Category: Wine Tours

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

Some wineries take a decade of planning. Hidden Vineyard took two days. As the story goes, a group of wine enthusiasts were sharing a glass of wine when they decided, on the spot, to go buy a vineyard — and by July 5, 2017, they owned one, a small farm tucked between Dobson and Pilot Mountain in the heart of the Yadkin Valley AVA. What started as an impulsive weekend decision has grown into one of the most laid-back, welcoming stops on our Surry County wine tours.

The nine-acre property sits along a quiet road called Hidden Vines Lane, and the name fits: this is a working farm-turned-vineyard, not a polished estate, and that is exactly its appeal. The tasting room has an industrial-farmhouse feel with big windows and a porch full of rocking chairs looking out over the vines, with the peak of Pilot Mountain visible in the distance. It is part of the Surry County Wine Trail, a cluster of small, independently owned wineries scattered across the rolling farmland northwest of Winston-Salem, and it has built a reputation less on formality and more on being a genuinely relaxing place to spend an afternoon.

The Wines of Hidden Vineyard

Hidden Vineyard farms roughly nine acres of Vitis vinifera and French-American hybrid grapes, growing eight varieties: Chardonnay, Petit Manseng, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Chambourcin and Pinot Gris. That lineup leans toward Bordeaux-style reds and structured whites rather than the sweeter muscadine wines found at some Yadkin Valley stops, and the winery describes its own lineup on its website as “award winning wines.”

Beyond the tasting room pours, Hidden Vineyard runs a quarterly wine club (around $69.99 per quarter plus tax and shipping) for regulars who want their favorites shipped or held for pickup. Wines are available to taste and purchase on-site, and through an online store that also carries HV-branded merchandise for visitors who want to take a piece of the vineyard home.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 125 Hidden Vines Lane, Dobson, NC 27017
Tasting Room Hours: Thursday, 11am – 6pm; Friday & Saturday, 11am – 8pm; Sunday, 12pm – 6pm; closed Monday – Wednesday

A visit here is less about a formal, scripted tasting and more about spending an afternoon on the property:

• Guided tastings — walk-in tastings through the current lineup, poured in the farmhouse-style tasting room or out on the porch.
• Vineyard walk — an open trail runs right through the middle of the vines, with a view toward Pilot Mountain, plus a “kid’s silo” play area for younger visitors.
• Food trucks and snacks — rotating food trucks and pizza are typically on-site, so you can make an afternoon of it rather than just a quick pour.
• Live music — regularly scheduled on the property, especially on weekends.
• The Tobacco Cabin — a renovated 1890s tobacco barn on-site operates as an overnight rental just steps from the tasting room, for groups who want to stay over.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: this is a family- and pet-friendly winery, and dogs are welcome both on the grounds and inside the tasting room, so it is a good stop if anyone in your party is traveling with a four-legged companion. Reservations are recommended for groups of six or more. Because there is no formal seated tasting to rush through, and the grounds genuinely invite lingering — the porch, the vineyard trail, the food trucks — we recommend budgeting at least ninety minutes to two hours here, longer if you catch live music or want to eat.

Where Hidden Vineyard Fits in Your Tour Route

Hidden Vineyard sits in Surry County on the Surry County Wine Trail, between the towns of Dobson and Pilot Mountain, which puts it within easy reach of several other Surry County wineries in one loop. It pairs naturally with a day built around Dobson-area stops rather than the wineries further east near Elkin or Yadkinville, and its casual, come-as-you-are atmosphere makes a nice contrast if you are also visiting one of the larger, more formal Yadkin Valley estates the same day.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time between stops. Because Hidden Vineyard’s hours run later than most Yadkin Valley tasting rooms — open until 8pm on Friday and Saturday — it also works well as a relaxed final stop on a Surry County wine tour, after other tasting rooms have already closed for the day.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Zimmerman Vineyards: Randolph County’s First Commercial Vineyard

Zimmerman Vineyards opened its doors to the public on June 1, 2007, becoming Randolph County’s first commercial vineyard. The winery is family owned and operated, now managed by siblings Lauren, Shane and Adriaan Zimmerman along with their respective spouses, Megan Zimmerman and Alex Myers. While the wine itself is made off premises, it is produced exclusively from grapes grown on the estate — the fruit is entirely their own.

The winery’s wine labels carry a distinctive image: Sisyphus, the Greek mythological King of Corinth condemned to push a great boulder uphill for eternity. It is a deliberate, self-aware choice — the Zimmermans describe their own effort building the vineyard as mirroring Sisyphus’s struggle, with one important difference: their work has been goal-driven, and it has led them to the realization of a dream rather than an endless, fruitless task.

The Wines of Zimmerman Vineyards

Zimmerman’s estate-grown lineup carries the Sisyphus mythology through its names. On the white side, Sisyphus itself is a Bordeaux Blanc-style blend — crisp and neutral, with light acidity and flavors that lean toward lime or apple — while Persephone blends their white varieties into a table wine with citrus notes and a hint of sweetness. Rosé Rush is a light, effervescent rosé with citrus and red fruit character and a dry finish.

The reds follow the same Bordeaux-inspired approach: the red Sisyphus is a true Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, while Heir of Hypnos is a light-bodied, unoaked red blend built to showcase pure red-fruit character. The red Persephone is a semi-dry blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, best served chilled, and Aegina rounds out the lineup as a dessert wine with tropical fruit notes.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 1428 Tabernacle Church Road, Trinity, NC 27370
Hours (March – November): Saturday 12pm – 6pm, Sunday 1pm – 6pm
December – February: Closed for winter break

Zimmerman sits among the Uwharrie Mountains, and the flagstone terrace is the heart of a visit — from there you can take in the vines, gardens and surrounding mountainside while you taste. From April through October, the winery hosts “Songwriter Sundays,” with live original music from local musicians between 3 and 5pm alongside a glass of Zimmerman wine or a local Goose & The Monkey beer.

• Terrace Tasting — taste the estate lineup on the flagstone terrace overlooking the vineyard.
• Songwriter Sundays — live music April through October, 3–5pm.
• Charcuterie Boards — Goat Lady Dairy cheese, meat, crackers and grapes, available to pair with your tasting.
• Picnics Welcome — bring your own food to enjoy on the grounds during normal business hours.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: Zimmerman only operates Saturdays and Sundays, and closes entirely for winter break from December through February, so this is very much a warm-weather stop to plan around rather than a year-round option. Leashed pets are welcome on the terrace and grounds (with proof of current vaccinations) but not inside the tasting room, and outside alcohol is not permitted since ABC regulations prohibit it — though the on-site Goose & The Monkey beer selection covers anyone in your group who prefers beer to wine. We recommend budgeting at least ninety minutes here, longer on a Songwriter Sunday when the music makes it easy to linger.

Where Zimmerman Fits in Your Tour Route

Zimmerman sits in Trinity, in Randolph County, which puts it closer to the Lexington-area wineries than to the Surry County cluster most High Country wine tours focus on. Childress Vineyards and Junius Lindsay Vineyard in Lexington, and Weathervane Winery a short drive north, all sit within easy reach of Zimmerman — making this eastern corner of the region its own natural mini-route.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time between stops. Because Zimmerman is only open Saturday and Sunday afternoons (and closed entirely in winter), we recommend confirming it is in season before anchoring a whole day’s route around it.

Zimmerman also hosts weddings on the property, with a package that includes fourteen hours of venue use plus a two-hour rehearsal window, bride and groom suites, a 20′ x 40′ event tent with string lights, and room for up to 100 guests — something to keep in mind if your group is scouting Piedmont wineries for an upcoming celebration rather than just a tasting day.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Younts Wine Farm: A Tobacco Field Becomes a Family Vineyard

Younts Wine Farm grew out of a very personal story. As a child, Tina Younts spent years helping her family raise tobacco on the same land outside Walnut Cove, North Carolina, that now supports the vineyard — and years later, she found herself living in the old farmhouse where she was raised. In the 1980s, Tina and her husband Bruce took a trip to Europe that exposed them to wine culture for the first time, and they came home with an idea: rather than let the family land grow over, they would plant a vineyard and build something that could stay in the family for generations.

The first Chardonnay vine went into the ground in the spring of 1996, with additional varietals added acre by acre in the years that followed until there was no more room to plant. In its early years, Younts Wine Farm sold its grapes to other North Carolina wineries; only later did the family build a small, garagiste-style winery on the property, working with local custom-crush facilities before eventually moving the whole process — harvest through bottling — onto the farm itself.

The Wines of Younts Wine Farm

Younts Wine Farm is a private vineyard and winery expanding across ten acres, planted with several French varietals. The vineyard is now managed by Tina and Bruce’s youngest son, Eric Younts, whose history with the land goes back to when the first vines were planted — he was four years old at the time, and he spent his childhood summers working the vineyard alongside his parents. Eric now oversees everything from pruning through harvest and leads the winemaking process himself, while continuing his formal education in Viticulture and Enology at Surry Community College, the same program behind the Surry Cellars label elsewhere on the Yadkin Valley Wine Trail.

Younts Wine began selling at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market, and today its wines can be purchased online and at Daily Basket in Germanton, North Carolina. The family has said they are actively looking to expand into more retail locations, so the list of places to find a bottle may grow over time.

Planning Your Visit

Location: Fowler Road, Walnut Cove, NC 27052, just off Main Street

Younts Wine Farm is a private, family-run vineyard rather than a winery built around daily walk-in tastings — we were not able to confirm regular public visiting hours or an on-site tasting fee in our research, so we recommend reaching out to the family through Facebook or Instagram before planning a stop here specifically.

• Reach out ahead of time — message Younts Wine Farm on Facebook or Instagram to ask about current visiting policy for groups.
• Buy the wine locally — Younts Wine is sold at Daily Basket in Germanton, NC, and online, if a farm visit does not line up with your schedule.
• Combine it with a Stokes County stop — Walnut Cove sits close to several other northern Piedmont wineries worth pairing on the same day.

A few practical notes we have learned from planning trips through this part of Stokes County: because Younts Wine Farm operates more like a small family vineyard than a public tasting room, we treat it as a “confirm first” stop rather than one we build a fixed itinerary around. If the family can accommodate a visit on your date, wonderful — but we always have a backup plan among the area’s other wineries in case the farm’s schedule does not allow for guests that day.

Where Younts Wine Farm Fits in Your Tour Route

Younts Wine Farm sits just outside Walnut Cove in Stokes County, close to a small cluster of wineries around Madison and Mayodan, including Dragon Glass Winery and Gioia dell’Amore Cellars at Autumn Creek Vineyards, with Old Homeplace Vineyard in Winston-Salem also within reasonable reach. This part of the state sits apart from the denser Surry County winery cluster, so we usually build a route around Stokes and Rockingham County stops together rather than mixing in wineries an hour away near Dobson or Elkin.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time between stops, and check in with Younts Wine Farm ahead of your trip so you know whether a farm visit is part of the day or whether you will simply pick up a bottle at Daily Basket along the way.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Windsor Run Cellars: Grape to Glass, and Glass to Spirit

Along the Swan Creek Wine Trail in Hamptonville, Windsor Run Cellars describes itself simply: creativity is king. It is a fully integrated “grape to glass” operation — the estate grows, produces and sells its wine all under one roof (well, under two roofs, since the grapes themselves grow outside). Owner Chuck Johnson, a former logistics industry executive who has served on the NC Winegrowers Association board, also owns nearby Shadow Springs Vineyard, and the two properties share a winemaking team and an events calendar.

What makes Windsor Run especially interesting for a wine tour stop is what happens after the wine is made: the WRC Distillery, open for tours and tastings on-site, takes the same grapes and turns them into brandy and spirits. It is a genuinely rare chance to see the full production chain — from vine, to wine, to spirit — in a single visit.

The Wines of Windsor Run Cellars

Windsor Run’s lineup is unusually wide-ranging: estate reds and whites, rosé, sangria, meads, and fortified wines and brandies made in-house. The Yadkin Five is a dry white blend of five different varietals sourced from five different Yadkin Valley vineyards, while Fieldstone blends Valvin Muscat and Albariño into a lower-acid white with citrus and stone-fruit notes. On the red side, Ember is a young-style, minimally oaked Malbec meant to be served chilled, and Resolve is their dry, barrel-aged wine with bold tannin.

The fortified and specialty wines are where Windsor Run really stands apart: Midnight Run, a port-style wine made from Chambourcin and Petit Verdot and fortified with their own brandy, and the 2016 Midnight Run Grand Reserve, aged since 2016 at 18% alcohol. There is also an Apple Mead fermented with cider, honey and cinnamon, muscadine wines like Snow Cream and Plum Crazy, and even a G&J — a wine cocktail built around gin botanicals and Seyval grape juice. Windsor Run also runs a custom-crush program, making wine for other producers under its Vine to Wine Custom Crush service.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 6531 Windsor Road, Hamptonville, NC 27020
Tasting Room Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm
Sunday: 1pm – 5pm
Distillery: Open Saturdays and Sundays; closed major holidays

No reservations are required for groups of six or fewer walking in for a standard tasting. For a more immersive visit, Windsor Run offers The Grand Tasting Experience — a reservation-only, 2 to 2.5 hour guided journey across all three of Chuck’s properties (Windsor Run Cellars, Windsor Run Distillery, and Shadow Springs Vineyard), including curated flights, a behind-the-scenes production tour, locally sourced charcuterie, and a keepsake Riedel wine glass, for $95 plus tax per person. It is limited to one session of four to eight people per weekend, so it needs to be booked well in advance.

• Standard Tasting Room Visit — walk-in friendly for groups of six or fewer, no reservation required.
• The Grand Tasting Experience — reservation-only, across all three Windsor Run/Shadow Springs properties, $95+tax per person.
• Distillery Tour — open weekends, showing how the same grapes become brandy and spirits.
• Annual Herb Festival — a Mother’s Day weekend event across four participating Swan Creek Trail tasting rooms, with wine, food and herb pairings ($35 per ticket, good for two people).

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: because Windsor Run operates both a winery and a working distillery on one property, it is worth allowing extra time if your group wants to see both sides of the operation rather than just the tasting room. We generally recommend budgeting at least ninety minutes for a standard visit, and the better part of an afternoon if you book the Grand Tasting Experience across all three properties.

Where Windsor Run Fits in Your Tour Route

Windsor Run sits right on the Swan Creek Wine Trail in Hamptonville, in the same small cluster as Shadow Springs Vineyard (under the same ownership) and Dobbins Creek Vineyards and Laurel Gray Vineyards nearby — making this corner of the Yadkin Valley one of the easiest to string together into a single day without long drives between stops.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time between stops, and consider grouping Windsor Run with its Hamptonville neighbors rather than trying to combine it with wineries on the far side of the valley.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Weathervane Winery: Named for the Force Behind Every Vintage

Weathervane Winery takes its name from the single biggest variable in winemaking: the weather. From the earliest stages of grape development through the final phase of fermentation, weather shapes what ends up in the glass — and the Lexington, North Carolina winery built its identity around that idea, treating every vintage as a record of the season that produced it. It is a fitting name for a winery on the eastern edge of the Yadkin Valley wine region, close enough to Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point and Charlotte to draw visitors from all four cities for an afternoon.

What sets Weathervane apart from larger production wineries is the hand-made approach: nothing here is mass produced, there is no filtering, and there are no oversized storage tanks for aging. Everything is done by hand, from crush through bottling, with the goal of making sure every bottle delivers the best possible taste rather than the most efficient one.

The Wines of Weathervane Winery

Weathervane’s portfolio runs to 19 wines across dry whites, dry reds, rosé, fruit wines and sweet styles, so there is genuinely something for every palate in your group. On the white side, look for Ionosphere, their take on a Pinot Grigio with floral notes and a crisp, dry finish, and Evening Breeze, a Riesling and Semillon blend that is bold and fruit-forward. Harvest Moon, an estate Rosé made from the Chambourcin grape, is light, crisp and fruit-forward, while Cirrus White, their estate Traminette, is balanced with a pleasant lingering finish.

Tastings are guided by staff who walk you through each wine’s aromas, flavor profile, sweetness and body, along with food pairing suggestions — a nice touch whether you are a longtime wine drinker or trying your first flight. The winery describes its lineup as award-winning, and the range is built deliberately: dry reds and whites for guests who want a serious pour, plus fruit and sweet wines for anyone easing into wine tasting for the first time. After your tasting, the on-site gift shop and online wine shop make it easy to take a few bottles home, and Weathervane’s Wine Club offers regular pickups and discounts for repeat visitors.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 1452 Welcome Arcadia Road, Lexington, NC 27295
Tasting Room Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 5pm
Sunday: 1pm – 5pm

Weathervane keeps tastings simple and affordable: a guided flight of five wines is $16 including tax, or $20 if you want to keep the glass. Walk-ins are always welcome during regular business hours, and reservations are recommended only for large groups or private events.

• Guided Wine Tasting — five wines, walk-in friendly, with staff walking your group through aromas, flavor and pairings.
• Wine-Down Fridays — seasonal live-entertainment events at the winery; admission varies, and wine club members and a guest are admitted free.
• Event Center Tour — Weathervane’s 2,400-square-foot event space seats 125–175 guests and is available Tuesday through Sunday, 9am – 10pm, for weddings, showers, and private parties.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: because Weathervane welcomes walk-ins for regular tastings, you generally do not need to lock in a reservation the way you might at wineries with seated, appointment-only experiences — but if your visit lines up with a Wine-Down Friday or another live event, it is worth checking ahead, since those nights draw a bigger local crowd. We recommend budgeting about an hour to ninety minutes here, longer if your group wants to relax on the patio or browse the gift shop.

Where Weathervane Fits in Your Tour Route

Weathervane sits on the eastern edge of the Yadkin Valley wine region, closer to Lexington and the Piedmont Triad than to the Surry County cluster of wineries most High Country groups think of first. That makes it a natural stop to pair with other wineries in the Lexington and Trinity area — including Childress Vineyards and Junius Lindsay Vineyard in Lexington, and Zimmerman Vineyards a short drive south in Trinity — rather than trying to combine it with wineries an hour or more away near Elkin or Dobson.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time between stops. Because Weathervane’s tasting room opens at 11am most days (matching most of the Yadkin Valley), it fits comfortably into a route that starts around late morning and works its way through two or three eastern Yadkin Valley stops in an afternoon.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Surry Cellars: North Carolina’s Teaching Winery

Surry Cellars is unlike any other stop on a Yadkin Valley wine tour, because it is not a family estate or a commercial winery at all — it is the wine label of Surry Community College’s Viticulture & Enology Technology program, based at the college’s main campus on South Main Street in Dobson. The wines poured and bottled under the Surry Cellars name are produced as part of the coursework that trains the next generation of North Carolina winemakers, right in the middle of the state’s most concentrated wine-growing region.

Surry Community College sits in Surry County, which is itself part of the Yadkin Valley AVA and home to one of the highest concentrations of wineries and vineyards in North Carolina. The college’s program has become a quiet but important part of the region’s wine industry — several winemakers and vineyard managers working at other wineries on this list have come up through Surry’s viticulture and enology classrooms, and a number of them mentioned that training when we talked with them about their own wines.

The Wines of Surry Cellars

Because Surry Cellars is a teaching label rather than a single estate with its own vineyard acreage, its wines come from student and faculty winemaking projects rather than one fixed vineyard site. Currently, Surry Cellar wines can be purchased at a number of locations around the region rather than exclusively from the college itself. We were not able to verify a current, detailed list of varietals, vintages, or specific retail locations at the time of writing — that information changes from year to year as new student classes come through the program — so we recommend checking with Surry Community College or the NC Wine & Grape Council directly for the current lineup before you go looking for a bottle.

Planning Your Visit

Location: South Main Street, Dobson, NC (Surry Community College’s Dobson campus)

Because Surry Cellars operates inside a college program rather than as a standalone tasting room, we were not able to confirm regular public tasting-room hours, a tasting fee, or a walk-in visiting policy in our research. If a public tasting or event is part of your group’s plan, we recommend confirming current details directly with Surry Community College before building it into your itinerary.

• Confirm before you go — call or check with the college’s viticulture and enology program for current tasting availability, hours, and where the wine is being sold locally.
• Pair it with a Dobson-area stop — Surry Cellars sits in the same small city as several other Yadkin Valley tasting rooms, so it is easy to build a route around it even on a day when the college program itself is not open to visitors.

A few practical notes we have learned from planning trips through this part of Surry County: because Surry Cellars’ schedule follows an academic calendar rather than a typical winery’s daily hours, it is the one stop on this list where we always confirm details with the college directly before a group’s tour date, rather than assuming it will operate like the family-run wineries nearby. If you are set on tasting Surry Cellars wine specifically, budget some flexibility into your day rather than counting on a fixed visiting window.

Where Surry Cellars Fits in Your Tour Route

Surry Cellars sits in Dobson, in the same small city as Stony Knoll Vineyards and several other Surry County tasting rooms, which makes it easy to fold into a Dobson-focused day even if its own hours do not line up with your visit. Surry County has one of the densest clusters of wineries anywhere in the Yadkin Valley, so this is a part of the region where you can move between stops quickly.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time for the tasting rooms on your itinerary, and treat Surry Cellars as a bonus stop to check on the day — if the program has a tasting or event open to the public, it is worth the short detour; if not, Dobson still has plenty of family-run wineries to fill your day.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Stony Knoll Vineyards: A Century Farm Turns From Tobacco to Wine

Stony Knoll Vineyards sits on a North Carolina Century Farm that has been in the same family since 1896, when the ancestors of Kathy Coe bought a tract of land in southern Surry County. For most of the twentieth century the farm’s cash crop was tobacco — cleared by hand tools and domesticated animals in the early 1940s, and worked that way until the early 1980s, when the family shifted to cattle and hay. It was Van Coe, in the late 1990s, who had the idea to put the land into a very different kind of cultivation, with an eye toward preserving the farm for future generations.

In April 2001, 5.25 acres of grapevines went in where tobacco once grew — Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Niagara among the first plantings — and the tasting room and winery opened in 2004. Today Stony Knoll still describes itself simply as a multi-generational family farm that converted from tobacco to grapes, and that heritage is very much part of the appeal: this is a working Century Farm in the Yadkin Valley AVA, not a manufactured attraction.

The Wines of Stony Knoll Vineyards

The vineyard has grown from that original 5.25-acre planting to 10 acres of vines today, adding Merlot, Chambourcin, Viognier, Arandell and Corot Noir alongside the original varietals. The lineup spans dry whites, dry reds and sweet wines: a no-oak Stainless Steel Chardonnay and a Barrel Fermented Chardonnay split between neutral French and new American oak, a 2023 Viognier with honeysuckle and pear notes, and the Vintner’s Bliss Rosé made from 100% Chambourcin.

On the red side, the Chambourcin, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon anchor the dry lineup — the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are both aged three years in French oak. For guests who prefer something sweeter, Stony Knoll also pours a semi-sweet Red Table Wine, the strawberry-and-cherry Patricia Pink, and Ardella, a soft white table wine made from the American Niagara grape and named for a member of the family.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 1143 Stony Knoll Road, Dobson, NC 27017
Tasting Room Hours: Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10am – 6pm
January & February (Winter Hours): Friday & Saturday only, 10am – 6pm

Tastings at Stony Knoll are simple and reasonably priced: a wine tasting or flight is $15, or $20 if you want to keep the glass, and wine by the glass runs $6 (the Cabernet Sauvignon is $8, and their limited-release MEBOS is $12). Cases are discounted 10% off regular pricing.

• Guided Tasting/Flight — sample the dry whites, dry reds, and sweet wines at your own pace.
• Wine by the Glass — a relaxed option if your group just wants to settle in on the property.
• Picnic on the Grounds — bring your own lawn chairs and a picnic; Stony Knoll also keeps a limited selection of snacks for purchase.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: this is a farm first, so hours are tighter than at some of the larger Yadkin Valley wineries — note that Stony Knoll is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and January/February hours shrink to weekends only, so it is worth confirming the calendar before you build it into a tour date. Dogs are welcome on the property on a leash but not inside the tasting room. We generally recommend budgeting about an hour here, longer if your group wants to spread out a picnic and enjoy the farm views.

Where Stony Knoll Fits in Your Tour Route

Stony Knoll sits in Dobson, in the heart of Surry County and a genuine cluster of Yadkin Valley tasting rooms — it pairs naturally with other Dobson-area stops rather than requiring a long drive between wineries. Because its hours are more limited than most, we like to anchor a route around Stony Knoll’s open days and build the rest of the day’s stops around it.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time between stops, and confirm Stony Knoll’s current open days before locking in your itinerary. Because the tasting room here is smaller and more personal than some of the Yadkin Valley’s larger estates, we like scheduling it earlier in the day, when there is more time for the family running the tasting room to talk through the property’s history and the differences between the older varietals planted in 2001 and the newer additions.

For groups planning a full day of tasting, Dobson’s cluster of wineries means you can visit two or three stops without much time lost to driving between them — a real advantage over parts of the Yadkin Valley where wineries are spread farther apart. That makes Stony Knoll a good anchor stop for a Surry County-focused itinerary rather than a single stand-alone destination.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Stardust Cellars & Taproom: NC’s First Biodynamic Winery, Foot-Stomped and Award-Winning

Stardust Cellars bills itself as North Carolina’s first biodynamic winery, and the small-batch approach shows up in how the wine actually gets made: grapes are foot-stomped and basket-pressed in craft-sized batches rather than run through industrial equipment. The winery has earned the Triple Dogwood sustainability rating from NC GreenTravel, recognizing an in-house bottle recycling program, a composting system aimed at a zero-waste stream, vineyards farmed without irrigation or chemical sprays, and sanitizing done with ozone and biodegradable cleansers instead of harsher chemicals.

That sustainability commitment is not a marketing add-on here — it runs through every stage of production, from how the grapes are farmed to how the empty bottles are handled after the wine is gone. For a region built mostly around conventional estate wineries, Stardust’s biodynamic-first identity makes it one of the more distinctive stops on a Yadkin Valley itinerary.

Alongside wine, Stardust has built a strong name in mead — its flagship Honey Buzzed, a tart, semisweet session mead blending ginger spice and sour lemon into wild-fermented, “funky” honey, won a Gold Medal at the 2024 National Meadcrafters Competition. The North Wilkesboro location, set in a converted former Round Up building along Statesville Road, also produces cider and both domestic and craft beer.

The Wines & Meads of Stardust Cellars

The North Wilkesboro location functions as both meadery and taproom, producing mead from local Foothills honey and the property’s own well water, alongside wine, cider, and beer. The biodynamic, low-intervention approach means small production runs and batch-to-batch variation is part of the character rather than something to be engineered out. Stardust’s meads are also available at Lowe’s Foods locations across North Carolina.

The mead program in particular sets Stardust apart from most of the estate wineries in the Yadkin Valley. Wild fermentation means the bees, not a lab strain, largely determine the character of each batch — which is part of why Honey Buzzed earned its gold medal, and why regulars come back specifically to see what a new batch tastes like. Stardust also produces its own ciders in-house, giving visitors who prefer something other than wine or mead a reason to linger at the taproom.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 4780 Statesville Road, North Wilkesboro, NC 28659

• Mead & Wine Flights — a sampling of Stardust’s mead and wine lineup, available in the taproom.
• Private Events — the venue can be rented for weddings, birthdays, corporate retreats, and galas.
• Live Music & Trivia — regularly scheduled events; check the winery’s calendar and social channels before you go.
• On-Site Camping — camping is available for anyone who wants to turn a visit into an overnight.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: Stardust is genuinely pet-friendly — dogs, cats, birds, and even the occasional lizard are welcome inside — and the taproom is kid-friendly too, with non-alcoholic drink options on hand. Tasting room hours can shift seasonally and by event schedule, so we always confirm current hours directly with Stardust before building it into a tour. Because there is often live music, trivia, or a private event on the calendar, budget at least 90 minutes here and check ahead if you want a quieter visit. Groups looking for a distillery-adjacent, low-key experience tend to enjoy this stop the most — it reads less like a formal winery tasting and more like a neighborhood taproom that happens to make some genuinely award-winning mead.

Where Stardust Fits in Your Tour Route

Stardust sits toward the western edge of the Yadkin Valley wine region, close enough to Wilkes County’s Ronda-area wineries — including Raffaldini Vineyards and Sotrio Vineyards — and to Jones Von Drehle Vineyards further east that it works well as an anchor for a route through the valley’s western half. Because it sits a bit apart from the denser Elkin and Hamptonville clusters, it pairs best with two or three stops rather than a full five-winery day.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time, and note that Stardust’s biodynamic, small-batch approach means the tasting room experience can move a little differently than a typical estate winery — give yourself room in the schedule rather than rushing straight through. For groups coming down from the High Country, Stardust’s location toward North Wilkesboro also makes it a convenient first or last stop, since it sits closer to the mountains than most of the Yadkin Valley’s better-known estate wineries further east.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Slightly Askew Winery: Elkin’s Playful, Pet-Named Wine List

Slightly Askew Winery describes itself plainly: “not your typical winery, we’re a ‘slightly’ different Yadkin Valley winery.” The tasting room in downtown Elkin, North Carolina blends wine made from local juices with juices sourced from some of the best wine regions in the world, and the personality of the place shows up right there on the wine list — several bottlings are named after the winery’s own dogs. “Penny for your Thoughts,” a stainless Chardonnay, takes its name from a dog named Penny, and “Blackjack ‘BJ’,” a blackberry Merlot, honors a past field champion dog that has been a family favorite since the wine’s earliest vintage.

The winery is also a stop on the Elkin Vine Line, a hop-on-hop-off wine tour that passes by on Saturdays and Sundays — a sign of how central Slightly Askew is to the Elkin tasting-room scene.

The Wines of Slightly Askew Winery

The lineup splits cleanly between dry and sweet drinkers. Dry-side pours include Jumpin’ Jazzmine (a Riesling with apricot and tropical fruit notes), Camp Creek Clear and Penny for your Thoughts (both stainless Chardonnays), Stump Farm (Petit Manseng), Mountaineer Pride (Cabernet Franc), Roaring River Red (Merlot), Cordeaux “Big Red” (a Petit Verdot, Tannat, and Merlot blend), and Mystic Vision (an Argentina Malbec, Bonarda, Syrah, and Merlot blend). On the fruit-wine side, look for flavors like raspberry white zinfandel, green apple Gewürztraminer, cranberry Chianti, and peach Chardonnay, alongside the winery’s playfully named blackberry, blueberry, and tropical-fruit blends. Beyond the tasting room, Slightly Askew’s wines are also carried at a handful of local retailers and restaurants around Elkin and Mount Airy.

What stands out about this list is how personal it is. Rather than naming wines after the grape blend alone, Slightly Askew names many of them after the winery’s own dogs, local landmarks like Camp Creek and Stump Farm, and inside jokes that only make sense once the tasting room staff tells you the story. It is the kind of wine list that rewards asking questions — nearly every bottle has a short story behind the name, and the staff are happy to share it if you ask while you taste.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 913 North Bridge Street, Elkin, NC 28621
Tasting Room: Thursday – Saturday, 1pm – 6pm; Sunday, 1pm – 5pm

• Tasting Flights — a walk-in sampling of the dry and fruit wine lineup, poured in the downtown Elkin tasting room.
• Retail Shop — gifts, snacks, cheese, t-shirts, and other souvenirs alongside the wine list.
• Elkin Vine Line Stop — the winery sits directly on this weekend hop-on-hop-off wine tour route, so the tasting room can get lively on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: this is a smaller, more casual tasting room than some of the estate wineries nearby, so it works well as a quick, fun stop rather than a full sit-down experience. Because it is directly on the Elkin Vine Line route, weekend afternoons can be busy with walk-up traffic from that tour, so we plan around that if a quieter visit matters to your group. Budget about an hour here — enough time to taste through the list and pick up a bottle or two. If your group likes a wine list with a sense of humor rather than a formal tasting menu, this is one of the more memorable stops on a Yadkin Valley route, and it tends to be a favorite with bachelorette and birthday groups looking for something a little different from the bigger estate wineries.

Where Slightly Askew Fits in Your Tour Route

Slightly Askew sits right in downtown Elkin, alongside Elkin Creek Vineyards, Carolina Heritage Vineyard & Winery, and Adagio Vineyards & Winery — all within a few minutes’ drive. That makes Elkin one of the most walkable, tightly clustered stretches of the Yadkin Valley for a group that wants to taste at several small wineries without spending the whole day in the car.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time, though Elkin’s cluster of small tasting rooms can move a little faster than the larger estate wineries. Most Yadkin Valley tasting rooms open by noon, and Slightly Askew’s 1pm opening pairs well as a second or third stop after starting elsewhere in Elkin.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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

Shadow Springs Vineyard: 20 Years From Tobacco Land to Wine and Spirits

Shadow Springs Vineyard exists because its founder, Chuck, missed one too many of his sons’ baseball games. He left his corporate job and moved the family back to North Carolina to start a vineyard, planting four acres of Merlot and Cabernet Franc on old tobacco land in the spring of 2005. The tasting room opened with the winery’s first vintage in the summer of 2008, and the vineyard has since grown to nearly eleven acres of red and white grapes.

That family-first, no-pretension founding story still shapes how the winery describes itself today. Shadow Springs makes a point of calling out that there is “no stuffy atmosphere, no pretentious founders, and no intimidating wine jargon” in its tasting room — a direct reflection of Chuck’s own reason for starting the place, which was to build something the whole family could be part of rather than a formal wine business.

In 2011, the family purchased the old Buck Shoals Vineyard & Winery from the Crater family — a property just half a mile down the road — and turned it into Windsor Run Cellars, a 15,000-square-foot winemaking facility. Today that building produces wine for Brandon Hills Vineyard, Divine Llama Vineyards, Sanders Ridge, Medaloni Cellars, Point Lookout Vineyards, and Roaring River Vineyards, in addition to Shadow Springs and Windsor Run themselves. When North Carolina passed a 2015 law allowing craft distilleries to sell directly to customers on-site, the team launched WRC Distillery, producing small-batch spirits including White Widow, Killer Bee, and Shadow Hawk. Shadow Springs recently celebrated its 20th anniversary — a milestone the family says most small wineries never reach.

The Wines of Shadow Springs Vineyard

Shadow Springs describes itself as “a traditional winery with a decidedly non-traditional attitude” — no stuffy atmosphere, no wine jargon, just wines built for classic dry drinkers and sweeter palates alike. Current releases include a Tangled Oak Blanc (Chardonnay-Chardonel blend aged in French oak and brandy barrels), a Stainless Chardonnay, Petit Manseng, Seyval Blanc, dry Rosé, Cabernet Franc, and Chambourcin, generally priced in the mid-$20s to $30 range per bottle.

The Windsor Run connection matters here beyond ownership history. Because the same 15,000-square-foot facility produces wine for half a dozen labels in the immediate area, Shadow Springs’ winemaking team has an unusually deep, hands-on familiarity with this specific stretch of Yadkin Valley terroir — they are literally making the wine for several of the neighboring tasting rooms you might also visit on the same trip.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 5543 Crater Road, Hamptonville, NC 27020
Tasting Room: Wednesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm; Sunday, 1pm – 5pm (January – February, weekends only)
Reservations: Not required for groups of six or fewer

• Wine Flight — choose four wines, 2 oz pours each, served with a stemless glass, $16.
• Cellar Select Tasting — a pour of the winery’s four best wines (two reds, one white, and a Blanc de Blanc sparkling), with your choice of a red or rosé/sparkling Riedel glass, $30.
• Large Group Tastings — available for groups larger than six with at least 24 hours’ notice; reservations cannot be made past 3:30pm and are not guaranteed for groups arriving more than 30 minutes late.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: no outside alcohol is permitted, and reservations for larger groups need to be locked in the day before rather than the morning of. The tasting room is genuinely relaxed — bring a picnic lunch and settle in. Because Shadow Springs sits on the Swan Creek Vineyards wine trail alongside several sibling wineries produced at Windsor Run, we budget at least 90 minutes here, more if your group wants to walk over to Windsor Run Cellars as well.

Where Shadow Springs Fits in Your Tour Route

Shadow Springs sits right in the middle of a cluster of Hamptonville-area wineries, with Windsor Run Cellars literally half a mile away and Dobbins Creek Vineyards and Laurel Gray Vineyards just a short drive further. This makes Hamptonville one of the easiest pockets of the Yadkin Valley to build a tight, no-backtracking route around.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time. Shadow Springs opens at 10am most of the year, so it works well as a first stop before moving on to neighboring tasting rooms that open at 11am or noon.

Explore More from Ashe County Livery

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