Muscadine Wine

Wandering the back roads in North Carolina while looking for the Dan Nicholas park, we ended up stopping at the Old Stone Vineyard & Winery on Rt. 52 for a wine tasting.

The lady behind the counter was part of the family who owned the winery. She told us the winery and the vineyards were part of the Old Stone House property and that her family was the ninth generation of the Michael Braun family. As she was pouring the various wines produced by the winery she explained about the make up of each wine, the type of grape used and the differences in the varieties of the Muscadine grape they used.

Muscadine grapes are native to the southern portion of the U.S. and have been used for making wine here as early as 1565 in the Spanish settlements in Florida. The Old Stone Winery raises the Carlos grape, a bronze variety also called 'Scuppernong' and the Noble variety which is a grape so dark it appears to be black. The grapes are very sweet and are eaten fresh and made into wine, pies and jellies.

Denny and I tasted the whites and reds both, starting at the sweet end and working our way to the dry. The Carlos Riesling and the Harvest Gold appealed to us, but on this day we went with the reds--the Noble Semi-dry, the Peckerhead Red (a mixture of Cabernet Savignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot) and for fun a 100% blackberry wine that we'll sip while noshing on cheese and summer sausage.

I commented on the striking logo on their bottles which is when the lady explained the story behind the horse. The lady's son is the winemaker for the winery and the horse on the label is the one he rides while inspecting the vineyards. One day he was riding between the rows of grapevines when the horse spooked and threw him off. The family likes to say that if the label could have been made larger they would have included Mark chasing behind the horse on foot. I imagine that little bit of lore stays within the family for the most part, but sometimes you hear interesting little tidbits simply by showing an interest in a person or what they do. You just have to take the time to ask. And we have nothing but time.

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