Vineyards, Distilleries and Breweries
Wilkes County offers quality wineries, breweries — and
Great Views
By Mike Danahey
“La dolce vita” here in the Wilkes County area includes a growing number of bucolic wineries, a craft brewery and even a spot with a meadery to visit. Here’s an alpha list of such establishments, where you can enjoy locally made libations and savor some delicious eats. Each comes with its own backstory, which we’ve provided here to tempt you to stop by for a bit of the good life they have to offer.
Elkin Creek Vineyard
318 Elkin Creek Mill Road
Elkin, NC
336-526-5119
info@elkincreek.com
www.elkincreekvineyard.com
With scenery featuring the confluence of two creeks and a photogenic waterfall, glitzy Las Vegas might be the last place you would think of while visiting Elkin Creek Vineyard.
But owners Nick and Jennifer White and Louis and Carrie Jeroslow all met while working in various roles with Blue Man Group in that fabled desert city.
“We had been fortunate to be part of the huge success of Blue Man Group and felt complete with our journey there,” Louis Jeroslow said. “We were drawn to move back East to be closer to our families and raise our children in a town like Elkin.”
In 2011, the couples bought the pretty property from Mark Greene and his wife. The Greenes established their vineyard in 2001, after purchasing a grist mill that had been built in 1896.
In fact, the Whites got married at Elkin Creek Vineyard in 2008.
“Nick grew up in High Point and had family in the Yadkin Valley. Jennifer grew up in Tennessee and Mississippi and had family there also,” Jeroslow said. “So they chose the location for their destination wedding.”
Weddings, private parties, wine pairing dinners and other special events catered from its kitchen are among the Elkin Creek offerings. For larger gatherings, the vineyard has the Harvest Barn Pavilion. And the property holds four luxury cabins with full kitchens, fireplaces, wifi and private porches.
The restaurant, while not currently open generally to the public, serves as a tasting room for the winery.
“Our regular feature is our famous, made-from-scratch brick oven pizzas, offered every Sunday,” Juroslow said.
As for the wines, Juroslow makes them himself. Elkin Creek grows grapes for Merlot, Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon and sources other varieties from a few neighbors.
“The Yadkin Valley is a direct analogue of Old World European wine regions,” Jeroslow said. “The soil is like Tuscany’s, the climate is similar to Bordeaux, and our latitude aligns with Siciliy — and Monterey, Calif.”
Jones von Drehle Vineyards & Winery
964 Old Railroad Grade Road
Thurmond, NC
336-874-2800
winery@jonesvondrehle.com
www.jonesvondrehle.com
Diana Jones was a NICU nurse and flew Careflight. Her husband Chuck started his own company building wireless systems around the world.
Jones’s sister, Ronnie von Drehle, and Ronnie’s husband, Raymond von Drehle own a manufacturing business that takes recycled paper to produce toilet paper, paper towels and other items.
And in 2007, the two couples found the land in the Blue Ridge Mountains that is their Jones von Drehle Vineyards & Winery.
“Our youngest went to Elon University, and we were up there a lot touring the state and tasting wine. After much research looking for the right area that had all of the criteria needed to grow great fruit, we found our site,” Jones said.
The Joneses’ interest in winemaking grew from time living in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s. When they moved to Georgia in 1990, Chuck planted a small vineyard, made his own wines and began to seriously study the wine industry.
“We always wanted to come back to our home state of North Carolina, loved the wine industry and really investigated what was happening in this state,” Jones said. “And my sister and I always wanted to do something businesswise together.”
Jones said the estate vineyard ages its reds anywhere from 33 to 72 months, which is much longer than traditional in the United States.
“Our 30-acre vineyard is composed of different types of soil and we carefully thought out where each varietal should be planted to achieve the most optimal fruit,” Jones said.
As such, Jones von Drehle specializes in Old World, French style dry wines. Viognier, Petit Manseng, Cabernet Franc and the Steel & Stone red blend are typically among its top sellers. For its tasting room, Jones von Drehle strongly recommends visitors make reservations.
“We will accept walk-ins and never want to turn anyone away. But, if they make a reservation, they do not have to wait if we are full,” Jones said.
The vineyard sells charcuterie packages, meats, hummus, chips and North Carolina cheeses.
“We also have monthly ‘Sip & Savor’ wine dinners showcasing chefs around the state, pairing their food with our wines in our event building,” Jones said.
The vineyard also presents a schedule of concerts, which can be found on its website.
“Our goal is to make great wine, have great food and enjoy wonderful music,” Jones said.
Piccione Vineyards
2364 Cedar Forest Road
Ronda, NC
336-571-1024
info@piccionewines.com
www.piccionevineyards.com
While red wine, in moderation, might be good for the heart, there is a cardiovascular thoracic surgeon behind Piccione Vineyards.
According to the vineyard’s manager, Hailey Klepcyk, at the time Chicagoan Dr. William Piccione purchased the property in 2010, each of his sons was attending college or starting their career on the East Coast.
Piccione wanted to start a family vineyard with sons Billy and Steven. He wound up in Ronda because growing conditions were right for the types of wine he wanted to produce and because of the incredible views.
“When he saw the current property, he knew that it was the place,” Klepcyk said.
The Piccione family comes from Marsala, Sicily, which is world-famous for sweet and dry wines.
To that end, the estate concentrates on Italian and French varietals and is always expanding the vineyard and adding new varietals to its lineup, Klepcyk said.
“We take a lot of pride in the fact that we grow all of our grapes on our estate,” she said.
One of Piccione’s best sellers is Vino di Lusso, which is a sparkling méthode champenoise-style wine made from 100% Chardonnay. Klepcyk said it is unique because of the process it takes to make it, and how hands-on that process is.
“We are very hands-on in the vineyard, versus using mechanization. This allows for us to pick and choose the best clusters and to cut out anything not to our standards.”
In its tasting room and a covered pavilion, Piccione Vineyards offer a small deli of locally made cheeses, chocolates, crackers, a charcuterie and other foods. It also hosts five-wine dinners, 5-6 times a year, and has live music most weekends.
Piccione Vineyards also finds itself in expansion mode and is readying a building called La Colina (the hilltop) to open by late spring or early summer 2023. La Colina will hold a full wine bar, a secondary bar, barrel room, event hall — and offer stunning views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Raffaldini Vineyards and Winery
450 Groce Road
Ronda, NC
336-835-9463
Email through website
www.raffaldini.com
After a career on Wall Street, Jay Raffaldini and his wife, Maureen, moved to North Carolina in 2008.
While it wasn’t exactly part of his long-term masterplan, the self-described Jimmy Buffett “parrot head” wound up opening and running Raffaldini Vineyards and Winery, which now puts out more than 80,000 bottles of Italian wines annually.
“We are of Italian descent. Our father was born in Mantua, Italy and our mother’s parents were born near Chieti, Italy. We are very proud of our Italian heritage, and certain Italian grapes grow very well here,” said Raffaldini’s sister, Barbara Raffaldini.
Barbara was working at a law firm in Chicago, where she and her brother spent a good part of their youth, and decided to move to North Carolina a few years ago. She now works remotely for the same firm and is general manager of the vineyards and winery.
Barbara said the vineyard started in 2001, before her brother moved south, with tasting rooms opening in 2004 and 2005, and the winery and Villa Raffaldini opening in 2008.
The initial idea was purely to make classically dry Italian style wines in an overlooked wine region of the United States.
“Endless trial and error led to finding the right varieties to grow. We ripped out the entire vineyard three times,” Barbara said. “And growing up with an appreciation of dry wine — and food pairings with it — helped in the process.”
To that end, the winery used the appassimento drying process, which gets rid of excess water and dehydrates grapes with fans and heat. That intensifies flavor but reduces yield.
“It’s really about quality over quantity,” Barbara said.
The Raffaldini property consists of 105 acres, 35 of which are planted to grapes. The land alsos holds a Certified Wildlife Habitat, meeting certain protocols including the establishment of overwintering areas and having undisturbed spaces.
Villa Raffaldini features traditional Italian art, architecture, and tasting rooms on both its levels, along with scenic views of the Blue Ridge and Brushy Mountains from inside the tasting rooms and outside on the balconies and landscaped terraces.
The winery will be hosting its 17th annual Festa Italiana Saturday, Sept. 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18.
Roaring River Vineyards
493 Brewer Mill Road
Traphill, NC
336-957-2332
Email through website
roaringrivervineyards.com
Thomas and Josephine Silvey had a retirement dream to build a small cottage on the 50-acre mountain property as their Charlotte weekend getaway.
“One condition from my French wife was that I plant a few rows of grapes to remind her of France,” Silvey said.
A few rows gradually turned into more than seven acres after the couple discovered they were in the middle wine country. With the help of a consultant and other friends in the wine industry they grew into their current business, Roaring River Vineyards, which opened in 2016.
Josephine grew up in a small village in the Champagne area of France before coming to the United States.
The couple met through a dating introduction service. Both had long business careers involving work in the U.S. and abroad.
Roaring River Vineyards has a winery, Chez Josephine restaurant and tasting room, four single bed and one 3.5 bedroom cabins (available through VRBO), an RV Park, Harvest Host Sites, and an event venue.
Silvey said the site’s well-drained soil and mountain top breezes produce a growing setting similar to the Burgundy region of France. It also has a 2-acre truffle orchard.
General Manager Ashlyn Steelman said the restaurant’s signature dish is the bacon burger.
“Our penne alla vodka pasta, though, has quickly become a close contender for the signature dish,” Steelman said.
Roaring River also offers a selection of local NC breweries to complement its wines.
And its best selling wine is the Rock n Roar, a blend of Chambourcin and Norton vinifera.
“It has a great bouquet with aromas of blueberries and baking spice that evolves into a warm vanilla and blackberry jam on a smooth finish,” Silvey said.
Stardust Cellars
1202 Curtis Bridge Road
Wilkesboro, NC
336-466-4454
stardustcellars@gmail.com
www.stardustcellars.com
If you’re looking for “an off-grid, sustainable meadery and winery specializing in method ancestrale and foot-stomped, basket-pressed craft wines,” Stardust Cellars is the place for you.
Yes, Stardust Cellars lets everyone in Wilkes know the week they will be stomping grapes.
“We’ve had 14 people out at once,” said CEO, owner and executive winemaker Nicolas Hogrefe. “We dump grapes in a big basin and take turns jumping in. We use ozone to clean our boots first, so don’t worry.”
As for method ancestrale, Hogrefe explains it involves using wild yeast found naturally on grapes or honey to ferment, without the use of preservatives, and keeping that same wild living culture alive all the way through the bottle, where it continues to live and produce a bit of bubbles from the active fermentation.
Hogrefe opened his winery in 2018 and his taproom in 2019, coming east from California.
“I started the business after feeling disenfranchised by the grind of the biotech and pharmaceutical industries,” Hogrefe said.
So he returned to graduate school to study a hobby and passion: wine microbiology.
“A few publications and a degree in Food Science later, I went on the hunt for the perfect place to start an avant-garde type of winery in a region where expectations for wine weren’t yet set in stone, but had the right growing season for the grapes and honey I was looking for — so I went for it in North Carolina,” Hogrefe said.
Hogrefe said Stardust Cellars is the first through-and-through biodynamic vineyard in North Carolina.
“This takes a long time for grapes to produce, as it’s without fertilizer, sprays, irrigation, or anything that isn’t part of a living ecosystem. So while our grapes mature we purchase grapes from our local region, Swan Creek, and for our red we use Spanish grapes from the Priorat region, allowing us to focus our vineyards on ancestral white and rose wines, which are what this region does best,” Hogrefe said.
For his meade’s honey, Hogrefe keeps six hives and partners with other local suppliers, particularly Mother’s Finest in Winston-Salem.
“I think this is the epicenter of mead, and it’s only a matter of time until it is world-renowned, similar to Denmark,” Hogrefe said.
Stardust Cellars has a 24 tap system filled with its meads and wines, along with some local beers. For food, there is an on-site crepery.
“Crepes pair extremely well with all of our meads and wines,” Hogrefe said.
TwoBoros Brewery & Pizzeria
111 East Main St.
Wilkesboro, NC
336-990-9455
TwoBorosBrewery@yahoo.com
www.twoborosbrewery.com
Wilkesboro’s first and only brewery is a key piece in revitalizing the town’s downtown, drawing tourists and locals who are looking for a place to meet, with a name that’s about making connections, too.
“What better way to bring Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro together than with pizza and beer,” veteran restaurateur Seth Cohn said.
Seth and his brother, Grayson, who runs Cohn’s Enterprises, a property and construction management firm, started their brewery, with longtime friend Trey Church serving as master brewer and had their initial beer release in January 2020.
When the pandemic hit that March, Seth transitioned his Dooley’s Grill & Tavern into a place for takeout, delivery and outside dining that featured TwoBoros beers, while the pizzeria side of the brewery still offered pizzas to go.
During this time, TwoBoros started selling cans of its various beers to area stores and other restaurants, building a strong demand for its suds.
“Everyone likes our beer so much, but we can not brew it fast enough for the demand,” Seth said.
So, in addition to its own location, currently TwoBoros beer distribution is limited to bars and restaurants and bars in Wilkes County, Lowes Food grocery stores and smaller stores around the area, as well as making them available at Wilkesboro’s concert in the commons and other local event venues.
“Once our new brewery is completed, we will be able to start distributing to the whole region,” Seth said.
Of TwoBrothers beer styles Seth said Bikini Bottom is his favorite and one of the brewery’s most popular offerings.
“It is a gluten free pineapple IPA and is by no means a normal IPA. Most people love it, but if you don’t, you hate it,” Seth said.
Two Brothers tends to sell Hartley Sawtooth Logger the most, Seth said, because it’s an easy to drink light beer that doesn’t take as long as some of the others to brew.
“Our Good Gold Almighty is a strong Belgian tripel ale which was brewed for Grayson‘s wedding and is by far our most requested beer and almost anyone’s favorite when available,” Seth said. “But Trey will tell you Donkey Punch Porter is his favorite brew as he tends to lean more towards the darker bitter malts.”
As for food choices, along with brick oven pizzas, Seth recommends rotisserie chicken wings, which are featured on limited nights, Other popular items are Italian subs and wedge salads served with homemade blue cheese dressing.
“And our newest item that the staff loves and is really picking up popularity is the beer cheese chicken nachos,” Seth said.
Call Family Distillers
1611 Industrial Dr.
Wilkesboro, NC
336-990-0708
callfamilydistillers.com
Brian Call grew up in Wilkes County, right next to the North Wilkesboro Speedway. In 2015, he decided to make his mark in the area by opening a business he knew.
“I’m the seventh generation,” Brian said. “My father taught me how to make moonshine, just how his daddy taught him.”
Seven years ago, Brian and his wife Laura opened Call Family Distillers. Brian felt it was time.
“My dad had just passed away,” Brian said. “He always had a passion for distilling. We opened in honor of him.”
Brian’s father, Willie Clay Call was known as one of the most renowned moonshiners in Wilkes County, hauling loads of his product all over North Carolina. Federal agents labeled him “The Uncatchable.”
Call Family Distillers sells a moonshine called “Uncatchable Moonshine,” in honor of Brian’s father.
The family business began in the 1860s when Rev. Dan Call, a Lutheran minister, took in 7-year-old Jack Daniels after the child’s mother died. Dan taught Jack the art of distilling and they eventually opened a distiller together. The recipe for their sour mash whiskey has been handed down through the generations since.
Call Family Distillers is currently “doing really good,” Brian said. They sell a variety of moonshines, whiskeys and liqueurs and are the official moonshine of the North Wilkesboro Speedway.
They also operate a music venue, called the Mash House, offering music and entertainment.
And Brian and Laura’s son Austin is in the business, working as an eighth-generation distiller.
