Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, August 1,2018
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 5A
Dahlonega’s wine region just got a lot more official
Nick Bowman Forthe Dawson County News
Wolf Mountain Vineyards and Winery, pictured May 2017, is one of the prop
erties included in the new Dahlonega Plateau wine region designation from
the U.S. Department of theTreasury. Several area wineries and tourism offi
cials have been pushing for the designation for years, and locals say it puts
Dahlonega on the same level as Sonoma and Napa valleys.
By Nick Bowman
DCN Regional Staff
The Dahlonega Plateau
is now a nationally recog
nized wine region of the
United States.
Eight vineyards and
wineries are included in
the region, which covers
areas of Lumpkin and
White counties.
Winemakers and tourism
officials are cheering the
decision, saying it puts
Dahlonega on the same
federally recognized level
as Sonoma and Napa val
leys in California.
The designation makes
clear that “there’s a par
ticular geographic region
— the Dahlonega Plateau
— that has a special
growing condition,” said
Stephen Smith, manager
of the tasting room at
Wolf Mountain
Vineyards, one of the
properties in the designat
ed area. “There’s a partic-
ular soil profile.
Everything that goes into
growing grapes makes
this area unique.”
The honorific comes
from the U.S. Department
of the Treasury for some
reason, and you can read
the (extremely dry (drier
than a hearty Cabernet,
you might say)) language
in the federal register lay
ing out exactly what’s
included in the latest
American Viticultural
Area.
The Plateau designation
is the product of more
than two years of work on
the part of the wineries
and the Dahlonega-
Lumpkin County
Chamber & Visitors
Bureau. It becomes effec
tive at the end of the
month.
It’s good news for
Lumpkin wineries Accent
Cellars, Cavender Creek
Vineyards, Frogtown
Cellars Vineyards,
Montaluce Winery and
Restaurant, Three Sisters
Vineyards and Wolf
Mountain Vineyards, and
the White County vine
yards of Cottage Vineyard
and Winery and Kaya
Vineyard and Winery.
They’re all in the
Dahlonega Plateau, which
describes the mountain
ous terminus of the
Appalachian chain. The
area covers 133 square
miles, and the existing
wine industry operates on
100 acres within the area,
which will grow to almost
115 acres in the coming
years.
Expect to see the
Plateau in marketing
materials and on bottles
in the coming months and
years.
“It’s actually a fortu
nate name, because we
think the Dahlonega
Plateau designation, the
Dahlonega Plateau
phrase, is even more
romantic than something
like Napa Valley or
Sonoma,” said David
Zunker, tourism director
for the Dahlonega-
Lumpkin Chamber &
Visitors Bureau.
Much like the Georgia
Grown label, wines that
carry the AVA label for
the Dahlonega Plateau
will be made only with
grapes grown in the area,
Smith said. Blends made
with grapes from outside
of the viticultural area
cannot carry the AVA
label.
A loose association of
wineries and vineyards in
the Dahlonega Plateau is
beginning to form,
Zunker said, which will
complement the commu
nity’s reputation as the
tasting room capital of
Georgia and the area’s
longstanding wine high
way, which is a project of
the Winegrowers
Association of Georgia.
And like the wine high-
way, the Dahlonega
Plateau is the first AVA
entirely within Georgia.
The Upper Hiwassee
Highlands was the state’s
first AVA, but it’s part of
a larger area that includes
portions of North
Carolina.
But even with the asso
ciations, designations and
millions of dollars rolling
around North Georgia,
it’s still early days for the
area’s professional indus
try.
“People have been
growing grapes in
Georgia for a long, long
time, and they’ve been
growing grapes in North
Georgia for a long time,
but there’s been a surge in
the last 25 years,” Smith
said. “Twenty-five years
— these guys are babies
in the grand scheme.”
As viticultural areas get
recognized, that will
begin to change, he said,
and the Dahlonega
Plateau is one of the first
steps toward a more seri
ous reckoning of the
Lumpkin and White
county wine scene.
“We hope it will start to
drive folks to say, “This is
not a bunch of armchair
winemakers. There’s
something valid to what’s
going on up here,”’ Smith
said.
Wolf Mountain's proudest
Stephen Smith, the Wolf Mountain
Vineyards tasting room manager,
walked through a few of the win
ery's best sellers:
King claret
Above all is the winery's claret, a
Bordeaux-style red wine that runs
big in flavor and short on supply.
Smith said the claret usually has a
six-month lifespan at the winery
before it runs out.
"It's been a special wine for us for
a lot of years," he said. "We've
increased production and not been
able to keep up with demand. It's
turned into a bit of a cult wine."
Whites on reserve
On the lighter side, the winery's
reserve chardonnay and plateau
blanc are both popular choices.
NOTICE OF PROPERTY TAX INCREASE
The Dawson County Board of Commissioners has tentatively
adopted a millage rate which will require an increase in property
taxes by 10.08 percent.
All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearing on this tax
increase to be held in the Commissioners Meeting Room at the
Dawson County Courthouse/Administration Building located at 25
Justice Way, Dawsonville, Georgia on August 2.2018 at 6:00 nm.
Times and places of additional public hearings on this tax increase
will be held in the Commissioners Meeting Room at the Dawson
County Courthouse/Administration Building located at 25 Justice Way,
Dawsonville, Georgia on August 9. 2018 at 4:00 nm. and August
16.2018 at 6:00 um.
The tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 8.138 mills, an
increase of 0.745 mills. Without this tentative tax increase, the millage
rate will be no more than 7.393 mills. The proposed tax increase
for a home with a fair market value of $250 000 is approximately
$74.50 and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property
with a fair market value of $200,000 is approximately $59.60.
TM
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