Newspaper Page Text
Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | getout@gainesvilletimes.com
W&t Sttncs
gainesvilletimes.com
Thursday, November 1,2018
Three mays to etyoy mine this month
the end of the harvest season with
a festival.
Brianna Thornton, manager at
Montaluce, is hoping the winery’s
fourth-annual Festival in the Vines
is the best yet.
“I think a big part of it is just
extra planning going into this
year,” Thornton said. “We have
two people working on it, so we
have two sets of eyes looking on
everything ... I think it’s just more
manpower.”
Thornton and Montaluce’s ban
quet captain, Nicole Dowis, have
doubled the number of vendors
coming to this year’s event from
noon to 5 p.m. on Nov. 4. Thornton
said there will be about 30 craft
and boutique vendors.
Along with vendors, the restau
rant will be open and serving chili
and caramel apples.
“This year, we’re hoping for a
really good turnout with about 500
people,” Thornton said. “We’ve
already sold 300 tickets online,
and we’ll sell tickets at the door as
well.”
Bringing the music for the day
will be Radford Windham and
Step Back Cadillac, a band out of
Dahlonega that has been on stage
with the likes of Zac Brown.
Admission to the event is $10
and wine and food costs extra, but
SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
Like a ripe piece of cheese or
a tasty hunk of steak, November
pairs well with wine — and there
are plenty of events this month to
get you out to enjoy both.
live music from The League of
Decency, too.
Truax said Vineyard Fest is
different than other wine events.
Once guests purchase their ticket,
everything’s included. But you’ll
have to take some extra steps to
get into this festival, as individual
tickets sold out in August.
To get in, you’ll have to book an
overnight package, which include
a room at the resort and two tickets
to the event.
For those who can score a ticket,
they’ll get to enjoy all the wine,
spirits and beer they can handle.
The event will also feature a
bread and cheese station, a pie bar
with pecan pie, Mississippi mud
pie, cream puffs and peanut butter
cookies and a whole-smoked pig
station by the fountain outside.
And once you’ve gotten your fill,
it wouldn’t be a trip to a winery
without grape stomping.
“It’s one of the most popular sta
tions,” Truax said. “They’ll go out,
stomp wine for their Instagram
and they really have a good time.
That’s something people really
enjoy.”
Montaluce’s Festival
in the Vines
Dahlonega’s Montaluce Winery
and Restaurant is also ringing in
Chateau Elan’s
Vineyard Fest
Chateau Elan Winery & Resort
pitches its event as “one of the first
big wine festivals in Georgia and in
the Southeast.” The 22nd-annual
event will feature more than 100
wine, beer and spirit vendors,
mostly from Georgia. New this
year, though, it will feature a few
wines from other regions.
“It’s evolved and morphed a lit
tle bit over the years, but the heart
and soul of the event has stayed the
same,” said Emily Truax, market
ing manager at Chateau Elan. “In
the past few years, we’ve even
expanded on that and also included
local distilleries and breweries.”
Sweetwater Brewing, Six &
Twenty Distillery, 6 Degree
Tequila, Boutier Winery, Haber
sham Winery, Five Points Berries
Winery and Dark Horse Winery
will all be there from 1 to 5 p.m.
on Nov. 11 along with food sta
tions from the resort’s chef and
there will be some free activities
at the festival, including a hay ride.
Dahlonega Walking
Tours’ Grapes and
Ghosts Wine Tour
If a wine festival packed with
other people isn’t quite scary
enough, Dahlonega Walking Tours
has just what you need. With the
Grapes and Ghosts Wine Tour,
guests get to walk around down
town Dahlonega hearing stories of
haunting while sipping on wine.
“Basically we tell the ghost sto
ries that are associated with the
town and the individual buildings
that we’re going to,” said Jeremy
Sharp, co-owner of Dahlonega
Walking Tours. “Most of the stops
that we go to are located in historic
buildings that are 150 years old, so
over the years they’ve collected a
multitude of stories.”
With stops at the Dahlonega
Tasting Room, Naturally Georgia,
Conner House and Canvas and
Cork, guests will have a chance to
sample wines while mingling with
each other and listening to ghost
stories.
“We try to allocate a little bit of
time for people to socialize,” Sharp
said. “And it’s really cool because
the wine room tasting owners,
they actually tell their own stories,
things that have happened to them
in the past.”
Tours are for ages 21 and up and
are given at 5 p.m. on Fridays and
5:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Tickets are
$20 apiece and include two wine
tastings. If you’re wanting more,
there is an additional charge. Tick
ets are $15 for designated drivers
The tour is just more than a half-
mile long and takes about three
hours, but Sharp said they always
try to make it a conversational
tour, encouraging guests to share
their own experiences.
“People love ghosts and people
love wine,” Sharp said. “And we’ve
got plenty of that in Dahlonega, so
it was just a natural fit to combine
the two.”
Festival in the Vines
When: Noon to 5 p.m. Nov. 4
Where: Montaluce Winery and Restaurant,
946 Via Montaluce, Dahlonega
Cost: $10
Grapes and
Ghosts Wine Tour
When: 5 p.m. Fridays, 5:30 p.m. Saturdays
Where: 19 East Main Street, Suite F,
Dahlonega
Cost: $20, designated drivers $15
Vineyard Fest
When: 1 to 5 p.m. Nov. 11
Where: Chateau Elan Winery & Resort,
100 Rue Charlemagne Drive, Braselton
Good books galore: Hall
library having fall sale
BY AMBER TYNER
atyner@gainesvilletimes.com
Books of almost every genre will be avail
able for purchase this weekend at a book
sale in the Hall County Library System’s
Gainesville branch.
“We have a little bit — or in some cases a
lot — of everything,” Lisa MacKinney, Hall
County Library Director, said about the
book selection.
The two-day event is hosted by Friends of
the Hall County Library, a nonprofit orga
nization whose mission is to fundraise and
advocate for the library system.
“We will have children’s books, we will
have Spanish books, we will have large-
print books,” she said. “This year, we have a
really, really good fiction selection. We had
one very large donation of very high qual
ity, like-new almost, fiction.”
She said prices of the books will mostly
range between 50 cents to $1, and on Sun
day there will be a “fire sale” with items
sold $5 per bag.
“You fill that bag just as high as you can
fill it,” she said. “I have been astonished at
what some people can get into one bag. It is
truly amazing.”
MacKinney said while they have a book
sale every year, this will actually be the
second one for 2018.
“We had one in May, but we’re having a
bonus book sale this fall because we’re try
ing to get rid of anything we can move out
for the renovation,” she said, referring to
the construction set for early next year.
She said the book sale is one of the sys
tem’s most important fundraisers, as pro
ceeds help pay for library activities.
“It raises more money than anything
else, and it pays for a huge chunk of
NICK BOWMAN I The Times
Rows of fiction books for sale pile up in
the meeting room earlier this year at the
Gainesville branch of the Flail County
Library System.
Hall County Library Book
Sale
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 3 and 1 -4
p.m. Nov. 4
Where: Hall County Library System,
Gainesville Branch, 127 Main St. NW,
Gainesville
More info: www.hallcountylibrary.org
our Summer Reading Program every
year,” she said. “This is really our biggest
fundraiser.”
And it’s also pretty popular.
“We’ll probably see 1,000 people,” MacK
inney said. “Usually when we open, the line
is wrapped around the library building.”
Tracking
down
electric
vehicle
charging
stations just
got easier:
Google
Maps has
made public
charging
stations
searchable
through its
mobile app.
SCOn ROGERS
The Times
Getting out is a little easier
for owners of electric cars
Google Maps adds charging points to mobile app
BY NICK BOWMAN
nbowman@
gainesvilletimes.com
Taking the ol’ electric car
out for a spin is about to get
a lot less nerve wracking:
Google has added charging
point locations to its mobile
app.
By searching for generic
terms, including simply
plugging in “ev charg
ing near me” or a similar
phrase, Google’s Apple and
Android apps will turn up
any public charging points
in the immediate area.
In Hall County, four
charging stations are
marked.
Near downtown Gaines
ville, a point is listed at the
Hampton Inn on Jesse Jew
ell Parkway. Hampton Inn
confirmed they have two
pay-per-use charging sta
tions at the hotel.
Off of Browns Bridge
Road, a point is marked at
Century Equipment, a weld
ing and battery charger
manufacturer, on Murphy
Boulevard. Century could
not be reached on Wednes
day to confirm that it had a
charger.
At the University of North
Georgia’s Gainesville cam
pus, SemaConnect main
tains a charging station.
Finally, there’s a charg
ing point listed at the Atlanta
Falcons training camp in
Flowery Branch on Falcons
Parkway.
“To help you make a quick
decision about which station
to use, we’ll show you infor
mation about the business
where the station is located,
the types of ports available,
charging speeds, and how
many ports there are,” wrote
Andrew Foster, manager of
Google Maps, in a blog post
for the company. “You’ll also
see information about the
station from drivers, includ
ing photos, ratings, reviews
and questions.”
In the United States, the
chargers included in Google
Maps include Tesla, Charge-
point, SemaConnect, EVgo
and Blink.
