From Dahlonega to the Shenandoah: Wine Country Hiking Trails

Many wineries in the Yadkin Valley were once tobacco farms.  ©Dawn Damico

Travel / Wine and Hiking Trails Blue Ridge

I pulled my mountain bike off the rack of the Jeep. It had been a minute since I rode a mountain trail; these days, beach rides are closer to home on the Gulf coast of Florida. But we had planned to spend some time riding during our Georgia mountain getaway and the Yonah Preserve Trail in Cleveland, Georgia looked like a good two-wheeled adventure for those who are a little rusty. For bike riders, their beginner and beginner-intermediate trails allow you to get your bearings, and the intermediate to “shapeshifter” trails are for people with either more skill, or more guts. Walkers, strollers, and ADA users have a place on the trail too.

No matter how you explore the outdoors when you travel to wine country, a satisfying reward awaits you at vineyards and tasting rooms that often have breathtaking views, friendly people, and the satisfaction of knowing that you are balancing wine and wellness in the most natural way.

From the trails of Yonah Preserve, a dozen or so vineyards and wineries were ready to greet us in the afternoon with tasty pours and charcuterie boards. That is the wine and wellness rhythm I invite you to explore, where the trail you explore in the morning evolves into the table to enjoy later in the day. As you look at the landscape from the tasting room, you know that you set foot on the same soil where the grapes in your glass were raised.

Across the Southeast’s mountain wine corridor, the most rewarding way to travel is to weave the vineyard, the trails, and the place you sleep into a single experience. What follows is a south-to-north passage through three wine regions where this kind of day is possible.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all the wineries and hiking trails in each Blue Ridge region. Instead it’s a sample to spark ideas about where to go to combine trails and tastings in some of the Southeast’s favorite wine regions.

Even if you haven’t ridden for a while, you can take a bike and move at your own pace. Or, simply walk.  ©Dawn Damico

Long before a single vine was planted, the North Georgia mountains ran yellow with precious metal. The Cherokee word for the place meant yellow, and the gold rush of 1828 — the country’s first — drew prospectors, the U.S. Mint, and a place on the map for Dahlonega.

The gold is history. What has grown in its place is what Wine Enthusiast calls the “Napa of the South.” Dahlonega calls itself the Heart of Georgia Wine Country. Both are fitting. 

The Dahlonega Plateau AVA sits in the Blue Ridge foothills with the highest concentration of wineries, vineyards, and tasting rooms in the state. Its heart comes from a dose of southern hospitality offered free of charge with each pour.

The hills are still filled with something precious, and wine lovers enjoy a new kind of gold: the purple juice that runs from the vines, through the hills, and into the glass.

Wine, Food, and Vineyard Trails

For a traditional tasting-room afternoon, drive five miles from town to Wolf Mountain Vineyards which has earned more than 200 medals in U.S. wine competitions for vintages produced on its 30-acre estate. 

This family winery is no small affair. They hand-planted the vines in 1999, and the operation uses a gravity-flow system. The operation is substantial even though they produce just 5,000 cases of wine each year. Wine production, tasting room, and Vineyard Café restaurant cover 10,000 square feet. The Boegner family calls it a Napa-like experience inspired by European elegance.

Montaluce Winery and Restaurant is the destination for hiking, fly fishing, and Tuscan-inspired tasting and villa stays on 400 acres of North Georgia mountains. Guided Wine Hikes cover 1.8 miles along the Etowah River and through the vineyards. Fly fishing is available for every skill level. And their Chef’s Table culinary experience prepares the meal before your eyes, course by course.

Where to Hike

About 30 minutes from town, Preacher’s Rock trailhead is ready for hikers seeking a moderate-level trail. This 2-mile out-and-back section of the Appalachian Trail is accessed through Woody Gap. Easy access from a paved highway makes it popular, so early morning hikes are recommended for those looking for a little bit of solitude. Colorful views are best in the spring and fall when flowers and leaves are their most vibrant. The rocky outcrop at the summit opens to a long Blue Ridge view that justifies the effort.

For more Georgia hikes that can be covered in the morning, see this Appalachian trail source. 

Where to Stay

Dahlonega Resort and Vineyard sits adjacent to Kaya Vineyard, with a sister-property arrangement that places guests inside working vines. The Limelight Inn occupies 25 wooded acres just outside Dahlonega, with 11 rooms and four private cottages, walking trails on site, and private balconies positioned for the morning bird sounds. For the all-in vineyard stay, Montaluce’s four Tuscan-style villas sleep six to ten, with two-night minimums and direct vineyard access from the door.

Dark Skies

Preacher’s Rock doubles as one of North Georgia’s best stargazing overlooks. Closer to town, the North Georgia Astronomical Observatory hosts free Friday-night public viewings from 8 p.m. to midnight on the UNG Dahlonega campus.

When you can get so close to the vines that you can smell the grape…priceless.  ©Dawn Damico

​Five hundred years before the Yadkin Valley AVA was born, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed the North Carolina coast and saw “many vines growing naturally.” With proper care, he wrote, they would yield excellent wines. Since that 1524 observation, the North Carolina wine industry has come a long way from those native muscadine grapes. 

The Yadkin Valley wine narrative is more of a comeback story than a “new kids on the block” one. Before Prohibition, North Carolina was the largest wine producer in the United States using the sweet grapes that thrived in the state’s humidity and fickle climate. 

For serious wine drinkers, perhaps the loss of those vines pulled from the earth during Prohibition was a blessing in disguise. At that time there was no money to be made with wine so grape vines were replaced by tobacco leaves. For years, that was the agriculture of choice until the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement put tobacco use on notice and the country’s appetite for the crop started to shift. Luckily, farmers got a little help from The Golden LEAF Foundation to transition their crops and wine grapes got their second act.

The pioneers —  Jack Kroustalis and the Shelton brothers, Ed and Charlie —  looked at the red clay earth, sandy, with poor fertility, and believed the conditions might match the great European wine regions. They envisioned serious wines that moved past the sweet, native Scuppernong.

Today, wine travelers discover North Carolina’s first federally designated wine region, granted in 2003, where rolling clay soils and a fortunate climate now produce some of the most quietly serious wines in the American South. There are seven federally recognized AVAs in North Carolina which is also among the top 10 wine-producing states. Forty-five wineries work the Yadkin Valley AVA. Three or four of them are unmistakable.

Wine Trail

Wine, Food, and Vineyard Trails

The one to begin with is Raffaldini Vineyards in Ronda. When I visited, driving up the long gravel path leading to the Tuscan-style villa at the crest of the hill instantly signaled that this wasn’t about sweet Muscadine. Surrounded by 102 acres of estate, olive trees, fig trees, lavender, and (I am told) 800 rose bushes, you’ll feel as if you’ve crossed the border into the hills of Tuscany…but with a southern twang. 

The Raffaldini family adapted their winemaking from generations in Italy, but the appassimento process used here is a regional translation: grapes are dried for 10 to 14 days after harvest in the manner of North Carolina’s tobacco-curing tradition, concentrating flavor against the state’s high humidity. The wines run through Sagrantino, Vermentino, Montepulciano, Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.

The oldest vineyard in Yadkin County started with a honeymoon. Michael and Amy Helton — both art teachers — came home from the South of France in 1996 with more than love on their mind. They planted vines at Hanover Park Vineyard. Today, the property is in the hands of Carlos Vizcaino, a chef and sommelier who pours the wines himself most days. You’ll likely find him in the 1897 farmhouse, glass in hand, ready to talk about the Viognier, the Chambourcin, or whatever’s open.

Chateau Jourdain may be new to Yadkin Valley, but the family name has been in North Carolina wine for half a century. Seven generations of Jourdain winemakers reach back through the Loire Valley and Provence, and surprisingly, through North Carolina, too. George Vanderbilt’s grandson, William Cecil, recruited Philippe Jourdain from France in the 1970s to be Biltmore Estate’s first winemaker. Today his family pours wine in Jonesville under the Jourdain name. Stay the night in their Vineyard Cottage to extend the experience.

Shadow Springs Vineyard sits on what was once a tobacco field, the exact transformation story this region has been writing for a generation. Founder Chuck Johnson also went through a transformation when he “retired” from his corporate job in 2005 because he was tired of missing his sons’ baseball games, something many parents can relate to. His solution was to move the family back to North Carolina and plant four acres of Merlot and Cabernet Franc in Hamptonville. He and his wife Jamey have grown the vineyard to nearly 11 acres. In 2011, they purchased the property next door, renovated it, and reopened it as Windsor Run Cellars, which houses one of North Carolina’s first legal liquor stills. The team bottles spirits there under the WRC Distillery label. The wine is the day’s main event; the spirits are the unexpected encore, and Chuck can attend any baseball game he wants to.

Note: A continuous shuttle runs from the Elkin visitor center, allowing wine-country touring without driving between properties. Check local availability and times.

Where to Hike

Downtown Elkin is the only place in North Carolina where three sanctioned trails converge. The town wears its trail-town reputation with pride. Main Street itself doubles as the route of the 1,175-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail. The Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail follows Revolutionary War footpaths through downtown, and the Yadkin River Blue Water Trail draws paddlers through the foothills.

For a longer hike that ends at a vineyard, the three-mile route from Isaacs Trailhead to Carter Falls follows the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along Grassy Creek. The reward is a 60-foot waterfall and, on the return, a half-mile spur to Grassy Creek Vineyard’s red barn tasting room. 

Beyond Carter Falls, Grassy Creek Vineyard hosts what is described as North Carolina’s first forest bathing trail. A one-mile loop designed in the Japanese shinrin-yoku tradition, it asks the walker to slow down rather than speed up, to notice rather than achieve. 

For more familiar hiking, Pilot Mountain State Park is 15 minutes away, with the iconic Big Pinnacle rising 1,400 feet above the countryside. The Elkin & Alleghany Rail Trail offers a level two-mile option for multigenerational travelers.

Note: Yadkin Valley Heritage and Trails Visitor Center — Provides hiker showers, EV charging stations, and Harvest Host access.

Where to Stay

Our first Yadkin Valley stay was at Sanders Ridge Vineyard & Winery in Boonville, a 150-acre Century-Designated farm where a small cabin sits in old-growth forest at the edge of the vineyard. We woke up near the vines and walked the country roads in the morning for exercise before a day of tasting. An on-site restaurant handles lunch and small plates. Several other Yadkin Valley wineries sit within a five- to ten-minute drive, making a cabin stay a natural base for longer wine-country experiences.

Three Trails boutique suites occupy an 1800s landmark on Elkin’s Main Street, restored into 14 suites with a rooftop deck and walkable access to the town’s restaurants and breweries.  Riversong Cabins sits on 50 acres between the Mitchell River and Snow Creek: four newly built cabins, walking trails through the woods, a swimming hole, and one wheelchair-accessible cabin.

Newly opened in 2026, The Balladeer Hotel is a culmination of Mt. Airy’s past, present, and future. A Tribute Portfolio Hotel by Marriott, the Balladeer takes residence in a restored 1892 building in downtown Mount Airy — the small town that inspired Andy Griffith’s Mayberry. The town’s heritage shows up in the design and the room names (Spindle Studio, Songwriter Studio, Skybridge Studio, Blue Ridge King): tributes to the textile mills that once anchored the town, the granite quarry that built the region, and the music traditions born in these foothills. Andy Griffith himself gets a quiet nod throughout. Pilot Mountain State Park is 20 minutes away, and the heart of the Yadkin Valley AVA wine trail begins just south of town. 

Hiking along the river in the North Carolina mountains, knowing a winery is just a short distance away.  ©Dawn Damico

​Virginia wine is a 400-year-old dream that took centuries to take root and survive. 

In 1619, the colonial House of Burgesses passed Acte 12, requiring every male settler to plant ten grapevines. They failed. In the 1770s, Thomas Jefferson partnered with an Italian friend named Philip Mazzei to turn Virginia into a “viticultural paradise on par with France and Italy.” Mazzei gave up. Jefferson kept trying for thirty more years at Monticello, where his European vines never produced a single bottle of wine. They couldn’t have. It took more than a century for science to discover why.

Phylloxera — a microscopic root louse native to American soil — killed every imported European vine on contact. The story finally turned in 1976, on Jefferson’s birthday, when Italian winemaker Gianni Zonin purchased a historic property called Barboursville and planted European vines grafted onto American rootstock. They lived. From that single vineyard, an industry grew.

Virginia is halfway between Europe and California, geographically and stylistically. The Monticello AVA, established in 1984 and named Wine Enthusiast‘s 2023 Wine Region of the Year, sits within sight of the man who couldn’t make it happen but never stopped believing it could.  

Today, with eight AVAs spread across 4,000 acres of vine and more than 300 wineries, the state’s wine country isn’t new. It’s just finally working.

Wine, Food, and Vineyard Trails

Jimm East of Sharp Rock Vineyards and Cottages believes there is a benefit to being small. Based at the foot of Old Rag Mountain in Sperryville, this working family farm that he runs with his wife, Kathy, has been in continuous use since the late 1700s. The 23-acre property has six acres of vines, the Hughes River winds through it, and a renovated 140-year-old barn serves as the tasting room. 

Jimm handcrafts twelve small-lot wines each year that are hand-bottled on site in the old-world tradition. Tastings here feel less like a stop on a wine trail and more like sitting on a friend’s porch. And just like a friend, the Easts invite you to unplug and sit for a spell — there are two on-property cottages, the 1790 Cottage and the 1850 Carriage House, with continental breakfast, a complimentary tasting, and a bottle of wine waiting. 

If you’re lucky, you’ll arrive at Stone Mountain Vineyards on a day when the weather conditions are just right, the clouds settle just below the 1,700-foot observation deck, and you feel as if you’re sipping wine from heaven.

Inspired by the steep-sloped vineyards of the Rhine River Valley, the Breiner family carved a plot of land from the Blue Ridge forest and planted their first vines in 1995. Gabriele Rausse — the man called the Father of Modern Virginia Wine — has consulted on the winemaking from the beginning. Today, Jim and Deanna Gephart steward the property. The wines (Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay, and the playfully named Bacon Hollow Revenuer’s Select) have collected Governor’s Cup recognition, making the gravel road you take to get there worth the trip.

For dinner in Charlottesville, Smyrna brings serious Aegean and Mediterranean cooking to a small storefront on West Main Street. Chef Tarik Sengul trained in his native Turkey, refined his technique in Istanbul, and earned his stripes in New York at the Michelin three-star L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon before opening Smyrna with business partner Orhun Dikmen in 2022. His philosophy: “You have to respect the land you are in. You have to present that in your plate.” At Smyrna, that means French classical training, the flavors of Turkey, and Virginia’s local ingredients, all at once. In January 2026, in the restaurant’s first year of eligibility, Sengul was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. The open kitchen lets you watch it happen.

Jefferson Vineyards is the heart of the Monticello AVA story. Thomas Jefferson gave the land to his Italian friend Philip Mazzei in 1773, hoping he could coax a drinkable grape from the soil. The Virginia Wine Company that followed (with Jefferson and Washington among its 38 shareholders) was the first formal attempt at commercial American winemaking. It failed. 

Two and a half centuries later, the dream has returned home. In January 2023, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation — the same nonprofit that operates Monticello — purchased the winery for over $11 million. The winery pours award-winning Viognier, Cabernet Franc, Meritage, and Petit Verdot within sight of Monticello’s mountaintop. The Vine, the on-site food truck, serves seasonally inspired food and on Friday evenings the tasting room stays open until eight, live music drifts across the lawn, and a short walk down Thomas Jefferson Parkway lands you at Simeon Market for duck fat fries and champagne. 

The vines Mazzei planted are gone. But Jefferson’s dream of growing a drinkable wine in Virginia is finally working. 

No culinary traveler should pass through this part of Virginia without exploring the food story at Monticello. Jefferson was a genuine agricultural visionary. His restored vegetable gardens cultivated more than 300 varieties of vegetables and herbs, many of them new to American soil, as he treated the mountainside like a working laboratory for what American food could become. That same forward-looking spirit reached the kitchen, where Jefferson set out to bring refined French technique to the American table. He entrusted that work to James Hemings, an enslaved man whom he sent to Paris for formal training in classical French cooking. Hemings returned as a highly skilled chef and ran the Monticello kitchen, helping introduce French methods and dishes that would shape American cuisine. A Monticello property tour tells the fuller story.

For travelers who want to taste the legacy rather than just read about it, the Culinary Diplomacy series brings renowned chefs to Monticello throughout the year to reinterpret Jefferson-era recipes, several courses built from Monticello-grown ingredients, served from Jefferson’s high mountain, Montalto.

Where to Hike

The Virginia stretch of this trip puts the trail and the tasting table almost on top of each other. Shenandoah National Park runs the spine of the Blue Ridge for nearly 75 miles, with some 516 miles of trail threaded through it. Sharp Rock Vineyards sits within two minutes of one of its most famous trailheads. 

When you’re ready for a hike, the hard part is choosing.

For a demanding hike, Old Rag Mountain is an 8.8-mile loop with a genuine rock scramble and panoramic summit views. Even so, it draws crowds for good reason and requires a paid day-use ticket from March through November. Plan to get there at sunrise and wear real hiking boots.

For a waterfall walk, White Oak Canyon trail is a moderate climb with an 86-foot waterfall at the upper fall. You can choose your adventure, staying at the Lower Whiteoak Falls for something easy, or the Upper Whiteoak Falls for a moderate hike. 

For a summit view without the strain, Stony Man is the best effort-to-reward ratio in the park: a 1.6-mile loop along the Appalachian Trail to a 4,011-foot overlook of the Shenandoah Valley. 

And for a level, fully accessible option, the Limberlost Trail is a 1.3-mile boardwalk-and-bridge loop with benches along the way, welcoming to wheelchairs, strollers, and anyone who wants the forest without the climb.  

Down in the Monticello AVA, the hiking is gentle and historic. The Saunders-Monticello Trail climbs two miles up Carter Mountain to the gates of Jefferson’s home, and it never exceeds a five percent grade, making the entire route wheelchair accessible. The trail was designed around Jefferson’s own wish for how his mountain should be approached, “with the advantage of shifting scenes as you advance.” You’ll observe native plantings, a pond where green herons stalk the shallows, and a series of boardwalks that lift you into the forest canopy for eye-level mindful birding. More than 120 bird species have been recorded along the way. It begins at Kemper Park, it’s free, and it ends where the wine history began.

Where to Stay

When you want to wake up to vineyards at your doorstep, Sharp Rock Vineyards keeps two cottages on the property. A night in either the 1790 Cottage or the 1850 Carriage House puts you among the vines at the foot of Old Rag, with breakfast, a tasting, and a bottle of wine included in the visit.

Boar’s Head Resort is a rooted Virginia classic, set on a 573-acre estate just two miles west of downtown. It carries a fourth decade of AAA Four Diamond recognition, a celebrated dining room in The Mill Room (a restored 18th-century grist mill), an Audubon-certified golf course, and miles of nature trails that let you wander well past the edges of hotel property. 

Keswick Hall is the polished alternative, a 1912 estate reimagined with a 2020 renovation. You’ll choose from 48 rooms, a full spa, a Pete Dye golf course, and Marigold, a restaurant from Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten built around produce from Keswick’s own farm. Keswick also arranges customized vineyard tours and tastings across the surrounding wine country.

Travelers may come to The Inn at Little Washington to rest their heads in an English country-house style bed, and they are sure to remember dining at this Michelin three-star destination. It’s one of the most celebrated dining rooms in America.

Dark Skies

Rappahannock County Park is one of only three county parks in the United States with International Dark Sky designation. Further south, Natural Bridge State Park (a Bortle Class 3 IDA-certified Dark Sky Park on land once owned by Jefferson) hosts ranger-led Dark Sky Nights and a monthly Astronomy For Everyone program with telescopes.

Raffaldini Vineyards has a long gravel drive that leads to a little bit of Tuscany in the hills of North Carolina.  ©Dawn Damico

You could drive this route in a long weekend or stretch it across two unhurried weeks. I’d choose the latter. You could start in Georgia and end in Virginia, or reverse it and chase the season south. However you plan it, the corridor from Dahlonega to the Shenandoah is certain to bring some surprises with it.

It might be a view that stays with you, a morning hike where you log more than 10,000 steps and don’t mind one bit, or a taste of wine you didn’t see coming. The wineries here can be small and intimate, or a little bigger without losing their southern hospitality. The trails can be gentle, or genuinely challenging. The history runs deep, and the stories of the modern stewards come out slowly, when you take the time to listen.

This is not a region to rush. Wine travel never is. The real magic and the lasting memories happen when the wine, the food, the dark skies, the glow of sunrise and sunset, and the stories melt into a single place. One glass at a time.

Wine regions are located in areas where hiking trails are abundant.   ©Dawn Damico

When is the best time of year to visit the southern Blue Ridge wine regions? 

Late spring through fall is ideal. April and May bring wildflowers and mild hiking weather; September and October offer harvest season at the wineries and peak fall foliage on the trails. Summer is lush and green but can be humid, and many wineries are busiest on weekends, so weekday visits mean smaller crowds. 

Do I need a car to travel between Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia wine country? 

Yes, a car is essential. These wine regions are rural, the wineries are spread across foothills and mountain roads, and the trailheads rarely have public transit access. The route also works beautifully as a multi-state road trip, with each region roughly a half-day’s drive from the next. 

Are these trails suitable for older travelers or multigenerational groups? 

Many are. The route deliberately includes gentle, accessible options at every stop: the level rail trails near Elkin, North Carolina; the wheelchair-accessible Saunders-Monticello Trail in Virginia; and the paved viewing areas at several Georgia waterfalls. More challenging hikes like Old Rag Mountain are available for experienced hikers, but every region offers easy walks suitable for all ages and abilities. 

Are the wineries in these regions family-owned or large commercial operations? 

The overwhelming majority are small, family-owned estates. Across all three regions, you’ll typically meet the people who planted the vines and make the wine, and tastings tend to feel personal rather than industrial. This small-production character is part of what defines southern Blue Ridge wine country. 

What kind of wine does the southern Blue Ridge produce? 

The regions are known for structured, food-friendly wines rather than mass-market styles. Virginia’s signature grapes are Cabernet Franc and Viognier; North Carolina’s Yadkin Valley produces both European varietals and Italian-style wines; and Georgia’s Dahlonega area grows a range of vinifera grapes at elevation. Several wineries also produce sparkling wine, and some make spirits. 

Where can I see dark skies or go stargazing along this route? 

Virginia offers the strongest stargazing. Rappahannock County Park holds a rare International Dark Sky designation, and Natural Bridge State Park is a certified Dark Sky Park with ranger-led astronomy programs. In Georgia, the North Georgia Astronomical Observatory near Dahlonega hosts free public viewings on Friday nights. 

Are these wine regions good for travelers who don’t consider themselves wine experts? 

Absolutely. The tasting rooms across all three regions are known for being welcoming and unpretentious, and the staff are happy to guide newcomers. The emphasis here is on the connection between the land, the people, and the wine, not on wine expertise, which makes the route especially comfortable for curious travelers who are still learning. 

Note: The author stayed in the Georgia Mountains and Yadkin Valley, North Carolina while tasting wine and hiking trails Blue Ridge, sharing those experiences here in 2024.

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