Our small unpretentious winery consists of the South Vineyard, the Terrace Vineyard, and the Carriage House Vineyard. We also source grapes, berries, and peaches from nearby growers.
We opened July 4, 2018. We are what the French call "garagistes", small-scale craft vintners. We make wine because we love doing so in the old-school fashion of our Italian ancestors.
Our wines follow our "terroir", the nature of our upstate land in the Blue Ridge Foothills of western South Carolina. We grow select French-American hybrid and native American grapes.
The 2022 Palmetto Wine Competition was judged May 7th at The Belmont Inn in historic Abbeville, South Carolina. The Palmetto Wine Competition serves to increase exposure for commercially-licensed wineries in the state.
Wellborn Winery is proud to learn that the judges selected our Lily White as the Best Estate-Grown South Carolina wine in the competition! Named for our vineyard dog Lily - who appears of the label - the wine is made from our estate-grown Chardonel, a French-American hybrid of the Chardonnay white grape.
"We combined grapes from 2019 and 2020 harvests, fermented separately then blended the musts, "says co-owner and vintner Tony Beninati . "Both batches fermented in stainless steel tanks with only brief exposure to oak staves in the 2019 vintage. The younger un-oaked 2020 wine in the blend offers crisp citric and apple notes while the lightly-oaked 2019 element contributes to the round finish of pear. It has been a top-selling off-dry white, consumed both at room temperature as well as chilled."
Lily White also anchors the 2022 Palmetto Signature Half-Case of six award-winning wines from our state!
Travelers Rest, SC—October 31, 2018— The University of Tennessee at Knoxville announced that Wellborn Winery of Travelers Rest has won one gold and two silver medals in the 2018 Wines of the South Regional Wine Competition (see http://www.winesofthesouth.com/ for full competition results).
“We’re very proud that UT has recognized our Rustic Red Chambourcin as one of the top gold medal wines of the South,” said Tony Beninati, co-owner and winemaker at the winery. Two other Wellborn Wines, Deep Purple Lenoir and Red Clay Rosé won silver medals from among 315 entries.
Wines of the South is an annual regional wine competition that began in 2001 to promote and celebrate the great tastes of Southern vintages. Wineries in 14 southern states from Texas to West Virginia and all the way down to Florida are invited to submit wines for the competition. The Wines of the South event is hosted in October by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville's Food Science Department. Judging for the 17th annual competition took place on October 12-13 in Knoxville, TN.
“We only opened for business on July 4, 2018,” said Wellborn co-owner Deborah Sikora. “We were hesitant to enter in this wide field, but response from our patrons encouraged us to take the leap of faith. We’re glad we did.” Wellborn Winery also won five medals in the May 2018 Palmetto Wine Competition in Abbeville, SC. They offer over a dozen wines that include French-American reds, whites, and rosés, as well as muscadines, and fruit wines. Over 80% of the grapes and fruits are grown on site or on other upstate farms.
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