The Northeast Kingdom is where Vermont gets truly wild. Covering the three northeastern counties of the state, the NEK is a landscape of deep forests, glacial lakes, unpaved roads, and small hill farms that have been working the same stony soil for generations. It is also, improbably, home to a small but intensely creative fermentation community.
The producers here are not trying to replicate what's done elsewhere. They're working with foraged berries, local honey, heritage apple varieties, and cold-hardy grape hybrids to create fermented products that taste unmistakably of this particular place. Ice cider, maple mead, wild blueberry wine, and birch sap fermentations sit alongside more conventional grape wines made from Marquette and La Crescent.
Visiting the NEK for wine means embracing remoteness. The tasting rooms are small, the roads are winding, and cell service is spotty. What you get in return is some of the most beautiful scenery in New England, the most genuine hospitality you'll encounter anywhere, and wines and ciders that you literally cannot find outside this corner of Vermont.
Browse all Northeast Kingdom wineries on Wino Notion. Click any card to visit the full page.