The Queen City of North Carolina probably has almost half the wineries in the state within “tour range“, which is somewhat unique, since there are only a handful of wineries within an hour of downtown Charlotte. When you expand that range to 90 minutes, however, the number of wineries available to visit explodes as some of the larger wine regions in the state come into range. Push that to two hours (I know, a little far but still doable) and you literally have 100+ wineries available to visit. There are also good options for both dry European wines (vinifera) as well as numerous options for sweet wines. So whatever your pallet, “Charlotte’s Got alot!”.
Charlotte has vineyard and winery tour options that go off in every direction. Whether you are on the North, South, East or West side of the city, we can find you a good “wine trail” that will exceed your expectations. The area has great options for multi-day tours visiting numerous different wineries, wine styles, and regions. Pair that with one of our certified wine experts as your guide (WSET and/or the Court of Master Sommeliers) and you could have a wine experience that will rival some of the most well known wine regions in America. Of course, you could also just have a simple tour where you go out an enjoy the wines and atmosphere at each winery. Whatever your level of interest, we can craft a tour that is perfect for you!
The Charlotte Wineries…
There are simply too many wineries available from Charlotte to list them all but we can provide a list of some of the popular areas that we visit (and maybe a specific vineyard or two):
- The Yadkin Valley – North and Northeast of Charlotte, home to 75+ wineries and North Carolina’s most popular and well known wine region.
- The Tryon Foothills – A small region West of Charlotte that has some very beautiful vineyards that you should definitely check out.
- Veronet and Davesté Vineyards – The few vineyards that are relatively close to Charlotte. We typically pair Veronet with a visit to the Tryon Foothills area vineyards and Davesté when we head north to the Yadkin Valley.
- Sweet Wines to the East – There are a number of wineries east of Charlotte that predominately have sweet wines available.
- South of the City – To the southeast are two choices (Kefi and Treehouse Vineyards) that are worth exploring.
If you are looking for an extended tour or for a longer day, you could also include the wineries in/around Hendersonville (Crest of the Blue Ridge AVA) or the wineries of the High Appalachian region. There are also a number of great urban wineries, tasting rooms, and bottle shops in and immediately around Charlotte. If you also want to include cideries and/or breweries then there are hundreds of options available.
A Typical Wine Tour…
Most wine tours from the Charlotte region are going to visit 3-4 wineries. Due to the distance to wine regions, most wine tours are going to be full day experiences (8+ hours). All of our tours are custom so we can create a trail that perfectly fits your desired timeframe, wine styles, etc. We have a 4 hour minimum on all of our tours but the day is yours and you can obviously go longer than that if needed/wanted. We will settle up with you afterwards for any time used over the initial 4 hours.
A few highlights and things to consider about a Charlotte wine tour:
- Drive time to the wine regions is usually a bit longer from Charlotte and could be as long as 90 minutes. There are a few wineries closer than this but the “regions” (where there are clusters of wineries) are going require a bit of a drive.
- There are some nice options for food at some of the wineries and we are happy to make some recommendations.
- As mentioned above, Charlotte has great options for both traditional dry wines and sweet wines.
All that is left is for you to book your Charlotte Wine Tour and enjoy the day!
Do you still have questions? Check out our wine tour FAQs.