Best Winery in the Eastern US?

Winery + East Coast + NASCAR = ?

... hmmm, somehow just doesn't add up for me.

AxisOfBeagles wrote in news:nemoTue052907100741 @alphaone.com:

That nose of burning rubber is not from the syrah... ;)

;) d.

What wine goes best with Chewen tobacco? :-)

It's an odd mix. The crowd there was about half NASCAR fans and half wine lovers (and some both).

It is an odd mix. The crowd is about half NASCAR fans and half wine lovers (and some are both). Childress has his NASCAR shop about ten miles down the road and a NASCAR museum about 20 minutes away.

They have some wines in bottles with a checkered flag format. And some wines are advertised to be good with the local western NC BBQ (chopped pork with vinegar-based sauce). (Eastern NC BBQ is chopped pork with a tomato-based sauce).

The on the tour they said that Richard Childress developed a love for wine when he was on the road in Riverside California and New York. He went wine tastings with Dale Earnhardt Sr., became a collector, went from there.

I don't know how good they can get. Might be an upper limit from the soils and climate. But, Childress wines are the first NC wines I have had that tastes like California wines in the ten to twenty dollar range. I guess the Biltmore Estates wines might be good NC wines too.

I am not sure they are as good a value. NC wines tend to be a bit pricey at a given quality level.

I'm a bit rusty BUT as 0f 2002 here is my list of wineries in MD/VA/PA/ WVA

The late Crouch family's Allegro Cadenza (varous vintages), Basignani

1989 Lorenzino, Montbray Seyre-Villard 78, Byrd 1980 Cab. are my best indivdual wines.

Best wineries: Barboursville, Lindon, Basignani, Allegro, Chadds Ford

Its encouraging that there is an alternative to Bilt-less in NC, but using NC grapes will deter progress.

I've tasted a number of very good NorthEasters, Barlett Farms Blueberry, Sakonnet Gewurz, Hargrove Sauvignon Blanc, Wagner wines in general. That's right nothing from Lung Island.

The Crouches made great cab & chards at Allegro, Ham Montbray's seyre villard & can franc killed and Rapidan River's germanic wines wefe great

I live in Eastern NC - BBQ is chopped pork with a vinegar-based sauce. Not sure about western NC. I've had some Cabernet Franc that went well with ENC BBQ, German Kabinet Rieslings, and even Sangria went well. (The true ENC drink that goes with BBQ is sweet tea - and I do mean sweet - water is heated to near boiling, sugar dissolved in the water, tea made).

Jim

Yes, I got is wrong. Both are vinegar based. Western adds some tomato sauce, but not too much, it still a thin sauce. Eastern tends to include more spicy ingredients. (What the emoticon for when your mouth starts to water? :),

Been a while, but Barboursville's wines did not impress me like Childress' best.

Biltmore seems roughly comparable in the 2006 State Fair rankings, but since Childress did not compete the best wines available at their tastings, I'm not sure that's a good measure. I've never been to Biltmore and I don't recall even trying there wines.

BYW, NC does have a good muscadine winery. Duplin winery's Carlos is my favorite, relatively dry for a Muscadine wine. Duplin claims to be the biggest muscadine winery in the world and the oldest winery in NC.

Childress lured his winemaker and general manager Mark Friszolowski from Long Island.

I'm not sure what key combination to use. Back when I was single, I dated a girl from Thailand for a while. Her description of spicy food was: American hot, Mexican hot, Thai. I've seen her open a jar of peppers that were hot enough I would have needed a gallon of water after one touched my mouth and eat them like pop corn.

I used to think red salsa was hot, until I ate some green salsa in a little Mexican place in El Paso. It like to took the roof right off my mouth.

Most of the more famous BBQ places in ENC have been around over 75 years. People didn't eat out that much in small towns back then - and one characteristic of the "secret BBQ sauce" of each place was low cost. Even now, I can go get a pound with the fixin's and have enough to feed all four of us for a heavy meal, or a couple of light meals, at a cost about $8. New Bern has Moore's, Greenville has Parker's, Kinston has King's (who have a web site and will air ship to anywhere in the US), I forgot the name of the ones in Rocky Mount and Goldsboro. Go any further west, it changes considerably.

The worst thing I ever tried to eat that was called BBQ was in a little joint out in the boonies in southern Alabama. I was working a short project at a nearby Army base, and was invited. The local guys said I should try some REAL southern BBQ. I told them I'd had BBQ two weeks earlier when I was in Huntsville, and they said something to the effect that "the dxxx Yankees in Huntsville don't know how to make BBQ." All I can say about the meal is (wine related content) that it probably would have gone very well after drinking 3 or 4 plastic cups of Mad Dog 20-20.

Jim

I am in Charlotte and can honestly tell you that I find ENC BBQ to be horrible. I much prefer Tennessee of Kentucky as well and Kansas City BBQ to ENC

I never could get the hang of the vinegar....just seems wrong! :-(

I don't mind the vinegar nearly as much as the yellow mustard.

Let me suggest that you visit the web site

to find out about NC barbecue. Tasting barbecue is a lot like tasting wine. There are many layers to the flavor. A pig cooked for 22 hours over hickory coals has an unbelievable depth of flavor. You mentioned Moore's, Parker's and King's all of which now cook their pigs over gas for 7 or 8 hours. Try Wilber's in Goldsboro or Skyline in Ayden to experience good eastern NC barbecue.

Here is also a vote for Childress wine. It should be confined to the gas tanks of NASCAR tractors. Duplin Cellars in Rosehill, NC is the second worst winery that I have ever visited. (and that includes at least 1200) Only one worst was Nogales Winery in Nogales, AZ. (I don't think they used grapes but was afraid to ask) They did ferment and age their wine in concrete pipe sections (just the way the Romans did - coated with bee's wax) I asked the wine maker at Duplin Cellars at what brix they picked their grapes and was told that when ever the farmers bring them in is when they make wine.

site

Which Childress wines have you tried?

Thanks - I have been to Wilber's - it was very good. Haven't been to Skyline - hope to remedy that soon!

Jim