Plantations and Vineyards

Firstly, apologies for not having updated these posts sooner - this is largely because of the amount of sightseeing that Rachel and I have been up to in the past week, and also because of the fact that i've been busy in work whenever i've not been out sightseeing. Anyway (and writing in hindsight), for the first day of Rachel's visit, i decided we would drive out along the Maybank highway on James Island leading to Wadmalaw Island. Our first port of call was the Angel Oak - which i have mentioned before, but actually got a photo of this time (watch out for it in the future) - a nice peaceful short stop on the way to our primary destinations for the day - the Charleston Tea Plantation and the Irvin House Vineyards.

The Charleston Tea Plantation is actually the ONLY tea plantation in the whole of America and they make a couple of types of tea - namely, black, green and oolong. The tour itself is pretty short and sweet (a 15 minute video tour with the equipment in front of you) but still interesting none-the-less. The lady in the shop was also incredibly nice to Rachel and I with us both being English (she called us 'connissoeurs (spelling?) of tea. After here, it was off to the vineyards where the wine is made solely from the muscadine grape - as its the only one that will grow here. After a short and very interesting tour (for free), a small fee of $2.50 is paid to taste all five varieties of wine (four types and one blend) which, because of the grape, all are in the sweet variety. For us, the best one was a brand called 'Tara Gold' (cause of the grape rather than 'Gone With The Wind') which was, at least, semi-dry and had a nice kick to it.