Newspaper Page Text
She Stmes
gainesvilletimes com
Tuesday, December 11,2018
Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com
Documentary
explores roots
and culture of
Georgia wine
BY NICK BOWMAN
nbowman@
gainesvilletimes.com
With their roots firm in
Georgia soil, winemakers
have a new mission: Refin
ing a fledgling industry and
setting themselves apart
from other wine regions in
the country and the world.
And a new documentary
coming to Georgia Public
Broadcasting explores that
task. Produced, filmed and
edited by Benjamin Garner,
an assistant professor of
marketing and management
at University of North Geor
gia in Dahlonega, “Southern
Vines: The Rebirth of Wine
in Georgia” will take view
ers into wineries around
the state, including Hall
County’s Sweet Acre Farms
and many others in North
Georgia.
“What I like about the
wine industry is the passion
and the art and the effort
they put into making some
thing that’s a step above our
normal culture,” Garner
said on Monday, Dec. 11.
“What I like is people get
ting obsessed with produc
ing something excellent.
(Wine is) a blend of art and
science.”
Among others, Garner
visited Sweet Acre Farms,
Yonah Mountain Vineyards,
Wolf Mountain Vineyards,
Chateau Elan Winery and
Resort, Accent Cellars and,
in South Georgia, Still Pond
Vineyard.
Garner documented the
winemaking process and
interviewed winemakers
about their products, land
and history. He pitched the
26-minute documentary to
GPB, which picked it up and
will show it for the first time
at 3:30 p.m. Dec. 29. The net
work will retain rights to the
film for three years.
A public screening is ten
tatively set for the spring at
UNG’s Gainesville campus.
Matt Vrahiotes, who owns
Sweet Acre Farms with his
wife, Lindsey, is a prominent
figure in the documentary.
The winemaker opened the
first winery in Hall County
after a prolonged review
process with public officials,
and he’s now in his third
year of business in Alto.
Vrahiotes said that, for his
own winery and for others
in North Georgia, it’s time to
move into the next stage of
the industry: establishing an
identity.
“Now we’re starting to
play with the idea that we’re
not just trying to make wine,
we’re trying to make a wine
that’s uniquely Georgian,”
he said. “I think all the win
eries are just now starting to
come together to figure out
what we think the flavor of
Georgia wine is.
“What is Georgia wine?
What flavors are unique to
us, what varietals are unique
to us versus Texas or Califor
nia or Missouri?”
Those questions have
been churning underneath
meetings of the Georgia
Wine Producers and other
trade groups. Vrahiotes said
Garner’s documentary has
done the state a service: It
took those questions that up
to now have been worked
out within the wineries
themselves and “said them
out loud” for the public to
hear.
Garner said he wants his
film to help establish winer
ies in Georgia as different
from other regions in the
nation, with a history that
stretches back to Colonial
America and the early cul
tivation of the muscadine
grape.
“I think place is important
and a sense of community.
The more we can create
distinctive places in our
communities, we can fight
this homogenization of cul
ture,” Garner said. “Sweet
Acre Farms is different than
Yonah, and Yonah is differ
ent than Still Pond.”
The professor and film
maker has explored similar
concepts in other industries,
producing documentaries
on a Kansas dairy farm and
farmers markets in Ameri
ca’s heartland.
His affection for food and
the cultures that produce
unique examples of it began
when he studied abroad in
Italy. His time overseas,
in cultures that have been
changed and refined over
thousands of years, helped
him develop an appreciation
for expertise tied to the land
and what people are able to
draw from it.
“All of these places we’re
talking about are kind of
artisan producers, in a way,”
Garner said. “I was looking
for that here.”
And with this latest film,
he found it in Georgia wine,
which is now going through
a rebirth almost a century
after Prohibition.
“All the vines and culture
of winemaking got ripped up
with Prohibition,” Garner
said. “All the people who
had expertise in wineries
left. That’s partly why I like
it now — it’s not just that
we produce wine, but we’re
bringing back a culture of
expertise.”
For Vrahiotes, expertise
has meant growth for his
business. After two years,
he’s now selling wine online,
in stores around Hall County
and, earlier this year, began
selling in the Atlanta wine
chain Total Wine and More.
As word gets out about
his business and the others
nestled in the hills of North
Georgia, the winemaker is
hoping Georgia producers
will do more than just keep
their doors open.
“A lot of us want to make
an impact in the wine
world,” he said.
NICK BOWMAN I The Times
Benjamin Garner, an assistant professor at University of North Georgia in Dahlonega, has produced a documentary about
Georgia wine and the growing movement among winemakers to take the next step in wine production: giving the region a
character of its own apart from other wine regions in the world.
NICK BOWMAN I The Times
Wolf Mountain Vineyards and Winery, pictured May 2017, is one of the vineyards discussed in a new documentary on
Georgia wineries called “Southern Vines: The Rebirth of Wine in Georgia.”
Southern Vines
The Rebirth ofWine in Georgia
scon ROGERS I The Times
Taylor Denton of Sweet Acre Farms unpacks new
wine bottles for sterilization at the Alto winery as a
small crew bottles hundreds of gallons of blackberry
wine.
In gospel harmonies, we can find a wellspring of memories
When I was a child of 5 or
6,1 loved my little record
player, but, other than chil
dren’s storytelling albums,
I owned only two albums
-- both gospel: Elvis Presley
and Johnny Cash from “The
Holy Land.”
The songs from these
two albums impressed that
6-year-old, freckled-face
kid in such a deep way that
I have now downloaded
both albums on my iPod.
A few years ago, I read
in Cash’s autobiography,
“Cash,” that from the
beginning of his career,
he wanted to tithe not only
money but songs so every
tenth song he recorded was
a gospel one. Later, he just
saved up his song tithing
and did complete gospel
albums.
My favorite Johnny Cash
gospel rendering, then and
now, is the Carl Perkins’
composition, “Daddy Sang
R0NDA RICH
southswomen@bellsouth.net
Bass.”
Recently, Tink and I
were watching Johnny
Cash’s groundbreaking
network television show
on DVD. He introduced
“Daddy Sang Bass,” saying,
“Now, with the Carter fam
ily and the Statler Brothers
helping me, we’d like to do
it for you.”
“Daddy sang bass,” Cash
intoned, his voice dropping
an octave.
“Mama sang tenor,”
June Carter Cash chimed
brightly.
“Me and little brother
would join right in there,”
harmonized the Statlers.
My eyes watered and
my nose stung, thinking of
Daddy singing bass from
his place on the front pew,
of Mama singing from her
hymn book and my cousin,
Lynn, and I singing alto as
loud as we could.
As I watched the per
formance, it suddenly
occurred to me that many
children will grow up not
knowing that hymns have
parts that, when combined,
make harmonies from
voices in different ranges.
In the country churches
where I grew up - and the
Lord’s house that Tink and I
attend now - music focused
primarily on bass, soprano
and alto. We sing by shaped
notes, a skill taught through
out the early Appalachians.
This took some figuring
out by Tink, who grew up
in a Presbyterian church
that sang dignified, classi
cal hymns while my church
let go joyously whenever
we sang Albert Brumley,
Cleavant Derricks or any
songwriter published by the
Stamps-Baxter Company.
After several years, Tink
has figured out which parts
to sing even though he occa
sionally whispers, “Honey!”
whenever my out-of-tune
singing is too loud.
“If you can read and
sing shaped notes, there’s
nothing you can’t sing,”
explained Stephen Butler,
a music teacher, who over
sees the North Georgia
School of Gospel Music,
which gathers children
and teenagers together for
two weeks every summer
and teaches shape note
singing. I was invited one
day to Pearce Auditorium
on the Brenau University
campus to hear more than
200 voices chiming together
like an angelic choir.
“This is the heart of
the South,” Stephen said.
“We’re trying to preserve
this art form and it needs
to be preserved. When you
marry a message with a
melody, there is nothing
like it. It’s contagious.”
Yes, it is. I sat in the bal
cony, watching those young
people who read the music
and sang their parts to the
accompaniment of a robust
piano. It rang with praise
and beauty.
Our family’s great
friends, the Calhouns, had
a mama and five siblings
who sang gorgeous blood
harmony, a mountain term
for perfect harmony that
can only be produced by
singers who are related by
blood. Whenever we visited,
one or the other would say,
“Well, let’s sing a song for
yu’uns before you leave.”
Judy would sit down at
the old upright piano and
the others would gather
around to sing a gospel
song. It was beautiful.
When Cash sang the lines,
“One of these days, and it
won’t be long, I’ll rejoin
them in a song. I’m gonna
join the family circle at the
throne,” my tears fell.
I cried with both sad and
glad tears. Sad because
they’re all mostly gone now
but glad because I will join
them in the family circle at
the throne.
Singing shaped notes, of
course.
Ronda Rich is the best
selling author of several
books, including “Mark My
Words: A Memoir of Mama.”
Sign up for her newsletter
at www.rondarich.com.
Her column appears
Tuesdays and on www.
gainesvilletimes.com.