North Georgia Winery Trip

For my birthday/anniversary present David planned a night away to Dahlonega. I am always mentioning checking out the vineyards up there so I was excited. After David told me that he had a hard time even finding someplace to stay I set off into research mode to figure out why. We were just planning on visiting one of the wineries and maybe eating dinner there, but why not add in 4 more wineries? Thanks to my mom for watching Max for us!! FYI- Lots of photos with this post, I am too lazy to make collages. 

This particular weekend was the Wine Trail Weekend. For $25 you can visit 5 of the local vineyards for a tasting. This seemed a bit high to me, but after looking at each individual place and the cost of $10-15 per tasting, I was sold. Plus, you also received a free wine glass.

Our first stop was the visitors center in downtown Dahlonega for our passport book (with our tickets) and our wine glasses. We then stopped at Wolf Mountain. This winery is by far the most elaborate and upscale.

The beautiful vineyard as we drove in.

This is a view from the parking area looking up.  This is the tasting area, restaurant and decks.  They are only open for lunches and special wine dinners (occasionally).

This is the view looking out towards the mountains. The area to the right is the outdoor covered wedding ceremony location.

This is a type of lodge/house that you can stay at if you are a member of their wine club. You have to pay for this also, but you can only get access if you are wine club members I think.

Such luscious plants and grounds.

We set up the camera for a quick photo at Wolf Mountain wedding spot.

Next stop was Cavender Creek Vineyards.  This one reminded me of the casual atmosphere of the upstate NY vineyards. Let me remind you of how many we have on the fingerlakes. It really is nuts how many there are up there.

  Anyways, Cavender creek is known for their donkeys they have on premises.

 They have a cute little cottage/cabin where the tastings happen. I really liked some of the wines they had there, but at $19 a bottle, I wasn't about to be bringing a bunch home (that's pretty much the going rate for a good tasting bottle).

 

Next stop was Frogtown Cellars. 

 

The view from the road. They also have a restaurant/lunch panini cafe. Their deck wraps around and has a lot of seating.

As you can see by the cars, it started to get crowded now. The first two places really wasn't bad at all.  I was afraid it would take forever, but we made such good time that's why we kept going. Luckily David isn't a huge wine drinker so that made for a good driver.

 

 We were staying at the Dahlonega spa and resort, which was only 1 mile from Frogtown so we decided to check-in since it was around 3ish after we finished at Frogtown. This was our view driving up.

The bed and breakfast is known for their yoga retreats and serene atmosphere. They have no TV's. They do have wifi in the main house.

You can also stay at cottages.

This is the main house where you can stay in one of their farmhouse rooms and they also serve breakfast, lunch and dinner (breakfast included in our rate).

We opted to pay a little extra to get one of their 8 cabins.

No wonder David wanted to make sure we got there at 3 like we said we would! He surprised me with some champagne and chocolate covered strawberries!

Our cabin came with a kitchen area and a mini fridge.

It was really nice and I would highly recommend the place.  They also had a big hot tub for everyone to use. It was raining so we were the only ones that were in it, but still a nice feature. If we're friends on instagram (Jens871) you saw it.

We headed back out after checking-in to see if we had time to check off the other 2 vineyards. Montaluce was the farthest away, and one I was going to skip because I had been there before for my bachelorette party outing.

They have gorgeous views and a nice LONG bar inside.

Our last stop was back close to our cabin, 3 Sisters. We literally had 15 minutes before 5pm when they were to close so we hustled inside and I didn't take many pictures. This was our least favorite, but maybe it's because it was closing time. But we made it so that's all that mattered! Here is our ratings from most favorite to least on this visit: Wolf Mountain, Frogtown, Cavender Creek, Montaluce and 3 Sisters.