A Few Wineries in Western NC & Cherokee Painted Bears

Yesterday I told you about our trip to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and assured that I would tell you about the rest of my birthday celebration, which was visiting the local wineries...so without further ado and as promised...

...after all the serenity we enjoyed while walking through the forest, we decided to stop at a couple small wineries in Western NC.  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day.  Our first stop was at Calaboose Cellars in Andrews.  The building is quaint despite the bars on the windows...it's said to have been used as a jail way back when...and its the smallest free standing winery in America.

We enjoyed tasting their wines and after selecting two bottles to bring home, we sat here and enjoyed the view while I sipped a glass of their Revenoor's Red and Johny had a dark Belgium beer.

 These are the two bottles we brought home...the Seyval is a crisp white wine, neither dry not sweet, and the Chambourcin is a purple colored, medium-bodied wine with berry aromas.

After sitting, relaxing and enjoying the scenery for a while, we went to Cherokee Cellars, which is also a fine art gallery, located in Murphy.

It was another delightful visit and we tasted just a few of their wines, deciding to purchase their bright and crisp Raspberry wine and their Cabernet Franc, which we didn't taste but they said was one of their best sellers...its lighter than a Cabernet Sauvignon and we thought we'd both like it.

They told us about Valley River Vineyards, (also in Murphy) so we decided to make one more stop...another beautiful spot to have a winery (the building wasn't anything to photograph, but the view sure was!)...the owner was a delightful ol' timer and full of stories about the Western NC area.

We tasted and decided to buy his sweet dessert wine which is an Icewine...unusual for these parts but quite bright.  This is only a portion of the label because it actually isn't the correct label for the wine, but he was waiting for his new labels and he said people wanted to buy it now, so this is the label it gets for now, too funny...

 ...this is the back of the bottle, and yes, it is smaller than the usual wine bottle, 500 ml.  We already have it chilling!

The wineries were quite enjoyable, each one with its own style and atmosphere...it's probably a very good thing they are over the mountains and through the woods, otherwise I'd want to visit often!

One more interesting thing about our trip is all the Cherokee Painted Bears we passed by during our travels.  The bears were created by the Eastern Band of Cherokee artists to encourage tourism in the area...there are 19 of the 25 brightly painted fiberglass bears currently displayed throughout Western NC...they were vibrant and intriguing, I wish I could discover the meaning of each design...

 

 

It was a truly special and memorable day...and now you know the whole story!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise