shorter drive than the trip out to Marked Tree’s Flat Rock estate, which makes the Asheville tasting room a reasonable option for a High Country group that wants Marked Tree’s wines without a full mountain-vineyard excursion. Even so, this is still a round-trip of 3.5 to 4 hours of driving, so treat it as a full-day outing rather than a quick evening stop. Tasting room hours have recently run Monday through Thursday afternoons into evening, with later closes Friday and Saturday and shorter Sunday hours — but these change seasonally, so confirm current hours with Marked Tree before you go. With multiple South Slope stops likely on the itinerary, having one vehicle and driver for the day keeps a group together instead of scattering across downtown parking.

    Wine Tour Transportation to Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Marked Tree Vineyard · Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard · Biltmore Winery — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

  • Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard: A Four-Generation Family Estate Winery in Hendersonville, NC

    Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard: A Four-Generation Family Estate Winery in Hendersonville, NC

    Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard is one of the newest names in Hendersonville’s fast-growing wine country, a family estate winery on Fred Orr Drive that opened its tasting room in May 2025 after four generations of the same family working the land. It’s part of a real agricultural story rather than a built-from-scratch tourist stop, and the setting — rolling vineyard rows framed by the Blue Ridge Mountains — is the kind of view that makes an afternoon drive from the High Country worth it.

    A Family’s Legacy, Bottled

    Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard describes itself as a family-run estate winery with more than 100 years of agricultural tradition behind it, spanning four generations on the same land. The vineyard was established in 2018, and the winery didn’t open its tasting room to the public until May 2025 — meaning the vines had years to mature before the family started pouring wine for visitors. That patience shows up in a tasting room built specifically for the estate: vaulted ceilings, a large bar top, and a dual-sided stone fireplace that serves both the indoor room and the covered outdoor deck. (Sources: Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard’s own site and the Henderson County tourism partner listing.)

    What to Taste

    Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard’s current list is small and estate-focused, built around four wines: Samiam, a red blend the winery calls one of its most popular pours; Blue Bird, a white blend named for a family member; Traminette, a floral white with hints of spice; and Vidal Blanc, a fruit-forward white blend. All four are described by the winery as available exclusively at the tasting room, by the glass or bottle. As with any young winery, the lineup is likely to grow as the vines mature further, so it’s worth checking their current wine list before you go. You must be 21+ to purchase.

    The Setting and the Experience

    The tasting room sits inside the vineyard itself, with panoramic views over the rows and the mountains beyond — the kind of “Crest of the Blue Ridge” scenery that has made Hendersonville one of the fastest-growing wine destinations in western North Carolina. The indoor room and the covered outdoor deck are built to work together across seasons, with sliding doors connecting the two, so the venue functions well whether your group wants to sit by the fireplace or out on the deck. Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard also hosts private events — bridal and baby showers, corporate gatherings, reunions — in the same space, and keeps an events calendar for happenings open to the public; the winery points visitors to its Facebook page for the latest event details.

    What Else Is Nearby

    Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard sits within Hendersonville’s broader wine and cider scene, an area that has grown quickly enough to become known locally as the Crest of the Blue Ridge American Viticultural Area. A short drive puts you near several other tasting rooms in the Hendersonville/Flat Rock corridor, plus downtown Hendersonville’s Main Street shops and restaurants. If your group is making the drive down from the High Country, it’s worth building the day around more than one stop — the region has enough wineries within a 20-30 minute radius of each other to justify a full afternoon.

    Planning Your Visit

    Hendersonville is a genuine day trip from Boone — plan on roughly 2 to 2.5 hours each way by car, depending on route and Blue Ridge Parkway traffic in summer and fall. That distance makes Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard best suited to a full-day private outing rather than a quick after-work stop: leave the High Country mid-morning, tour a couple of Hendersonville-area wineries, and plan the return trip for evening. The tasting room’s hours (recently listed as open daily from noon to 7pm) and any tasting fees can change seasonally, so confirm directly with Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard before you go. For a group making the long drive together, having one vehicle and one driver for the whole day removes the stress of coordinating multiple cars on unfamiliar mountain roads far from home.

    Wine Tour Transportation to Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your Johnson’s Legacy Vineyard tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Marked Tree Vineyard · Marked Tree Vineyard Asheville · Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

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

    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.

    Wine Tour Transportation to Jeter Mountain Farm

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to Jeter Mountain Farm from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our Jeter Mountain Farm trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your Jeter Mountain Farm tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Flat Rock Cider Company · Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards · Point Lookout Vineyards & World’s Edge Meadery — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

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

    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.

    Wine Tour Transportation to Flat Rock Cider Company

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to Flat Rock Cider Company from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our Flat Rock Cider Company trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your Flat Rock Cider Company tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Jeter Mountain Farm · Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards · Urban Orchard Cider Co. — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

  • FernCrest Winery: Award-Winning, Family-Made Wines in Downtown Andrews, NC

    FernCrest Winery: Award-Winning, Family-Made Wines in Downtown Andrews, NC

    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.

    Wine Tour Transportation to FernCrest Winery

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to FernCrest Winery from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our FernCrest Winery trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your FernCrest Winery tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Nottely River Valley Vineyards · Shooting Creek Vines · Valley River Vineyards — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

  • DSSOLVR: Asheville’s Surreal Fermentation Brewery for Beer, Wine, Cider and Mead

    DSSOLVR: Asheville’s Surreal Fermentation Brewery for Beer, Wine, Cider and Mead

    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 with Botanist & Barrel — 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.

    Wine Tour Transportation to DSSOLVR

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to DSSOLVR from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our DSSOLVR trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your DSSOLVR tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Biltmore Winery · Botanist & Barrel Tasting Bar · Urban Orchard Cider Co. — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

  • Deep Creek Winery: A Barn Tasting Room Near the Smokies in Bryson City, NC

    Deep Creek Winery: A Barn Tasting Room Near the Smokies in Bryson City, NC

    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 according to their own account, 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. (Sources: Deep Creek Winery’s own “Our Story” page; Smoky Mountain News, “Recipe for success: Mixing women and wine always a good idea,” October 2017; Wine Carolinas blog visit account.)

    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 (accounts have mentioned California among the sources) and handles the actual winemaking in small batches on site, which the winery says 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. (Source: Deep Creek Winery’s own site — wines and home pages.)

    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.

    Wine Tour Transportation to Deep Creek Winery

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to Deep Creek Winery from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our Deep Creek Winery trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your Deep Creek Winery tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Black Mountain Cider & Mead · Bold Rock Cidery · Botanist and Barrel Tasting Bar + Bottle Shop — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

  • Botanist and Barrel’s Asheville Tasting Bar: Natural Cider and Southern Wine Downtown

    Botanist and Barrel’s Asheville Tasting Bar: Natural Cider and Southern Wine Downtown

    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.

    Wine Tour Transportation to Botanist and Barrel Tasting Bar + Bottle Shop

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to Botanist and Barrel Tasting Bar + Bottle Shop from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our Botanist and Barrel trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your Botanist and Barrel tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Bold Rock Cidery · Black Mountain Cider & Mead · Deep Creek Winery — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

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

    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.

    Wine Tour Transportation to Bold Rock Cidery

    Ashe County Livery offers private, chauffeured wine tour transportation to Bold Rock Cidery from Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, West Jefferson and across NC’s High Country. Our Bold Rock Cidery trip-planning page covers drive times, tasting-room hours, group sizes and pricing.

    Travel in a luxury SUV, sedan, or Sprinter van with a professional chauffeur — everyone in your group gets to taste, nobody has to drive. Plan your Bold Rock Cidery tour or call (336) 484-1350.

    Other High Country wineries we serve: Black Mountain Cider & Mead · Botanist and Barrel Tasting Bar + Bottle Shop · Deep Creek Winery — or browse every High Country winery, cidery and meadery we provide transportation to.

    Explore More from Ashe County Livery