The Northeast Georgia Mountains provide a perfect climate for growing wine grapes. In addition to visiting the wineries and vineyards in the area, you can also purchase many local wines at gift shops, art galleries, beverage stores and other outlets in the area. Also be sure to check each winery’s website for current events — many offer regular wine tastings, live music weekends and grape-stomping festivals. For more details, click the name below to go to the link:Wineries & Vineyards
The Chateau Elan Winery was opened in 1984 by Don and Nancy Panoz and currently sits among acres of vineyards. The Winery also hosts two dining establishments: the elegant French Le Clos restaurant and the relaxed Mediterranean style bistro, Café Élan. Upon entering the Winery you will first discover the Wine Market, which features Château Élan wines along with a wide variety of wine-related and culinary gift items. The Winery also hosts The Viking Culinary Studio, which offers weekend cooking classes and Saturday cooking demonstrations. The Art Gallery is also located in the Winery on the 2nd floor.
The Chateau Elan Inn offers 275 deluxe guest rooms. The guestrooms are inspired by the Château Élan architectural and interiors style that emulates elements of a French country estate.
In addition to the Winery and Inn, there’s also a Spa, Golf Course and Event Center.
Chateau Elan
In 1998, Atlantans’ Craig and Cydney Kritzer founded Frogtown Cellars in the “Frogtown District” of Lumpkin County; a viticultural area carefully selected for quality wine grape production and outstanding mountain views. Frogtown’s principal estate property is a 57 acre vineyard and winery complex located at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains between Dahlonega and Cleveland, Georgia, which is within the geographically defined “Dahlonega Plateau.” Since 2010 Frogtown has been awarded 2 Platinum, 36 Gold, 82 Silver and 92 Bronze Medals in major US competitions.
Frogtown’s winery is specifically designed to take advantage of the steep changes in elevations created by the topography of our rolling, hilly terrain. The winery is constructed as a tri-level gravity flow winery. Each of the three levels has a different elevation and serves different functions in the winemaking process. The top level is the crush pad, where the initial stages of winemaking occur. The second level, 12 feet below the crush pad, is the principal tank room, where fermentations occur and wine is stored and blended in stainless steel tanks. The third and lowest level, six feet below the tank room, houses the barrels where red wines and some white wines are aged. The third level also contains the bottling area. These three separate and distinct levels promote the movement of grape juice and wine by gravity. Using gravity to primarily move juice and wine is significantly less invasive and more gentle than moving juice and wine with the aid of even the gentlest of pumps.
Frogtown’s North Georgia vineyards are at elevations from 1675 feet to 1825 feet above sea level. The estate’s land is divided into separate blocks based on the diverse soil, climate, terrain and vine row aspect of each block. Different white and red wine grape varieties are planted in each distinct block based on the block’s viticultural characteristics.
Frogtown hosts Vineyard Weddings and Wine Taster’s Dinners and Brunches. Check the event calendar on the website for details.
Frogtown Cellars
Vineyard: 700 Ridge Point Drive, Dahlonega, GA 30533
706-865-0687
Tasting Room: 7601 South Main Street, Helen, GA 30545
706-878-5000
frogtown.us
UCC
Habersham
As you drive into the entrance of the 35-acre Paradise Hills Resort property, there is a small test vineyard roadside, below some of the rental cabins. The main vineyard at Paradise Hills stretches beyond the centrally located Lodge with the winery production building alongside it.
The vineyards were originally planted in 2012 with a variety of grapes to include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Reisling, Chardonnel, Traminette and Sangiovese. The vines are closely managed and cultivated with specific seasonal techniques to enhance their growth and enrich the grapes’ quality.
Here, we strive to balance the regions impact on the grapes with our personal vision of the finest wines. Local wine with European flare. Our vineyards and farm winery are a family operation that involves every member contributing to every aspect and stage of the process. Grapes-to-glass (winemaking) is a process that is an evolving, forever-learning craft.
Paradise Hills
Tiger Mountain Vineyards, a boutique North Georgia winery, cultivates all of its grapes and produces all of its handcrafted wines in the mountains of Rabun County. The winery, along with its historic Red Barn Cafe, is jointly owned by four native Georgians, John and Martha Ezzard and John and Marilyn McMullan.
In January of 2009, John and Marilyn McMullan joined the Ezzards as partners in the winery. Together, the Ezzards and McMullans created a new business strategy and, in 2011, began refurbishing the historic 75-year-old barn into what is now the cafe and events venue. Dr. John began planting European vinifera grapes in 1995 on his five-generation-old farm at Tiger Mountain where he was born. He and his wife Martha, with the assistance of a successful Virginia vineyard, carefully selected the varieties of grapes suited to the climate of the southern Blue Ridge, creating the first vinifera vineyard in the state. Tiger Mountain Vineyards now grows six French vinifera varieties: Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Mourvedre, Petit Manseng, Tannat, and Viognier, as well as the Portuguese Touriga Nacional. In addition to the European varieties, John also planted the American Norton grape, native to Virginia. The first Norton vines were rooted from Virginia cuttings. In addition, Tiger Mountain Vineyards is currently the only producer of Petit Manseng in Georgia.
Tiger Mountain Vineyards is proud of the old-world methods used in creating its handcrafted wines. Tiger Mountain produces traditional dry wines in the European style from each of its grape varieties, three red blends, and an award-winning semi-dry Rose as well as a late-harvest dessert wine. Red wines are fermented in small-batch open tanks. Each tank is meticulously monitored and tended by hand. White wines are fermented in French oak barrels and bottled precisely when the desired crispness is achieved. Tiger Mountain barrel-age its reds for two years in American oak. All of its wines are delicately pressed using water pressure.