[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," we're coming to you from Zinc House in Durham as we visit spirited destinations across the state, like Biltmore Winery in Asheville, Olde Raleigh Distilling in Zebulon, and the Elkin RailYard, coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[banjo music] - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend" everyone, I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week, we are taking you to spirited destinations across the state.

And what I mean by spirited, is destinations with a little fermented kick to them.

I'm at Zinc House Winery and Brewery in Durham County, that's rapidly grown into a wildly popular destination in the Triangle.

This property is a grand 87 acres with amazing views and we'll explore it more throughout the show.

But first, let's head to Zebulon where Rick Sullivan visited Olde Raleigh Distillery and met a passionate distiller, determined to bring quality small-batch bourbon to his hometown.

- So Olde Raleigh Distillery, located in downtown Zebulon.

we opened in January of 2021.

Originally, the plan was to be in Raleigh, but the challenge was that I had a very specific vision about what I wanted this place to be.

We want to have a very unique operation here but we wanted to have it in the heart of a community.

- [Rick] What Brandon McCraney wanted for Olde Raleigh Distillery was an entrance that opened into an impressive tasting room with an industrial feel, one that gets your attention.

- First and foremost, what you wanna know is that this is gonna be an experience.

And the second you walk in the door, I think you're gonna see that.

The stills behind me are gonna hit you right in the face.

Most likely there's gonna be another smell hitting your face and that might be our smoked Old Fashioneds, which is what we're known for.

It's an over-the-top cocktail that we sell here.

Next door, we got an event space.

- [Rick] Tours of Olde Raleigh Distillery go beyond a walkthrough of the facility.

- [Brandon] If you come in on a Saturday and have a tour, generally you're gonna be hosted by myself or my great team, and we're gonna have some fun in the back.

- [Rick] The back is where the barrels are kept and the blending takes place.

It's the final stop before the tasting begins.

- [Patron] Smells really good.

- [Brandon] First time drinking alcohol today, I call the first sip of throwaway.

You want to acclimate the senses because you're drinking high proof alcohol, right?

- [Rick] Olde Raleigh has a full bar serving spirits, beer, and wine.

It also offers direct-to-table food service from a nearby restaurant.

- That's good.

- [Rick] The entire operation from tasting room to the barrels in the back is all here at one location.

- Oh, look at that.

- Tastes good on Halloween.

- Whiskey hit me over a decade ago.

I got fascinated with the nuances of how whiskey is aged and matured.

As a whiskey blender and a blending operation, what we do here is I hand-select barrels from all over North America to create our product line.

So our flagship product is a a blended, straight bourbon whiskey and it can be found across the state of North Carolina.

And also we offer mail order shipping across the country, about 40 states - [Rick] Olde Raleigh Distillery keeps a variety of whiskeys in production.

Three of them, including the signature blend, were recently entered in the International Whiskey Competition in Las Vegas.

They all received accolades and collectively, they won the competition for best micro distillery.

So now that McCraney and company have the attention of whiskey lovers everywhere, there's some good and bad news.

- Oh my God, that is delicious.

Taste it, you will like it.

- The beauty about Olde Raleigh is that you're not going to experience the same thing twice.

And that might be also a frustrating part about Olde Raleigh for some folks.

You've got hundreds of other brands out there, which their mission is to replicate the same flavor profile over and over and over again.

That's not who we are here.

We wanna showcase quality, give you a really good bourbon or whiskey, but when that product's gone or that batch is gone, we start over again.

- [Rick] The good news is that even sold-out batches of Olde Raleigh Whiskeys can still often be had by the drink with an in-person visit to the distillery.

- Olde Raleigh Distillery is at 209 North Arendell Avenue, in Zebulon, and they're open every day except Monday.

For more information, give them a call at [919] 859-0101 or go online to OldeRaleighDistillery.com.

Isn't this amazing?

Here at Zinc House they have more than 300 wines.

Did you know that North Carolina has the most visited winery in the country?

You may have heard of it.

Let's go to the Biltmore in Asheville [symphonic music] - George Vanderbilt traveled the world and he often wanted to bring back the best things he found along his travels.

And one of those things was wine.

So we have several records of when he had shipped wine back to the estate to bring to his friends and family when he was entertaining at the estate.

So hospitality, wine, food, all of that, was part of the vision of George Vanderbilt and what he wanted to bring home to his guests.

So agriculture is a big part of Biltmore.

We have 8,000 acres.

We have animals on-property, we have food on-property we have a vineyard on-property.

We have all of these different agricultural products that we can use for our guests here at the estate.

So the idea of sustainability was really big for George Vanderbilt and continues today with the present day family.

- We care for about 50 acres total.

The terrain is hilly, it's not super mountainous but it's kind of a clay loam, mixed soil.

And we grow five varieties of wine grapes currently, including Chardonnay Petit Manseng, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc.

Everything starts in the vineyard as far as wine making goes, it begins with the grapes.

During the spring season when everything buds out, we have to really take care of everything and make sure everything grows properly, train the vines correctly, have everything in place, and ensuring that we have a good crop in the late summer and the early fall.

And that's where we are now.

So it's a special time.

From here, the grapes go directly to the winery where they're in the care of the winemakers and their staff.

We know they do a great job to ensure that they make a fine wine with everything that we can grow out here.

- So today was a real treat.

It was amazing to be here on the estate to experience the the winery and also to do a personal tasting, which is always fun.

It's always an educational experience to learn about the wines that are being produced.

This year's harvest, the new varietals that have come out.

And it never gets old discover the new wines that Biltmore puts out, they're always fun to taste.

- I think our strong suit over here, is our variety, honestly.

We have something good in every single department and the people here are willing to teach you.

Essentially just trying to figure out what kind of wine drinker are you.

If you're willing to take that shot and we find something good for you, you might find like, your favorite bottle for the rest of your life, you never know.

- When you come to Biltmore you feel like you're part of the family.

But even with the wine tasting and Giovanni as my sommelier today was really awesome at explaining the different things and answering all my many many questions about where it comes from and the varietals and what it might be great with if I'm drinking it at home.

Whether you know anything or nothing about wine it's really inviting.

- [Sharon] So we want to encourage people to come and visit the winery visit the estate, kind of lose themselves in the enchantment that's Biltmore.

- Biltmore Winery is at One Lodge Street, in Asheville.

The winery is open daily from noon to 7:00 PM.

For more information give them a call at [800] 411-3812, or go online to biltmore.com.

[soft music] I'm here with Kimberly Tenoever, one of the co-owners of the Zinc House Winery and Brewery.

Kimberly, thank you so much for hosting us, but also, I'm sure you get this question all the time, why is it called Zinc House?

- We have a sheet metal fabrication company as our main business and what we do is we bring in raw materials and zinc happens to be one of them that we bring in and our guys go ahead and bend it on the bending machine and form it.

So you'll see they've bent the panels enough to clad our buildings in it.

That's why it's called Zinc House.

- Well tell me about the Zinc House experience, what all is here for visitors?

- We've got the main building which consists of three different floors.

It's a great area upstairs with two different bars and then it opens up to an outside bar area that has outside serving windows.

From there you walk up another set of steps to another floor, on the third floor, that also has a bar and beautiful views.

And then we've got the pavilion that's right next to the building where we can host events.

And then we've got another building down here, called the Carriage House.

And then we're working on putting in a cigar and bourbon area.

So we've got a few little ideas going on.

- Well Kimberly, tell me about the wine making itself and the beer making as well.

- [Kimberly] So we have got our winemaker, Dave Fleming, that's here from California and we are not making our wines quite yet, so that's coming up here.

It takes a while to get wine production going.

And in the meantime we've got over 320 different bottles of wine here.

And then Austin, he is our brewer, we actually just put on our first collaboration that we had with Clouds Brewing and I think we had 14 kegs and by the weekend we went through seven.

- Well that is definitely a testament to your popularity.

What are you hearing from visitors about the experience, about the beer, about the wine?

What are they saying about Zinc House?

- What we hear a lot of is just thank you so much for doing this for us.

There just isn't anything like this in the area and they really enjoy the fact that they can come, experience the property, experience good wine and beer, friendships, laughter.

We have food trucks on the property we're kid friendly up to six o'clock, or all day on Sundays.

And so families are here, it's just great to just see everybody come together.

- Everything sounds so exciting.

Cheers to future success and continued success.

- Thank you and to you all as well, cheers.

- Zinc House Winery and Brewery is at 6225 Wake Forest Highway in Durham, and they're open Wednesday through Sunday.

For more information give them a call at [833] 494-9463 or visit them online at zinchouse.com.

Check out this spectacular view of the Zinc House vineyards.

You can see it from the upper level.

You know Hendersonville is very well known for its apple orchards, but vineyards are starting to take root there as well.

Producer Clay Johnson and his videographer Erik Olsen, take us to a vineyard and winery whose name reflects its breathtaking views.

- [Clay] Point Lookout Vineyards sits upon the mountain it's named for.

- [Mike] We have the slogan, 30-mile views, even longer memories.

- [Clay] You can see as far as Mount Mitchell to the north and the Shining Rock Wilderness to the west.

Owner, Mike Jackson says his father used to grow apples on this land.

- [Mike] But if you can grow apples, generally, you can grow grapes.

That's just sort of a good rule of thumb.

- [Clay] So in 2008, after his father passed away, Jackson decided to plant vineyards.

- [Mike] And we've done a lot of testing and experimenting over the years, to try to customize and really take advantage of what we have here as far as climate and growing environment.

And it paid off to take the chances we did and learn from our experience.

- [Clay] Jackson grows Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

- And then I had this vision of I think what would be a special place to do not only a vineyard, but also a place that you could have events and weddings and activities.

- [Clay] So Jackson built this combination tasting room and event center that's completely open on one side with windows on either end to take advantage of the views.

It opened in 2018.

- I wanted a very open-air kind of facility that we could see out over the mountains but still have year-round access to.

We have people literally that they know there's a thunderstorm coming and they'll be here to see the storms because you get to see 'em crossing the mountains.

- So what I've done is you've got your tasting sheet in hand, so the front side- - [Clay] Tasting room host Phyllis Wilson gives each customer a list of Point Lookout's wines and meats and describes each of them.

- [Phyllis] You've got the two Chardonnays, the stainless steel and the barrel-fermented.

- Customers mark which ones they want to try, hand their list back to Phyllis, who returns with flights of the selected wines and meat.

- I've got Miss Christie's tasting.

All right, perfect, let's give you this.

- [Clay] There are 11 wines to choose from, ranging from dry to sweet, and six meats, which are all sweet.

- We discovered this last year, yeah, about a year ago.

And we've probably been here four times.

Yeah, it's one of our favorite places.

- The view, it's just absolutely gorgeous up here.

- It's beautiful, absolutely breathtaking, love it.

- [Clay] Point Lookout also serves up charcuterie boards, sandwiches, and pizzas to go with its wines.

- We're gonna be passing the part of the vineyard that has our Chardonnay and our Riesling.

- [Clay] Jackson sometimes takes visitors on vineyard tours.

- So we have two kinds of grapes here, obviously, you've got these nice dark red ones.

These make our Rose.

- [Clay] While visitors can taste the wines in the tasting room, the vineyard tours give them a chance to taste the grapes they're made from when they're close to harvest.

- [Mike] Alright, ladies, engagement party.

- [Clay] Jackson also takes visitors to scenic spots for photos.

This group is having an engagement party.

[upbeat music] Hosting special events is at the heart of Point Lookout's mission.

Concerts, charity fundraisers, weddings, reunions, life celebrations.

- [Mike] We've had people that had, that met here, got engaged here, got married here and they're bringing their children back.

And the fact that we are a part of so many people's lives in such important ways, is something that's been just incredible for us, to the point that we become part of their circle of friends and people that's important in their lives.

That's our real measure of success.

- Point Lookout Vineyards is at 408 Appleola Road, in Hendersonville, and they're open every day at noon.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 808-8923 or go online to pointlookoutvineyards.com.

Here at Zinc House, work is underway to begin brewing their own beers, but you can still get a wide variety of local craft beers.

And if you like local beer, come and meet a husband and wife team that traveled the world learning about the art of beer making before opening Casita Brewing in their hometown, Wilson.

- [Mahalia] Casita Brewing Company is a business located in historic downtown Wilson.

We're very lucky to be across the street from the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park.

You will not find a Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park anywhere else in the world.

- [Ryan] And now that we have a social drinking district in downtown Wilson, you can grab a beer and explore the park at the same time.

[soft music] - When we opened the space, we wanted it to be a space that the community would know belonged to everybody and where everybody would be welcome.

- It's like, "Cheers," do you remember that show, "Cheers," when you walk in and everybody's like, "Norm!"

It's like that but for everybody - [Patron] When you come to Casita, if you come one month it will definitely not be the same menu the next month that you come.

- I'm vegan.

They've taken that into account.

It's great to go someplace and have it listed when you look up there.

- His doubles are good, his Hazys are good.

I haven't had one yet that I didn't have a second one of.

- Sometimes it's not just Ryan is inspired by things, one of the beers that's available right now over there is called "Shake It Up."

That was Mahalia telling me, I'm doing this collab, this is what's gonna be in it, write a recipe!

- We talk about what they're gonna be named.

- Yeah.

- We always have that back and forth.

I do all of the label art.

- [Ryan] We've been able to travel and live overseas and experience other cultures.

We lived in Denmark for a few years and then we lived in England for a while.

I would like to believe that barrel-aged stouts, and barrel-aged beer in general, is something that we do well.

I've been doing it since my career started.

The barrel-aged stout that comes out every single year for us, and the one that people probably know from us the most is the Barrel-Aged Querido y Perdido.

[clock ticking] - When I was going through cancer treatment it was when we were living in England, and I was part of a support group there.

And it was pretty much a year later that I was having the reconstruction surgery, which felt to me like the last step in a really long and very painful and scary journey.

I was at home kind of reflecting on the whole experience.

I asked myself, why was I here and not these other incredible women that were part of the support group.

And the only answer that I could ever come to, is to do good.

[soft music] Querido y Perdido means loved and lost.

And it's dedicated to the women that were in my group that passed away and also to other people that have passed away from cancer.

It's just kind of a beer to remember those that we have lost along the way.

We're both strong believers in the idea of ethical capitalism.

So being able to use our business as a force for good means a lot to us.

- Every month, Casita provides a space for a nonprofit to say: "Here's what we're doing and why we're doing it."

And giving that platform for collaboration, and community, and partnership.

- [Mahalia] When people come to our space, I hope they feel seen.

I hope they feel like they belong.

I hope they feel like this is a place that they want to come back to again because it's a place where they can feel included and like, we have something here for them.

- [Ryan] Ultimately we make beer, right?

So if somebody's looking for beer, they're gonna find us anyways.

I want people to want to come here because they're hearing the rest of the story.

[soft music] - Casita Brewing Company is at 217 South Street South, in Wilson, and they're open daily at noon.

To find out more, give them a call at [252] 237-2337 or go online to casitabrews.com.

Now, Zinc House has been drawing huge crowds from around the Triangle since it opened.

But we discovered a social beer garden that's become a real big hit in the foothills.

It's called the RailYard.

[upbeat music] - The RailYard is a seasonal outdoor beer garden.

It's a place for families, it's a place to enjoy a great beer, come get a sandwich or something from the food truck.

But basically it's just a place to relax.

- [Narrator] Elkin natives, Virgil and Mitzi Settle, got the idea back in 2019, when their family vacationed in the UK.

- And we visited an area with shipping containers that contained little shops, little restaurants, bars, all kinds of different stuff.

And we just fell in love with the idea and thought we could do something like that in Elkin.

- And Europeans just love sitting outdoors, enjoying their lunch, enjoying a nice beer outside.

And during COVID, we realized that Americans got a taste of that.

If you wanted to go out, you were going to be out.

- So it's just a really good spot, and it's in town, which is awesome.

- [Narrator] And it's because of that location that it was named.

- [Mitzi] Well, we are sitting right on the railroad track that the train passes through several times a day.

- [Narrator] The Settles concept was a wonderful way to repurpose the lot.

It's partially in a floodplain whose homes were torn down decades ago.

- [Virgil] This lot had sat here for 30 years empty.

And we just looked at it and you know once we cleaned it up, we just realized how gorgeous it was with the trees and it just made a perfect garden.

- [Narrator] It's also in the center of the picturesque and popular community of Elkin.

- With all the wineries starting to open, it's become more of a tourist spot than it used to be.

- There's also a craft brewing scene.

And so we felt like that's a good thing to tap into.

And we don't brew ourselves, we're more of a taproom, but we have local beers from the area, we have local beers from all over North Carolina.

But one thing we've also done that I don't think anybody's really doing now, is focusing on really good imported beers.

Hefeweizen is what I'm drinking today, which is close to what I normally drink.

- Germany has been brewing beer for millennia and they do a really good job.

And we just felt like nobody's really focusing on quality imports anymore.

You'll always have that lightest beer, we have some really good pilsners, English ales, a few of those.

- [Mitzi] To a sour, with some ciders.

- We have IPAs from all over North Carolina, 'cause everybody loves IPAs.

- I got something from Asheville, North Carolina, that was really good.

- [Narrator] And if you're hungry... - [Patron] Are you here till eight?

- Yes ma'am.

- [Patron] Okay.

- [Virgil] Every night we have a rotating selection of food trucks.

- It's fast food, in a lot of places, it's better food.

- From Japanese food to Cuban food, to tacos, to American fair, hot dogs and hamburgers.

- [Narrator] The popularity of Elkin as a tourist destination led to the formation of something called a social district.

- So we have to-go cups now where you can take your beer or your glass of wine in one of our label cups and walk all through downtown as long as you're within the area of the social district.

- We've done that in Savannah where you're walking around with daiquiris or you're walking around with with draft beer or whatever.

So I mean, yeah, absolutely, and we've only been here a little time, but I saw tons of shops and stuff downtown, so that, I mean, that will be great.

- [Narrator] Add to that, the fact the RailYard is kid- and pet-friendly, and you've got an experience the entire family can enjoy.

- So to bring them down here for them to feel comfortable and then we can play cornhole, they can sit and have food, it's amazing, it's a really good spot.

- The RailYard is at 203 West Depot Alley, in Elkin, and they're open Thursday through Sunday For their latest news, you can find them on Facebook.

We've had an incredible time out here at Zinc House Winery and Brewery in Durham County, and it is definitely a spirited destination.

If you've missed anything in today's show just remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, or find us on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina weekend everyone, cheers.

[upbeat music] ♪ - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend," is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural, scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across The Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[bright music]