Our car club has been fairly active this summer, and there just hasn’t been time to show all the fun drives we have taken. This one was special because of the gorgeous scenery at the winery. Burntshirt Vineyards and Winery is named for a mountain legend. In days past, the farmers would burn their fields to clear the land for planting, and in the process, toss their shirts into the fire for good luck. North Carolina is becoming known for wine making, as the land and climate are wonderful for grape growing.
We met at a local grocery store parking lot to form up for a fun drive. The organizer of the drive made this a poker run, with cards given to us at the beginning, at three checkpoint stops, and at the winery. Driving through the beautiful countryside, we enjoyed the mountains and greenery surrounding us. This picture was taken by the car behind us.
Arriving at the winery, they had arranged for us to park the vintage cars in the group along the greenway so their other visitors that day could see a mini British Car show.
Next on our agenda was lunch and a wine tasting. Fun!! We were given tastes of seven different wines. I am not a real fan of wine in general, but these were really good. We came home with a couple of bottles. They also gave me a couple of empty ones to play with. The slender one was a dessert wine. I cleaned the bottle and it will become my olive oil bottle. The blue one was an empty, I liked the gold script on the bottle.
The gardens around the winery are just beautiful.
There is a fountain as a focal point.
Beautiful flowers line the paved patio, with grape vines beyond and mountains in the distance.
After lunch, we were treated to a tour of the winery. The grapes are harvested in the fall, processed and fermented in these huge tanks.
Then aged in barrels.
This room is huge, and cool like an underground cave. There are wine bottle chandeliers too.
The fun thing is this winery is close enough to run down anytime and pick up another bottle of the wine we liked. We picked the Reserve Meritage as our favorite. It is a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. Delicious, dark red, savory wine that would pair well with beef or Italian food. We also got a bottle of Grüner Veltliner, a white wine with citrus notes that will go nicely with chicken or fish.
Do you like wine? What is your favorite?
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From My Carolina Home 
Sounds like a great day out. I lived in an area that had about 60 wineries within an hours drive. It was fun to take visitors out for the afternoon and sit and have a lovely platter, a sip of wine and great company. We are now in Mildura which has some wineries too. I like the feeling and comfort at Trentham winery in NSW. https://www.trenthamestate.com.au Sitting by the river with friends on a sunny day is so relaxing. Love the old cars too. I’m a fan of bubbly or sav Blanc. I think hubby prefers reds but will drink all types except too sweet a wine. Enjoy your days.
Great photos and post. Loved the cars, wineries and ambiance. Nice.
What a wonderful trip to make with the car club. The photos are lovely. The gardens pristine!! We don’t drink much wine, now and then if company is coming and generally it is red. Not a big fan of white wine.
I have been there. It is a lovely place. It sounds like you had a great day.
What a fun trip! Love the pictures. Here in Michigan we have several vineyards along the Lake Michigan coast. My favorites are on the Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City. I prefer Moscato wine.
the tour looks great and so much fun. Must be nice to do this with a group of like minded people
It looks like it was a great cruising day.
Such gorgeous photos! What a fun outing!
I am a wine drinker… any, and all 🙂
Good morning,
My oh my how lucky can you get to have a winery so close to you. Looks like a lovely place, so peaceful and full of tasty wines. Have a listing of wineries her in Ga. I haven’t had a chance to visit many but they are on my to do list. My favorite wines right now are –Glen Ellen chardonnay and Sutter Home White Merlot- Have been looking for wines that don’t have raspberry or pear in them since I don’t care for either of those flavors so I’m not finding too many wines I really care for. I seem to like the tart and dry wines, the sweet ones just once in a while, don’t eat many sweets anymore. Love strawberry with my white merlot and a bit of salt on the berries, no sugar. My friend got me hooked on the salt with the berries, tried them and liked them that way. Love the berries with Greek yogurt and granola for a breakfast, YUM YUM!
Wear a smile and have a great day.
Phyllis
Great photos and narrative!!! Have you tried St. Paul’s really close also? The first Thurs of the month they have a “whatever”……food, fun, festivities……and of course WINE from 5 until….. Their tasting has about 10 or 12 samples (amazing number). They do not have an area as lovely for parking antique cars. I am so jazzed that I don’t have to go to Calif, where my last winery tours were!!!
Hello Carole! Great photos and such a fun post to read this morning. The road that we live on here in the country of Grants Pass, Oregon has 7 Wineries! Kevin and I are not big on wine, but whenever out of town guests come it is always fun to take them for a tour of the Wineries here in our area. There are several others in this area also. We have one Winery right next door; they are the nicest people. This is just a tiny vineyard they decided to try right by their home, but their main one is across the road going the other direction. We have never been there. Then we also have another winery right across from us. Right behind them leads to one of the Mountains that I always forget the name of, it had a big fire not to long ago and we were all getting pretty worried. But WOW did our FIREFIGHTERS KICK ASS!!!! The Applegate River runs right below/behind us and their were 2 helicopters with the water buckets just going back and forth for hours and hours non stop…we were all wondering when they were going to stop and get fuel or crash, seriously it was like 6 hours straight and not once did they stop until they had that fire out!!!!!! Oh, I got off track when I was telling about the Winery and remembered that incident! Had I already told you that? Right now, we are so engulfed in smoke from all of the fires in Oregon the one in Brookings is so sad it is actually only a two hour drive and one of our favorite Coastal stops. Then Cave Junction is only about an hour and a half drive away heading towards the coast also. We also have one going on in Riddle which they are evacuating everyone the fire is so fierce and strong. Riddle is headed towards Portland, but is so much closer to us than that in driving time Portland takes about 6 hours, Riddle takes about 2 to 3. So we are just surrounded with fires and they even are happening here, and the smoke is settling in our area terrible because we are actually in a Valley and Grants Pass is below Sea Level. I am Just going on and on now. So off I go before I start on something else. Have a great day!
I was raised in a teetotaling household and even though I do have a drink from time to time now, it’s not really part of my life, but I love the gardens and views at that vineyard – just beautiful! Looks like what I think a vineyard in Italy might look like, with mountains in the background, but not requiring a passport or plane trip to see!
Bartles and James hee hee. Dad used to get San Antonio Wineries gallon Strawberry and Blackberry wine, and we’d make sangria with 7UP and lemons and limes…. otherwise, I like the flavored ales, that’s about it… I think if someone had given me a strawberry daquiri when i first wanted to try drink, maybe! but scotch and water was given to me and it tasted like what I imagine carburetor fluid tastes like, so never developed a taste. Kahlua and cream at Christmas is about my speed these days 🙂
What a wonderful day out, the gardens and roses are beautiful. I am not a wine drinker but do like a budweiser!!
Your photos are gorgeous, and I always enjoy your car club jaunts. There are a number of wineries on the end of Long Island, and we took guests to one once. We like having wine with dinner occasionally. Even with a meal, I treat wine like a tasting. Half a small glass of wine can get me looped! Someone said I must be allergic to the preservative necessary for shipping it. I know we once stayed at a bed and breakfast where the couple bottled their own wine but did not ship it. I sipped a full glass that evening and never felt it!
That looks like a wonderful winery to visit! We love doing that, and often plan our vacation around some wine tastings. Both of those wines you purchased sound delicious to me!
Carole, what a perfect day for cruising. The grounds of the winery look beautiful!
Wow, what a gorgeous spot!! Yes, I love wine – many types. I buy mine through a site called WTSO (Wines Til Sold Out) where I get great deals on fantastic wines. Now that it’s colder out I am drawn to reds again, but in summer I love white wine – Sauvignon Blanc is my favorite all purpose white but with good cheese it has to be a nice Chardonnay. For reds, I love a red blend, and Spanish reds are my favorite all purpose red that goes with almost anything.
What a delightful outing and I do like your style! People must have loved seeing your group on the highway.
This was such a fun post…all of the different cars and the beautiful grounds at the winery. I had to laugh…I have a grapevine running along my back fence and it is pretty raggedy looking compared to the ones there! 🙂
I do like wine ; Chardonnay / Then there is a family friend who makes his own wine and ANY THING he gives us is fine….oh he had a strawberry wine that I had a taste of last year; amazing!
I don’t drink anything alcoholic, but I would love to visit that winery just to understand the process and to see those beautiful gardens and views!
Looks like a lovely place with those flowers everywhere. Who knew North Carolina was becoming known for wine making? Loved seeing all those cars too. Fun post! Thanks for linking up to Take Me Away!
Shelley