Its small picturesque 1897 farmhouse by the side of the road a startling contrast to the sprawling complexes of other wineries in the area, Hanover Park Vineyard is a fairy tale come to life.

While sitting next to each other at a symposium, two art teachers fell in love, got married, and honeymooned in the south of France where they fell in love again --with wine. Michael and Amy Helton returned home on a mission to find the perfect piece of land on which to plant their own grapes, and they did. It came with a ramshackle, abandoned farmhouse, now lovingly restored. This is the winery's focal point for tastings and events.

We sipped an earthy Mourvedre and a wonderful red blend appropriately named Michael's Blend. Michael, Hanover's winemaker, has done an excellent job, particularly with these two wines. He doesn't have a winemaking background; he was an artist and teacher. But -- most people consider winemaking an art, so it really does fit.

Over lunch Amy shared stories of their lives since the first planting in 1997: the grueling hours the vineyard demands, the financial risk involved in the endless purchase of equipment and supplies, the horror of losing a crop to a hailstorm. Fortunately, Michael and Amy's hard work and risk have paid off. The fairy tale has a happy ending: Hanover Park is a thriving vineyard, having grown from a production of 375 cases of wine during their first season, to about 2400 cases from the 2002 harvest.

RagApple Lassie Vineyards, located just 3 miles east of Boonville, N.C., on Highway 67, was named a finalist in the “Best New Winery in the U.S.” competition by The Wine Appreciation Guild of San Francisco.

For generations the Hobsons (RagApple Lassie's owners) had farmed tobacco on their land. Determined to preserve the land as an agricultural resource, and horrified at the thought of selling it off as a housing tract, after much research they found the only thing that came close to tobacco as a cash crop---grapes.

Frank and Lenna Hobson made their decision, as so many families do, over the dinner table one night. Frank, a giant of a man whose hands look as though they could till the earth by themselves, was certain of one thing: he knew farming. Lenna, his vivacious bride of ten years, knew how to market, with her background in medical marketing. And so they planted some grapes.

But they needed a winemaker. Contract in hand, their headhunter set his sights on California. Imagine the Hobson's surprise when the call came that the perfect match had been found: in…Ohio!

Enter Linda King, winemaker from the largest estate winery in Ohio, who couldn't wait to leave the snow behind. With the new winery still in the planning stages, Frank was able to offer Linda the ability to “set up her own kitchen”, and so she did.

From an experiment with a wine making kit in her home years ago, to her renown as not only a winemaker but a world-class judge at winemaking competitions, Linda has woven magic with Frank and Lenna's grapes, making them a winning team. She told us that her nose is even more sensitive than her palate: Upon arriving at the winery one day, she opened her car door, sniffed, and knew immediately that something was amiss. It seems one of the thermostats had malfunctioned and the aging wine in one vat had dropped a couple of degrees in temperature. I was thankful that I had showered the morning we met her.

Childhood sweethearts who went their separate ways and reconnected years later, Frank and Lenna are brilliant business people whom you want to hug like teddy bears. When they told us the story of Frank's beloved childhood prize-winning calf, named --guess what-- RagApple Lassie, it brought tears to our eyes. Today RagApple Lassie sits on a crescent Carolina moon, sipping a glass of wine, and smiling down on this wonderful partnership as she adorns the labels of their excellent wines. And from the back of each label peeks a golden tobacco leaf lest the heritage of this family of the land be forgotten.

Our favorite wine? The Cabernet Sauvignon will make your palate purr. Viognier (“the other white wine," according to Lenna) is wonderful. Oh, heck, we loved all of them.

To get to the wineries, you can plan your own itinerary or you can take advantage of an innovative program just introduced by the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce called “Cultural Corridors”. This is a series of five audio discs, (or tapes), each with a different theme, designed to take travelers on a detailed, step-by-step tour (don't you hate those arguments about stopping to ask for directions?). One of them focuses on the Yadkin Valley Wine Trail, and is a perfect guide for exploring the area. To obtain free copies, contact the Winston-Salem Visitor Center, 200 Brookstown Avenue, Winston-Salem, NC, 27101, 336-728-4200. They'll either send it to you or have it ready when you arrive.

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