New River Winery

May 2012

All photos and illustrations by Pat Johns ©2012 - present
All Rights Reserved
See links to article references at the end of the article.

You can't fake local in the High Country, particularly when it comes to food and wine. Farming is on the increase in the mountains and our soil and climate provide abundant varieties of fruits and vegetables for the table . . . and the bottle.

Darlene Massey first saw the potential for truly local wines when an Ashe County neighbor introduced her to growing grapes in this region and making wine from those grapes. She was hooked and started experimenting with winemaking. Her son, Nic Slaton joined her venture as did many local supporters who became investors in this winemaking business. While Darlene and Nic make the wine, they prefer having lots of small investors who will have little to lose but much to gain from ownership of a promising, and fun, start-up business.

The winery was started in 2005 with production in Lansing and a tasting room at the Bohemia Gallery in West Jefferson. With production limited to 1,000 gallons of wine, demand quickly outpaced production.

They moved their production facility in 2007 to the grounds of the old Lansing High School, a WPA-sponsored building common to our area. They opened an outdoor patio tasting bar in 2008.

Their goal was to source all fruit used in their winemaking locally and they are well on their way. Today, the small portion of fruit used that is not grown locally is still from our region. They have found that Seyval Blanc, Marechal Foch, Baco Noir, Cayuga and Landot grapes are well suited for winemaking here, along with blackberries, blueberries and apples used for their specialty wines.

Currently Owl Feather Farm, Sexton Christmas Tree Farm, Old Orchard Creek Farm and Big Horse Creek Farm along with Red Hill, Darlene and Ben Massey's home nearby, supply the local fruit.

Wine goes with food and music. They invite you to bring a picnic lunch to the patio wine bar and their Saturdays are filled with music, capped off with their "Wine & Vinyl" evenings. If you bring a friend and a record, the price of your wine tasting is half off.

Lansing North Carolina is a very small town near the New River and not that far from Virginia. It has fewer than 200 residents today but during the early part of the 1900s, the Norfolk & Western "Virginia Creeper" Railway line went through Lansing, Todd and West Jefferson picking up ore from the local mines.

If you are traveling to the New River Winery from western Watauga County, you might try the route which starts just across the border in Trade, Tennessee where TN-67 spins off to become NC-88 when you pass back into North Carolina. It's a beautiful 2-lane winding drive which eventually meets up with the New River. You will think that Lansing is in the middle of nowhere until you take the other route home and find that it is just 15-20 minutes from West Jefferson.

Now, about that old school house. The winery and tasting porch are in a building next door to the old WPA-built high school. The owners of the school have already begun renovations and both they and the New River Winery hope that it will be the home of the winery one day soon.

Until then, you can join the Tuesday - Friday tours and tastings, the Saturday musical get-togethers and tastings or the Stompfest Contemporary Arts and Music Festival in October.

The New River Winery is at 165 Piney Creek Rd. in Lansing. Their phone number is or you can e-mail Darlene and Nic at . Click here to see their website or to go to their Facebook page.

They are open Tuesday - Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Saturdays from 1:00 p.m. " 'til late."

This winery is the genuine local article, local suppliers, lots of local owners and in a location important to our local history.

Some interesting links related to this story :

• New River Winery Website
• Old Orchard Creek Farm
• Big Horse Creek Farm
• Explore Lansing NC
• North Carolina Wine
• Virginia Creeper Trail
• Ashe Mountain Times article about the New River Winery
• Nearby Zydeco Moon Farm

UNC-TV program about the New River Winery: