We do a lot of wine tours that depart from the Asheville, NC region and a very common question we get asked when setting up itineraries is “What are the best Asheville wineries?“. This is a very reasonable and obvious question to ask if you are going to be experiencing an Asheville wine tour which is probably why we are asked it so often. The answer, however, is not that simple. We could take the politically correct path and always respond with “All of them!” but we wouldn’t be doing anybody any favors. We are including our customers and the wineries when we use the word “anybody”. The reason is that wineries, like people, can be complicated. They can be simple too but when you really dig deep into this question it gets complicated. Complicated because of the beautiful fact that not every person is the same nor is every winery. This is a great thing! Think about how boring life would be if everyone and everything was the same.
Wineries Are Unique…
Thankfully, all of the wineries in and around the Asheville area are unique. It is actually kind of like this across the state too but since the question here is about Asheville we will focus on the wineries around Asheville. It wouldn’t be any fun going to the same spot 3-4 times on a tour and variety is definitely not a problem around Asheville. From just about every variable you could use to measure or judge a winery, they are each going to be very different. The views, the wine, the hospitality, the ambiance, etc. are all going to be unique to that particular winery/vineyard. You can even dive deeper within each of those variables I provided. For example, the wine making alone can provide an almost infinite amount of differences. What varietals are they growing in the vineyard or using in their wine making? Are there blends? What is the sweetness level? Acidity? Tannins? Did they age the wine in oak? American or French oak? All of this ultimately creates a wonderfully unique combined expression of the flavor of the wine, the architecture of the tasting room, the service, hospitality, scenery, and charm that will ultimately come down to personal preference. This isn’t a bad thing. This is a good thing. Because…
People are Unique…
You probably saw this one coming. Just like the wine and vineyards themselves; people are different too! Wineries are created and built by unique individuals so their differences no doubt stem from the fact that people are so complex, different, and unique. This is one of the facts of life that make life itself so beautiful yet at the same time complex and even sometimes downright difficult. We as humans are a convoluted mosaic of infinite variables that make us uniquely who we are. With that being said, how on earth would anybody be able to answer a simple question that is so deep and complicated? Really! This is not an easy question to answer. The answer is going to depend on a lot of factors. What type of wine do you prefer? Dry, off-dry, sweet? Whites or reds? Do you prefer your wines more tannic or more acidic? What if you don’t even know the answers to these questions? And we haven’t even gotten to the questions that aren’t even related to wine. Do you want to be inside or outside? Do you want a view, is that important to you or not? Do you want a fire-pit? What about food? I could go on and on about questions that could potentially influence or change the answer to the million dollar question – “What are the best Asheville wineries?“. And, to even make it more complicated, all of these questions have been dealing with a singular persons uniqueness. What about when you get a group of 8-12 people together? How would you answer this question then? The surprisingly simple answer to the question is that you couldn’t.
The Answer Please!
If you are still with me, the simple answer to the question is that there is no definitive answer to the question. As with most things in life, all anyone can do is offer up their best guess/suggestions and this is what makes life so wonderful. We can ask you a few simple questions and make a recommendation based on that, but if we spend too much time trying to work the problem, it is going to take all of the fun and spontaneity out of the day. Life is more fun when everything isn’t over planned. In 2018, when we first started this business, I wrote a blog article titled “So You Booked a Wine Tour. Now What?“. In this article I suggested that you loosely plan your day but don’t try to over plan it. I specifically stated that “A good winery tour should be relaxed and not feel too scheduled”. Now that it is 2023 and I have about 5 years of experience providing thousands of wine tours, I can honestly say that was, and still is, great advice! We see people have better experiences when they loosely plan the day and then roll with day as it unfolds. The fact is that there is another set of complications and variables that gets thrown into the mix of your tour day. The most obvious factor is going to be the weather but there are other factors too. Some of these factors are in your control, many are not. You will have more fun and a better day not worrying about it and just enjoying that unique day that is given to you. So when you book a wine tour with Van in Black, we will definitely reach out and help with your itinerary if you want us to. We will ask you some basic questions and make our best recommendations based on our experience as well as the varied experiences of our many guests but we should not spend too much time over analyzing every possible variable in an attempt to plan the theoretical “perfect day”. Trust us! The perfection in experiencing life comes from the unexpected and the imperfections and chaos in life itself. The true answer is as complicated as the question itself, but know this, some of the best memories are not days planned to perfection but come from rolling with the day the way it unfolds into a memory of a lifetime.
