Enoree River Vineyards and Winery

Newberry, SC

 

 

During a recent vacation to South Carolina to visit my wife’s family, I discovered a winery only a few miles away and decided we had to stop in for a visit.

 

I wasn’t expecting world class wines but figured it was worth a visit to a small, family owned winery in the middle of South Carolina.  I try to support all wineries since making wine is a life style I wholeheartedly support.

 

They have two classifications for their wines; the more international styled wines are made from juice brought in from Chile.  They also make fruit based wines and wines from grapes grown on site, Muscadine.  Muscadine grapes are native to the Southern United States from Texas to the Carolinas.

 

After accidently driving past the winery and having to make a U-turn, we arrived at the winery and tasting room.  Their new and very nice looking tasting room had shining hardwood floors, the prerequisite tasting bar, and several tables.  We stopped in on a Thursday afternoon and were the only people there.  We were told they get extremely busy on Saturdays.  As expected, their busiest time of the year is the month leading up to Christmas.  Everyone has to have some alcohol to successfully celebrate the holiday season.

 

I believe we were told they are getting ready for their 4th harvest of their Muscadine grapes.

 

 

On the day we visited, they had 10 wines available for us to taste for a reasonable $5 fee.  We passed on a couple of the sweet Muscadine based wines, but sampled the rest.

 

1 – Sauvignon Blanc – This was made from juice brought in from Chile and it was very representative of the Sauvignon Blancs I’ve had from Chile and Argentina.  The wine had tart citrus with a nice herbal element.

 

2 – Riesling – Again made from juice brought in from Chile.  I have not had a Chilean Riesling, so I didn’t have a reference point for comparison.  The wine had nice tart apple and citrus.  This was made in a slightly off dry style and would be nice on its own or with some spicy food.

 

3 – Carlos (Semi-Dry) – This was a white wine made with the home grown Muscadine grapes.  Even though it is listed s semi-dry, it was very sweet to us.  This lacked the acidity needed to offset the sweetness so it came across as pretty soft.  This was not our style of wine, but I bet it is very popular to the sweet wine drinkers.

 

4 – Carlos (Sweet) – Based on the sweetness of the semi-dry white, we passed on this wine

 

5 – Noble (Semi-Dry) – This was a red wine made from the home grown Muscadine grapes.  Like the Carlos above, it was again very sweet and lacked the offsetting acidity.  This had a more cherry to berry flavor profile.

 

6 – Noble (Sweet) – Once again we passed on this wine because the Semi-Dry was sweet enough for our tastes.

 

7 – Merlot – This is again made with juice brought in from Chile.  The wine also includes a bit of barrel aged Malbec to add some earthiness, dark fruit, and spice.  An easy drinking style of wine, probably very popular for dry wine drinkers at holiday parties.

 

8 – Red Raspberry – A very nice, jammy style of wine full of, you guessed it, red raspberry.  This as well as the other two fruit based wines would probably be a crowd pleaser mixed with some sparking wine.

 

9 – Blackberry – Obviously made with blackberries, this was again off dry but with enough zippy acidity to help offset the sweetness.

 

10 – Apple – As expected, this was once again a sweeter style of wine full of sweet apples.

 

 

Here’s a shot of the vineyards.  I’m sure the rain they received over the last couple of weeks helped bring back the green color.

 

 

 

Here is a slightly closer picture of their vineyard.

 

 

 

Here are some while Muscadine (Carlos) grapes on the vine.

 

 

 

Here are some ripe Muscadine grapes about ready to be picked.

 

 

 

We bought a bottle of their Riesling and a bottle of their Blackberry wine.  The Blackberry will probably be used to make a very interesting Blackberry Cake from the Winery’s Recipe section of their website.  http://www.enoreeriverwinery.com/Recipies.html

 

The price for a tasting or a glass of wine is $5.00, souvenir glasses are $2, and wines cost $13 a bottle.

 

 

 

If you ever find yourself on I-26 North of Columbia, I recommend stopping by for a visit.  They are only about a half mile off the highway.

 

Their website is http://www.enoreeriverwinery.com/

 

 

Cheers!