20 years and Sanctuary Vineyards at the Cotton Gin in Jarvisburg is still around and honestly their wines are better than ever.
It’s been a learning process, something vineyard manager John Wright admits when talking about the the what it’s taken to get to 20 years. There have been some varietals that should have worked by didn’t. A real leanning process in how turn Currituck County grapes into a good wine. But all in all, it’s been a good 20 years.
The biggest issue that the vineyard probably had to learn about was how different the grapes growing in coastal North Carolina were from the grapes grown in Napa Valley or any of the classic wine areas of the world.
Now of those places are as humid as it is here, and in talking to John he mentions that basically to make wine with the grapes he’s growing means throwing out all the books on how to make wine and think about what the grapes are giving you here.
Make no mistake, these are classic vinifera wines that Sanctuary Vineyards is producing and doing a great job with it. So good, in fact, that their wines regularly win prizes at competitions. But if a classic wine maker showed up and tried to make wine the same way they make it in California, Washington State, France or even the Yadkin Valley of this state, they would quickly realize its’a different world here.
Sanctuary Vineyards produces some really nice premium wines, but they don’t make make them every year. If the growing conditions are not right, they simply do not produce that $50 bottle of wine.
Even in the off years, what they are producing are some very nice wines…the type of wines that anyone who like wine would be proud to serve.
There is a tasting room and that’s a great way to get to know about the wines the vineyard produces.
Or…every Thursday night during the summer, check out their Acoustic Sunset, or during the fall and spring, stop by for one of their special events. The special events are a blast—especially Crabdaddy in September and the Big Curri-Shuck right after Thanksgiving.
So many fun things to do on the Outer Banks. Plan your fall or winter getaway now and be sure to stay in a Brindley Beach Vacations home.