About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 11, 2018)
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.
