![]() ![]() More info on both can be found on the website. The second option is the Trail Marker Club including 24 bottles a year, 6 free tastings, a free glass of wine on your birthday, and a 15% case disacount. The first is called the Guide Post Club which includes 12 bottles a year, 3 free tastings for you and 1 guest, a free glass of wine on your birthday, and a 10% discount on a case of wine. Sunday: 12PM-6PM | Monday-Wednesday: 11AM-6PM | Thursday: 11AM-6PM | Friday-Saturday: 11AM-7PM Wine Club: There are 2 wine club options. ![]() Moving forward Marked Tree plans to release a 100% Lemberger as well as a sparkling wine made in the champagne style using the Videl Blanc variety. The tasting room also offers wine by the glass, local beer, bottled water, and a cheese board. More details about that below! All of the bottles from Marked Tree range in price from $18 - $30. We enjoyed it to the extend that we decided to join their wine club. If the reviews of the wine weren't a give away already, we really enjoyed this winery. I preferred the red, while Isaac preferred the Humming Bird. The Ghost House Red, was most of an easy drinking almost port style wine. Everyone will experience the Humming Bird differently. The Humming Bird was a sweet white with flavors that we all experienced differently from a cream savor vibe to bubblegum to hot tamales. To finish, we tasted both dessert style wines, the Humming Bird and Ghost House Red. It is aged for 18 months in oak barrels lending it to smooth silky tannins. Essentially getting all the best aspects of both varietals. It is made of 80% Cab Franc and 20% Petit Verdot. The Cab Franc was probably our favorite red. I would bet it will continue to age nicely. ![]() The Petit Verdot had nice acidity, but was still smooth. Both were fantastic! The Cab Franc tasted like it was meant to be grown on this land. These are two of our favorite red varietals, so we were anxious to see how they were. Afterwards, we moved onto the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The rose is made from Cab Franc and Lemberger, using the tradition Signee' method. Tim explained this was do to it being barrel fermented. It was dry and crisp with nice acidity, but also had a bit of a funk to it. We also had the opportunity to speak with the other owner, Lance Hiatt. By planting some off the beaten path varietals, Marked Tree was able to avoid this issue. Apparently, one of the reasons a lot of NC wine ends up tasting not so great, is that the grapes don't ripen properly. They worked with a viticulture consultant to figure out not only which grapes would grow well on this land, but also which would ripen appropriately. They acquired the land in 2015, planted the vines with family and friends in Feb - Mar 2016, and finally had their first harvest in Aug - Sept 2018. He explained how Marked Tree had been planned for about 5 years. During thie time we had the opportunity to speak with Tim Parks, one of the owners at length. Both were very nice, but the Videl Blanc became our favorite white we tried. We were familiar with Gruner, but Videl Blanc was new to us. Next, we moved onto the Gruner Veltliner and the Videl Blanc. The unoaked was more crisp and refreshing, but the oaked version brought a smoothness from the 9 months of oak aging and I think would be best with some food. We couldn't even decide which version we preferred. Immediately both of us were pretty impressed by the quality of the wine. If you like sweet wine though, I am sure they are great! We started with both the oaked and unoaked Chardonels. We sat down outside and decided to both do a tasting which would allow us to taste just about every wine they offered, we focused on the dry offerings and quite frankly ignored the few sweet wines they offered. The tasting room was sleek and modern in style, which we personally love in a winery. I could tell the vines weren't brand new, but I had yet to find out just how much time and effort went into Marked Tree before they opened the tasting room. Mountainous views surrounded by the vines. We pulled up and saw the space was beautiful right away. So, we headed to Flat Rock, started with a hike, and then went to Marked Tree. Marked Tree is located in Flat Rock, NC surrounded by the Blue Ridge mountains which gave me a lot more hope for the taste of the wine. ![]() We had tried several North Carolina wineries in the past and been very disappointed by their wines to say the least. When I first saw the pictures of Marked Tree Winery on Instagram I was hopeful, yet cautious about the wine. ![]()
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