Four Wines Deep and Already Out of Ideas
· Winston Salem · Wine Bar / Taproom · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · August 19, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Carolina's Vineyards & Hops’s wine list and gave it The Lazy List — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
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Wingman Metrics
The wine list at Carolina's Vineyards & Hops is exactly four bottles long — and they're all house-label CV&H wines. For a place with 'Vineyards' in the name, we expected at least some effort to explore beyond their own backyard. What we got instead feels more like a tasting room checklist than an actual wine program.
The entire list reads: CV&H Nouveau Rouge, CV&H Two Triangles, CV&H Pinot Grigio, and CV&H Sangria. That's it. No guest producers, no regional exploration, no old-world counterpoint — just four proprietary labels flying solo. The Sangria signals they know their audience skews casual, which is fine, but four options is not a wine program; it's a menu footnote. If you came hoping to discover something new from the Carolinas wine scene or beyond, you're going to be disappointed before you sit down.
With only four labels on the entire list, we'd assume everything is available by the glass — though that detail isn't confirmed anywhere we could find. Rotation isn't a concept that applies here; there's nothing to rotate. What you see is what you get, every night.
The Bottom Line
Four house wines does not a wine bar make. Unless you're here for the hops side of things, the wine program at Carolina's Vineyards & Hops isn't worth centering your evening around — order a beer and call it a night.
· Winston Salem · Winery Restaurant / Small Plates
Medaloni Cellars is doing something genuinely interesting in Winston-Salem: building a single-producer list that doesn't bore you into ordering a cocktail. If you have any curiosity about what North Carolina wine can actually do, this is the place to test it.
Surprising Depth
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Proper
· Winston Salem · Winery Restaurant / American
End Posts is a single-producer list by design, and if you're good with that — and in the mood to dig into what one North Carolina winery can actually do — it delivers a genuinely fun afternoon. Don't come expecting a broad cellar; do come expecting to leave with a new favorite local label.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Proper
· Winston Salem · Neapolitan Pizza
Cugino Forno isn't trying to be a wine destination, and the five-bottle list makes that abundantly clear. The prices are fair enough that you won't feel ripped off, but if wine matters to you on a night out, this is a BYOB situation — check their corkage policy.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Winston Salem · Lodge-style American / Seafood & Grill
River Birch Lodge's wine list isn't a wine list — it's a mimosa station with a port chaser. Order a cocktail with dinner and save the Tawny for the end.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Reynolda / North Winston-Salem · Winston Salem · Upscale American
Graylyn Estate is a genuinely beautiful place to have dinner, but the wine list is an afterthought in a room that deserves intention. Order the sea bass, grab the La Crema, and try not to think too hard about what this list could have been.
Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Clemmons · Winston Salem · New American
Sixty Vines is a solid, reliable wine stop in Winston-Salem — the by-the-glass breadth is real and the staff knows their stuff, but the list reads like a greatest hits album rather than anything adventurous. Come for the volume, stay for the pizza, but don't expect to have your mind changed about wine.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
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