The Winery Fate of North Carolina

Discovering the wine region of North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located on the east coast of the United States, between the Appalachian Mountains to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The state's transitional Climate is well suited to growing grapes for wine production, and the state has a Long and illustrious wine-making history. North Carolina's finest wines are made from Vitis vinifera grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot and Riesling. However, muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) are native to the region.

One example is Scuppernong, a (relatively) large member of the muscadine family named after the Scuppernong River that runs through the state. Roanoke Island, on the east coast of North Carolina, is home to a 400-year-old Scuppernong Plant that is believed to be the oldest cultivated Vine in the world. North Carolina covers about 140,000 square miles of flat coastal plains and rolling hills of the Piedmont ("foot of the hills") region of the eastern United States, named after the Piedmont region of northern Italy. The climate of North Carolina's hilly regions is well suited to viticulture, with the surrounding mountains providing protection from the northern weather.