North Carolina Muscadine Grape Association

2009 Annual Bus Tour - August 7, 2009 ITINERARY now available... Click here!!

Come Experience the "Excitement and Diversity of the NC Muscadine Industry"

2009 NC Muscadine Festival - September 26, 2009

Featuring The Temptations with Dennis Edwards & more than 20 wineries

The 2008 NCMGA Bus Tour gave participants a taste of the past, present, and future of the NC muscadine industry. The first day of the bus tour included a stop at the historic Newbold-White House with a tour of their newly planted vineyard and a ferry ride to Knotts Island where we visited Martin Vineyards and Moonrise Bay Winery to hear more about the unique microclimate available for grape growing on the NC coast. While on Knotts Island attendees learned about soil fertility from Dr. John Havlin and sensory evaluation of wine from Professor Emeritus Dr. Dan Carroll. Day two began with a presentation on winery record-keeping by Mark Friszolowski of Childress Winery. Next we visited the renowned Mother Vine in Manteo, followed by a wine tasting and tour of Vineyards on the Scuppernong, one of NC's newest wineries. Another highlight of the 2008 meeting was the presentation by Dr. Jim Ballington titled "Muscadine Breeding in NC: Past, Present, and Future." We are very excited to have Dr. Ballington working on breeding new muscadine cultivars for our industry and his presentation gave participants some insight into just how far we've come since the first muscadine was brought into cultivation in the 1700s.