Fantastic wines- ended up buying over a case! Every wine I tried was fantastic. Generous pours. Beautiful site. Would definitely consider using this place for an event.
Just visited the Rock of Ages Winery in Hurdle Mills, NC this past weekend! What a great time! The place is beautiful! The winery had a very nice selection of Wine items, accessories, shirts, aprons, glasses, etc. that were reasonably priced. The best part was the Wine Tasting! JR was our Wine Guide and explained each of the wines we sampled. He was a hoot! A wide variety to choose from!!! My husband and I joined in with a group of 6 girls and 2 guys who were celebrating birthdays, as was I. It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon! My favorite wine is the Blackberry Wine...YUM!!!! Perfect place for weddings, events, and special parties. The have an annual Cork'N Pork Festival which were missed by one week (it's April 20th).It was a super fun time meeting new friends and drinking new wines!
We visited the Rock of Ages Winery in late October, 2011. It's a short drive from Durham, NC. The hardwood trees along the two-lane road to Hurdle Mills were starting to show color.The winery was easy to find; signs along the way helped guide us. We were surprised to find the building and visitors' center was large. It retains a rustic look though it's not an old building.We were impressed by the décor and the selection of wine-related merchandise. We wanted to give the wines a tasting and found the cost of $5 per person very reasonable. And you get to keep the glass! We had a short wait while a previous group finished their tasting and purchased a bottle or two of wine. Then it was our turn to make our selection of white, sweet red or dry red. We each had 4 or 5 tastes in our category. We found several of the wines to be respectable--all is produced from 200 acres of grapes onsite in a production facility that occupies the back half of the building. The woman who did the tasting was knowledgeable about the different grapes and she moved us along through the tasting. Each of us found at least one variety that we liked.Wine runs $18.95 a bottle. It's possible to buy a bottle, some cheese and crackers then use one of the tables inside or outside to further enjoy your visit. It was not crowded when we went on a Saturday afternoon. Compared to California wine tastings at $20 or $30 per person this is indeed a great value!
Every year or so, my wife and I venture out to the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte looking for Unique gifts and enjoying all the Christmas decorations and the Trains and Model Homes. We also enjoy stopping in the Winery room to enjoy samples of Holiday wines and looking for something special for the season. This year we found Rock of Ages and tasted some amazing wines. We selected Grandma's Holiday Cheer Seasonal wine and allready are planning a trip up to the Winery for more tastings and a few more bottles of Holiday cheer !**This was at the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte, NC.
This is a beautiful place and the stonework building is gorgeous. Wish I had found this place before I got married! The wines are very good, and they have a "Pork and Cork" festival that's fun with bands/tastings/food. It's out in the middle of nowhere, but that's part of its charm. Nothing beats a good bottle of wine!
I was searching for something to do with my In-Laws and came across a Murder Mystery dinner and show at Rock of Ages Winery for February 8th, 2014. I had never been there but it looked like a lot of fun and the building looked beautiful from the pictures. We paid for the tickets through PayPal and a day later we hadn’t received a confirmation from the winery, so I emailed to check the status and to also state that we would like to do a tasting and asked what time we should arrive. I was told that their last tasting is at 5:30 and that we should plan to arrive at 5:20 in order to pick which tasting we would like to do. The four of us arrived at 5:15 (three other cars arrived atthe same time) and when my husband asked about the tasting the woman looked confused and said she would have to ask. A little bit later he asked and was told “I guess we aren’t having one”. I was quite disappointed as we had driven almost an hour and a half and showed up at the appropriate time in order to do a tasting. Since we had time to kill, we took some pictures of the building as it was quite pretty, although I do wish that they had taken down their Christmas decorations. Appetizers began at 6:00 and consisted of cheese, crackers, olives,and pickles. The website stated the show would start at 7:00, however the buffet didn’t open until 7:00 and it took forty minutes for everyone to make it through the line. Dinner consisted of chicken, scalloped potatoes, green beans, and rolls. (I knew this going into it and thought it would be a good meal.) The chicken was supposed to be herb roasted chicken, but it was so salty that we couldn’t eat it. This is sad but true, the best part of the meal was the dinner roll. It was also hard to get water as you had a tiny cup and they only had three pitchers up on thebar. The Murder Mystery show was a lot of fun though and we really enjoyed it (although sometimes it was very hard to hear) but considering that the cost was $55 per person and we left hungry, it definitely wasn’t worth the money and I couldn’t recommend it to anyone.
This is one of the prettiest wineries I have visited. You have to want to go here because it is farout in the country, but absolutely worth the trip. You get a choice of tastings, geared to your taste preference which I really liked because I don't like the drier wines. One thing that I reallylike is they have a large tasting room but they also have a very large room separated for events,so if someone is having a wedding reception, you don't feel like you are crashing the wedding.Some wineries try to do it all and don't do it very well, but Rock of Ages got it right. I had a hardtime deciding which wine to buy. I would make this trip again to visit this winery.
I have to give this place five stars.. and not necessarily for the caliber of their wines, but for the location, the beauty, and the service. It was supposed to be a rainy, windy, and tornado stricken Saturday a few weeks back and what's one to do then go out a drink wine? Sounded like a good plan to us. We drove through Hurdle Mills and we knew the winery right when we saw it. Sometimes pictures are way nicer (like on hotel websites, ugh that pisses me off.) than what things appear in person, but this is opposite. It was way more beautiful even on a rainy Saturday. I immediately understood why and how they have weddings here... it is absolutely gorgeous. It has multiple levels, balconies, terraces... it's just picturesque. We decided having never been there to do a wine tasting. It's 5 bucks for your choice of either white, red, and sweet and all of them end with their house wine and a sample of their homemade BBQ sauce. You also get to keep the glass. I opted for the white and my husband opted for the red. We are both red fans but I thought I would try something different. I'm glad I did! The pours were such that we could both try each others wines. There were crackers to clean the palate and the woman KNEW so much about the wines, pairing, and how to taste them. The tasting took around 30 minutes, however, I'm sure it can take however long or short you would like. I was sooo impressed with how knowledgeable she was about the wines but also how low-key and down to Earth she was. So, onto the wines. I felt (and my hubs agreed) that the whites were more full bodied than the reds. We weren't a fan very much of the reds at all. But the Shiraz ('06) had some nice peppery flavors that we did enjoy. I would say that was our favorite in the red category. The whites were some of my favorites I've tried at a winery. They were strong and dry with crisp aftertones. My absolute favorite was the Traminette. She told me NOT to smell the wine at all while drinking and to smell with my last sip. So, I obliged. I just taste the wine. It was crisp, fruity and had an interesting flavor... almost like a red! Super full bodied and strong. Finally, on my last sip, she told me to smell the wine and drink. It completely changed the taste and not in a good way. The bouquet was SO FLORAL. It smelled like perfume. I was so surprised with how that smell completely changed the taste of the wine. I was so glad I had listened to her instructions because it was one of my favorites. Another favorite was the Petit Manseng. Nice crisp dry white with a lot of granny smith apple undertones. We ended up buying a bottle of the Petit Manseng and Traminette. They also have a gift shop of sorts for the wine lovers. Some fun bottles, bottle openers, wine holders, etc. Really cute stuff! We bought a few things, great stuff for a housewarming, etc.We definately plan on going back. We would like to buy a bottle and sit out on their upper balcony one day with some fruit/cheese and just gaze out at the vinyards. BEAUTIFUL. I definately recommend it.
We went on a cold afternoon. We were the only people there, but JR was very hospitable, and suggested several additional wines for us to try. Definitely a place to visit!
This is a beautiful place. Always clean. Down side is their wine. Some folks like...I don't. Average wine. Great place for business gatheringsand wedding receptions.