For those of you who don’t know me on a personal level..or well really at all let me introduce myself. Hi, my name is Jeska and I’m a winoholic. Wine is one of my favorite things in the world and has been for the last 2 years since I had my gateway wine, Moscato. Needless to say I was really really wanting to go to a winery and finally on my last trip to North Carolina my sister, best friend, and I decided to head to the Duplin Winery and check it out.
When we arrived we were about an hour too early for the first tour so the girl at the front desk asked if we wanted to go ahead with the free wine tasting so of course, we said yes. We sat down at the end of the bar and eagerly awaited our samples. The server promptly greeted us and explained how the tasting was going to go, what the empty glasses and crackers were for, and handed us a grading sheet.
After a brief history of the winery, she began filling the glasses with each delicious wine. I believe there were about 12 in total ranging from the sweetest to the driest red and whites. We also tried out 1 of their frozen wines which was absolutely delicious!
Once we finished with our tasting we checked out the little gift shop and picked up a few goodies including the mix to make our own frozen wine. Once we finished looking around we decided to grab a quick bite at the restaurant before lining up for the tour. We really only had a small bowl of soup and maybe some salad to go with our glasses of wine.
Finally, it was time for the tour to start so we headed towards the building where it started. From there a nice blonde woman showed us around and explained each device and how it operated. Since I had no idea how wine was made other than the thought of I Love Lucy stomping in a barrel of grapes, I was very intrigued. I paid attention to every detail soaking it all up.
Overall the Duplin Winery was a great first experience to a winery and enlightened me with the wine making process. I loved getting to sample so many different wines and the crackers to cleanse your palate were tasty. The only advice I would give the winery would be to invest in a van/train/shuttle to transport everyone from the tasting side to the processing side.
Sounds like a really fun day Jess. Are all of the wines there local or are they from all over the country?
They are all local! Surprisingly they have a lot of variety within their winery too!