Horizon Cellars

Drove here with hubby to only find out they are closed and for sale. no message of that on their fb page a heads up would of been nice. ;(

I got the chance to come here with some friends thanks to a 4 person wine tasting Groupon. The drive up to Horizon Cellars from Raleigh is great, though it got kind of confusing having to drive on that rocky trail, but we summed it up to the «experience» of a winery.
The server that day was great and easy to talk with, as we are all 21 – 22 years of age. Included in our Groupon, we got a $ 5 credit to use in the store and a free little charm for our wine glass included in the wine tasting.
Over all, it was a fun experience for our first time wine tasting. I wish they had more food to munch on though haha.
Horizon Cellars also told us of other winery’s throughout NC and gave us a type of «stamp» card to do and if we went to all the winery’s then we get a free gift of some sort. So this sent us to Starrlight Mead on the way back to Raleigh, which is amazing as well.

Being that I am not a wine connoisseur, this is more of a traditional winery however with a few exceptions. They have about 5 – 6 wine samples you can try for roughly $ 4. The peppery tasting wine is by far the best and that’s if you are a spicy food type. Their sweeter wine was not bad but nothing to brag about.
Note to owners: Thank you for the X, Y coordinates because I am a Geographer that double checks everything. But to most people, add a note that you are SOUTH of Siler City because the physical address on US 421 through Google Maps puts you in the proximity of where «old» US 421 is north of US 64 which is NORTH of downtown Siler City. Finding this place isn’t hard but not easy either. Don’t let the dirt road scare you as you are coming up to this place from Old 421.

Horizon Cellars is part of the Heart of North Carolina Wine Trail. They offer dry and semi dry wines. With the $ 5 tasting you can sample 6 wines (2 ounces). The winery also offers local honey. Unfourtanetly the winery is located on a ridge that you have to cross a rickety bridge and travel up an even sketchier hill thats only wide enough for one car. There is also a nice patio that you an sit relax and enjoy the scenery. Maybe think about taking a pickup truck.

We went to Horizon cellars yesterday to use a groupon for two wine tastings. The vineyard is pretty easy to find, although the staff mentioned people usuallyhad a lot of trouble. Weird, since all you have to do is follow the super obvious and well labeled road signs. Maybe people thought it was a trick.
The tasting included 3 reds and 3 whites, but don’t ask me to rate them. Im pretty sure heard the terms oaky, fruity, and comes with a free glass. The wines were decent and the woman describing them was knowledgeable but not pretentious,
After trying all the wines (about 20 minutes), we selected our favorite to have an additional glass of. I think this may have been because of the group on and not the regular tasting experience, but we also got a basket of bread, various cheeses, and cookies, we also brought our own picnic foods to eat outside. We had brought along some books to read and planned on staying for a whie and enjoy the view.
The vineyard is pretty new (2005-​ish?) but one thing I did notice is they don’t put as much effort into the view/​scenery like Virginia vineyards do. It was pretty, but nothing overlooked the grapes or anything special, like I was expecting from my previous wine tasting experiences.
When we were ready to go (after about 3 ½ hours of lazy reading and wine sipping, where we bought additional glasses for $ 5/​each) they packed our glasses and an extra bottle — again, probably part of the group on.
I thought the experience was great, with two complaints. One being the view, which I mentioned. Two, there was only one woman working. Every time there was a phone call or another patron needed something, our tasting was interrupted. There were a lot of people (party of 8 and a surprise birthday of about 13) and they should have had an extra person working.
Overall 3.5 stars. It was a fun easy afternoon, and cheap with the group on. It did seem to be mostly mid-​20s/​early 30s crowd, so it was lighter and laid back. If your looking for a more formal (or more Virginia like, I suppose) vineyard experience, you might want to hunt around,