Sweet Tea and Rocking Chairs.

I spent the afternoon at Irvin~House Vineyards and Firefly Distillery doing tastings. The vineyard is out on Wadmalaw Island, which I still don't think I can pronounce correctly. Firefly is known for their Sweet Tea Vodka, and while I'm not a huge fan of either (Gasp. No, I don't care for sweet tea. Yes, I am from the South), it sounded fun.

As we turned off of the main road onto a dirt drive lined with oak trees, it was clear at the sweet tea flavoring in the vodka would not be the only southern component of the afternoon. The tasting rooms were in two barns, separated only by a row of rocking chairs and a couple playing guitar and singing about life on the farm. The liquor flavors included lemonade, blackberry, peach cobbler, and chocolate pecan pie. The wines were named magnolia, palmetto, and - my favorite - tara gold. Most enjoyably, the gift shop was filled with your classic southern trinkets, from mason jar glasses to Charleston recipe books. A particular hand towel caught the attention of my friends, and they joked that it sums up my entire academic interests. The towel read "Here in the South we do not hide our crazy. We parade it on the front porch and give it a cocktail."

They might be right.