Cherokee Cellars

We went to a fund raiser event paid $ 25.00 per person for my wife and I totaling $ 50 donation. There was 3 booths to sample and each sample was shot sized. We found one wine that was bottled by Cherokee and the price for a glass was $ 5 the cost for the bottle was approximately $ 17 so we wanted to buy a bottle and sit at a outside table and watch the band. This is when a problem arose they said that we had to buy wine by the glass and could not drink the bottle we wanted to buy from them. We decided we wouldn’t buy the bottle. The owner sent the register clerk over and said they would serve the bottle we buy from them but will charge a $ 5 corkage fee making it $ 22 cost. I find this amazing. The clerk asked if I knew that it was a fundraiser I said yes I did and we made our $ 50 donation. We travel and love to buy local wines never has it come up in the past a corkage fee or refuse to serve a bottle we buy from the Cellar. I am local to Cherokee and will never buy anything from them no matter if their wine is great or not. Their wine is not that great a better vineyard would be Notley River Vineyards Who are not only local but grow their own grapes. Cherokee Cellars does not grow any of their own grapes.

This is one of our MUST VISIT each time we travel to our RV in the mountains. Sweet, smart folks. So friendly. And, of course, the wine is lovely! Sweet Caroline and Peach are my favorites. They have a neat art gallery as a part of their shop, wine tasting, and some small gifts. This is a great little town!

I don’t know about you but when I think of good & fine wines (home grown that is, not international ones) California comes to mind and more specifically Napa/​Sonoma Valley the heart of wine country (love that place by the way). Undoubtedly California produces some of the best wines in the market. But good wines, luckily, are not exclusive to the West Coast.
One of my musts when ever I travel is to visit local wineries/​vineyards. While my husband and I were visiting old town/​downtown Murphy N. Carolina I saw a sign for Cherokee Cellars, so without batting an eye my husband and I made our way over. Actually more like dragged my husband over.
The owners (native Floridians) were onsite the day we visited. They were such a nice and pleasant couple, we actually ended up having a long conversation with them almost past closing time.
Now, this is an actually tasting room, not a vineyard; they get their grapes from commercial vineyards in Georgia and N. Carolina. The cost is approximately $ 5 for ⁵⁄₆ tasting. Like most wineries they offer whites, reds and sweets.
Now, I’m no wine connoisseur but I believed wine etiquette calls for whites to be served first before reds and heavier sweets/​ports. They didn’t exactly follow this rule but hey we still had a nice experience.
Personally I much prefer reds (chiantis to be precise) but I was most impressed with their sweet white Indian Summer Apple wine. It is the perfect summer out by the pool lounging around wine. It’s priced at $ 11.95, which for California standards is very reasonable. We loved it so much we ended up buying 4 bottles! The other wines were nice but nothing I would write home about.
The tasting room itself it very nice, clean and of course what is a tasting room without loads of wine bottles around from which to take home. Also within the building is an art gallery offering pieces from local artists.
In all it was a nice find and we will certainly be returning to restock our Indian Summer Apple supply. I recommend this as a must when in Murphy.