N.C. wines are worth many sips

A brief tasting tour of the Yadkin Valley last month got me wondering why I don't drink more North Carolina wine.
It was a quick trip, but a few standouts dazzled me.

At McRitchie Winery and Ciderworks in Thurmond, I had half a dozen great wines. One was a wonderful Sangiovese rosé called Pale Rider that balanced its bright fruit with subtle dryness. I also had a juicy Merlot with a gentle finish that offered proof of winemaker Sean McRitchie's three decades of experience.

At Raffaldini Vineyards in Ronda, I was so impressed by the potential of the 2006 Bella Misto winemaker's blend that I brought a bottle home and stashed it for safekeeping.

I knew North Carolina wine was a growth industry. The number of vineyards in the state has gone from about 50 in 2005 to more than 70, placing the state 10th in the U.S. in wine production.

But I hadn't explored how many North Carolina wines are well-made and ready for comparison with wines of similar price from anywhere else.

The culinary establishment's embrace of Southern food as a bona fide cuisine has gladdened my heart. I smile at the popularity of books such as "The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook" and at Chapel Hill author Jean Anderson's win of a 2008 James Beard Award for "A Love Affair With Southern Cooking."

So why haven't I been lifting glasses of North Carolina wine along with it?

I believed that most wine made in North Carolina was backwoods swill. In the grocery store, I would walk past those North Carolina-made bottles of Childress, with its checkered-flag label, and Rag Apple Lassie, with its wine-sipping cow, and find something familiar from California.

Certainly, these wines must be better, I thought without even thinking. But that assumption dismisses the fact that as the number of North Carolina wineries has grown, the wine has gained in quality.

I've begun to see that I was as muddled in my thinking about North Carolina wines as I was about my first college crush. I found him attractive mostly because he hailed from New Jersey, an exotic place I had heard about only in Bruce Springsteen songs.

The wines that most impressed me on my trip aren't usually available in the Triangle. So last weekend on my way to a pig picking, I grabbed a couple of bottles from Childress, a Yadkin Valley winery.

The $8 white table wine was a hit. Sweet but not cloying, it was light and drinkable. Plus, it went well with the vinegar-spiked pork.

I hadn't been drinking North Carolina wines just because they're from North Carolina. And that's no reason at all.