We've been urging you for some time to visit a wine bar, but we just had an experience that gives a whole new meaning to the term "flight of wine."

At Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, tucked into a little space on the way to Concourses D and E, is the best idea in airplane travel since the jet engine: the Yadkin Valley Wine Bar. The day we were there, the bar offered 57 different wines from nine wineries in the Yadkin Valley region of North Carolina -- a glass for $5, a taste of four wines for $3. This is such a terrific idea, both for travelers and for local wine industries, that airports and vintners throughout the country should follow suit -- and, in fact, several are considering the idea. We'll get back to that -- and back to the best wine of our tasting -- in a moment.

The Yadkin Valley wine bar isn't the first of its kind. In 1998, Wente Vineyards of Livermore, Calif., opened a wine bar at an airport in Ghana that closed after two years. At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, La Bodega Winery, an actual licensed and bonded winery, has been operating a tasting room for 10 years. There in Terminal A, it features 40 wines from Texas wineries, including its own label, available by the flight, glass or bottle. A few wines from other countries are being test-marketed for its second, larger tasting room that's scheduled to open next month in the international terminal, according to Gina Puente-Brancato, La Bodega's president and owner.

This seems like a win-win wine situation to us. With people spending more time at airports -- Americans took 633 million domestic trips last year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics -- this gives weary travelers something to do. It's a great way to promote local wines. There's a commercial winery in every state now, but many people are unaware of most of them. Think about it: Isn't everybody always looking for a last-minute present at the airport? What could be a better and more interesting present than a bottle of local wine? Even if a wine bar is too ambitious, at least a kiosk that sells local wines surely wouldn't be a problem. And, by the way, since the Yadkin Valley Wine Bar, which also sells all of the wines by the bottle to take home, is inside the security area, there's no hassle with schlepping the bottles through security. (And thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision on direct-shipping, the wine bar says, it can ship just about anywhere.)

All of this makes so much sense that we called winery or airport honchos in New York, Missouri and Washington, all of which have large wine industries, and asked if they were considering doing anything similar. In each case, they told us that they'd bounced this around in the past and, now that we mentioned it, would be bringing the idea back to the front burner. They might want to take a tre, either. The wine bar at the Dallas airport incorporated an unused closet. The Yadkin Valley wine bar is only 600 square feet. Says Mr. Orr: "We try to focus on what people need and want instead of architecture."

North Carolina's wine industry, like those of so many states, has had its ups and downs throughout the years. It was a successful source of wines from native American grapes in the early 19th century, according to Leon Adams, in his classic book "The Wines of America." North Carolina had 13 wineries in 1947, but they all closed as various areas of the state went dry or threatened to, according to Mr. Adams. Well, they're back. There now are 45 wineries in the state -- almost double the number three years ago -- with more scheduled to open in the next few months. The wine bar represents nine in Yadkin Valley, which is about a 90-minute drive north of the Charlotte airport. During the past few years, as some tobacco farmers have moved to other crops, some in North Carolina have turned to grapes. Government support and private money fund a wine program at a local community college, which acts as a laboratory for the local industry.

The Yadkin Valley Winegrowers' Association got a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help start the wine bar, according to former association President Charlie Shelton, who owns Shelton Vineyards in Yadkin Valley with his brother Ed. The Sheltons spearheaded the project. The association's membership had to match the grant by contributing labor and discounted wine to the project, which operates as an extension of a licensed winery. The wine bar opened in late March and has been selling about 100 cases a month, Mr. Shelton says. "It will work," he says. "It's going to have a lasting benefit."

There are a few small tables and a tasting bar, behind which are dozens of local wines. It's open every day. For several hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, one of the people behind the counter is from one of the wineries. The day we were there (anonymously), one server was a member of the Kroustalis family that owns Westbend Vineyards, in Lewisville. To be able to taste wine with a winery owner or winemaker while waiting for a plane -- well, travel doesn't get much better than that. We first tried a flight of four different Chardonnays -- really, how often would anyone get a chance to taste four North Carolina Chardonnays against each other? -- and then moved on to more unusual stuff.

With new winemaking regions popping up all the time, many places still are trying to figure out what's the best grape for their particular area, so there's a lot of experimentation going on. The 57 wines offered the day we visited the wine bar included Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, of course, but also more unusual varietals such as Sangiovese and Viognier. When we tasted Westbend's very juicy white blend that they call Yadkin Fume, we immediately felt like seafood. So the servers suggested we go get some takeout seafood at a restaurant in a nearby concourse and bring it back. They said they encourage people to bring their own food and eat it with their wine. Indeed, when we visited later, a young couple was enjoying take-out sandwiches with a bottle of North Carolina wine. We had lunch at the seafood place nearby, but it didn't have any local wines on its list. What a shame. Even though it's a chain restaurant, management at headquarters should consider adding a few wines from local wineries wherever it has a restaurant.

How were the North Carolina wines? As you might expect, some were very good and some were OK. The most consistent varietal in our own little tasting, to our surprise, was Viognier, the unusual, often full-bodied white wine from the Rhone Valley of France that was hot in California for a while a few years ago. We liked both Hanover Park's and Westbend's; we bought a bottle of Westbend's to take home. We thought it would do well in a tasting: flowery and distinctive, with tastes of lychee and almonds. It cost $15, which is a bargain.

So, wine regions and airports, wake up: There is a great opportunity here. Can't the airport in Atlanta find a little space to sell Georgia wines? Can't the airport in Indianapolis at least offer a kiosk of Indiana wines? This is a trend that should take off.