Monday Musings – a visit to north Georgia wine country

Last month our friends Larry and Bev from Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings, along with Bev’s sister Pat, invited us and my BIL & SIL Stuart & Sandy to join them for a tour of north Georgia wine country. They were staying in their RV at Vogel State Park where we met them and headed out on the winding roads for the heart of Georgia wine country.

The wineries are located in the foothills of the Southern Appalachian’s Blue Ridge Mountains. You can see by the pictures why they call these the Blue Ridge Mountains. They look just this blue almost every day.

According to the Georgia Wine Growers Association, the mountains combine the perfect terrain, soil, and elevation necessary to produce wines very much like that of Italy’s Piedmont region, which produces some of the most prestigious wines in the world.

We agree. Their wines are excellent. You’ll feel as if you’ve stepped into little Italy. It’s hard to believe these wineries are only a couple of hours north of Atlanta.

The wineries & vineyards are perfect for weddings and family get-togethers. And they are a whole lot closer than Italy if you live in the states. They also make a nice day trip if you’re in the Atlanta area and want to get away from the city and breathe some fresh mountain air while you sip wine and tour the vineyards.

Here’s a link to the Georgia Wine Growers Association website to see more about the eleven different wineries in the area, including Crane Creek Vineyards. I did a post about Crane Creek Vineyards (link here) a couple of years ago.

I’ll keep the words short and let you enjoy the lush vineyards and the scenery.

Our first stop was Blackstock Vineyards. We brought home several bottles of their Viognier, which we thought was excellent.

Decisions, decisions…

We took a break and ate lunch at the Back Porch Oyster Bar in nearby Dahlonega. I’m still bragging about how good the Hatteras style clam chowder was. For more pictures and about our lunch, please jump over to Larry’s blog.

After lunch we headed to Frogtown Winery where their rosé was very reminiscent of the French rosés of Provence.

Cheers from north Georgia wine country!

Our group, L to R – Pat, Bev, moi, Stuart, Sandy, Meakin, & Larry.

Have a great week everyone. 

All pictures may be enlarged by clicking. 

German Gluhwein

Many years ago my husband and I celebrated Christmas in Germany. While we were strolling through the Marienplatz in Munich at the Christmas Market, known as Christkindlmarkt, we noticed that everyone seemed to be drinking a warm wine from cups. My husband asked a gentleman, in his best German, “Was ist das?” or what is that.

“Gluhwein,” the man answered, except to our ears it sounded like “glue-something.” Not easily intimidated, my husband asked other passersby, hoping we could understand what they were saying. It continued to sound like glue, so he finally went up to a street vendor selling this glue-sounding drink, mumbled his best pronunciation and pointed to people that were drinking it. We were served a delicious warm drink that we later learned was Gluhwein.

The easiest way to make Gluhwein is to buy the German spice bags, which we brought home with us from that trip, and heat them in red wine. However, that was many years ago and I’ve run out of my stash of spice bags. Fortunately we don’t live very far from Helen, a lovely German town in north Georgia, and it’s worth a trip there to get them. If you can’t find the bags, here is our version of the mulled wine.

German Gluhwein

This recipe was translated by a friend from a German cookbook, written, of course, in German.

1 cup water

½ to ¾ cup of sugar, depending on your taste

1 quart of red wine, such as a Merlot or Shiraz

1 stick of cinnamon

4 lemon slices, plus more for garnish if you wish

4 cloves

Make sugar syrup by heating the water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Add remaining ingredients and return to a boil. Remove from heat and discard cinnamon stick, lemon slices and cloves and serve warm. Garnish with fresh lemon slices if you wish. Serves 4.

Be sure to check out Cathy's Gluhwein at Wives with Knives. We both love Gluhwein and her photographs, as well as her blog, are gorgeous. She was able to purchase Ghuhwein at a Holiday market at a German American School. She lives in Oregon and German stores and deli's there also have it, so keep an eye out if you don't want to make your own.

Portions of this post were taken from the Archives.

Celebrating Pink Saturday at Crane Creek Vineyards & Winery in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia

On Saturday a group of bloggers from around the world get together to celebrate everything pink. Pink Saturday is sponsored by Beverly of How Sweet The Sound. In fact, it’s one of the reasons we came to the winery today – to enjoy a glass of pink wine. If you love pink salmon, be sure to visit Mary at One Perfect Bite. She prepared a yummy pink salmon chowder last Saturday and treated us to breathtaking (pink) photos of the San Juan Islands. If you would like to join in the fun, visit Bev and sign up for next week’s Pink Saturday.

We’re visiting Crane Creek Vineyards & Winery, which sits high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia, just a few miles from Young Harris, a quaint college town and in the shadow of Brasstown Bald, Georgia’s highest peak. Less than two hours north of Atlanta, it feels like it’s a world away. Sun kissed days, cool summer nights and rich mineral soils allow the winery to cultivate grapes with fresh, assertive aromas and concentrated flavors. In addition to blush and rose wine, they also produce a nice selection of reds and whites.

We stopped by their tasting room, housed in a charming old, yellow clapboard Georgia farmhouse that overlooks the vineyards and were greeted by a darling little metal pink pig at the gate. Inside we sampled a bottle of their Villard Noir, Blanc de Noir, 2008. Crisp and dry, it reminded us very much of the fabulous French rose wines we enjoyed during our trip to Provence a couple of years ago. While visiting with Chef David, he said he likes to serve this wine with figs and goat cheese drizzled with a little balsamic glaze. Sounds like a winner to me.

Crane Creek Vineyards is a great place for lunch. If you call ahead, they’ll prepare a cheese tray for you and customize it with various vegetable medleys or assorted antipasto meats. They also offer soup (today’s selection was Fresh Tomato) and a glass of wine.

On the grounds there’s a beautiful pavilion that’s perfect for parties or even a wedding, which sounds like a fantasy experience for a new bride to exchange vows in the vineyards and start a new lifelong journey with the one she loves.

Crane Creek is a member of the Wine Growers Association of Georgia. In December the association sponsors a Georgia Wine Highway Weekend. The participating wineries are all within driving distance of Atlanta, Asheville or Chattanooga. So if in mid December you’re feeling stressed-out and want to escape for a couple of days from the holiday hustle and bustle, the winery tour might just be the perfect weekend trip.

In addition to the winery tours in North Georgia, there’s hiking on the Appalachian Trail and plenty of trout fishing in the area. Crane Creek offers two lovely guest houses, one of which is located a few feet from Frogtown Creek, a branch of the Chestatee River, which is a certified Georgia trout stream. Regularly stocked with rainbow trout, it’s a trout fisherman's paradise.

We’re looking forward to Crane Creek’s upcoming Annual Harvest Day on Saturday, October 24, where they celebrate the completion of the year’s harvest with hayrides, grape stomping, winery tours and tastings. I’ll give Catawba a scratch on her ear and tell her I’ll see her on the twenty-fourth.

My husband Meakin raises a glass of this wonderful rose wine and we both wish you a very happy (and rosy) Pink Saturday from Crane Creek Vineyards & Winery located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia.

French Rose Wine from Provence, Chateau Romanin and La Cave du Mas de Longchamp

Rose wines of Provence

Provence is the birthplace of fresh and fruity rose wines. Vines have existed there since the fourth century BC but it was the Greeks and Romans who introduced grape growing techniques to the area. The original wines were similar to today’s roses that have come to symbolize Provence. Rose is an easy going wine served as an aperitif in France but equally at home with a typical Mediterranean meal. Half of the rose wine made in France comes from Provence and eighty percent of the wine made in Provence is rose.

Many times we would be sitting on our stone terrace enjoying a glass of rose in the spring of 2007 and look up to see white gliders doing ballets in the clear almost cloudless skies overhead. Intrigued with the thoughts of gliding high above the Alpilles in France, my husband inquired as to where he might rent one since he is a private pilot and we had our own plane for many years. We were told that there was a gliding club aerodome nearby on the grounds of the vineyards at Chateau Romanin.

Chateau Romanin

Underground cathedral at Chateau Romanin

Chateau Romanin is a wine growing estate with an old castle from the Middle Ages with 58 hectares of vines located in a gap that forms into a “V” on the northern slope between Saint-Remy-de-Provence and the charming tiny village of Eygalieres. This “V” creates natural updrafts allowing easy takeoffs in gliders as well as protecting the vines from disease and frost. The vineyards are spread around the aerodrome.

One look at the tiny gliders with one small seat in front for the pilot and another in the back for the passenger told him he was likely to experience claustrophobia, so we came up with a new plan and proceeded to tour the winery and enjoy the degustation (free tasting) offered by the lovely French mademoiselle. Although tastings are generally free in France, it’s expected that you will buy a couple of bottles.

More vineyards in the springtime in the Alpilles region of Provence

La Cave du Mas de Longchamp’s local Vin de Pays rose wine

For years we had heard stories about people taking an empty wine bottle to a winery in France and getting it filled with a Vin de Pays (local wine) and longed to have the same experience. Our caretaker suggested we try La Cave du Mas de Longchamps in nearby Molleges. We were delighted to discover that we could purchase their fruity rose for 1.65 Euros a liter and fill our own jug.

Madame Benoit, the owner’s wife, filling our plastic jug

My husband Meakin giving it a try

Other stories you might like about France and the area:

The Bistros of Provence, Part 1 and 2, including Patricia Well’s favorite, Le Bistrot du Paradou

The Boucherie & Supermarche in Saint-Remy-de-Provence

The Patisserie and Boulangerie in Saint-Remy-de-Provence

Market day 1 in Saint-Remy-de-Provence

Market day 2 in Saint-Remy-de-Provence

Market day 3 in Saint-Remy-de-Provence

Premio Dardos Award, Life is Meals and remembering our first Chateau Lafite-Rothschild wine

Vicki Lane, mystery writer and author of the Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries, passed the Premio Dardos Award to me. This award is for “recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web." Thank you very much Vicki for this prestigious award.

Currently Vicki is at work on her fifth novel. In addition to being a published author, she is a wonderful photographer and an accomplished gardener. I urge you to stop by her blog, Vicki Lane Mysteries.

Each morning I read a daily passage from Life is Meals – A Food Lover’s Book of Days. This charming book by James and Kay Salter makes a wonderful hostess gift. It’s a memoir filled with food history and facts, favorite cookbooks, dinner parties and friends, fond food memories, restaurant stories, household tips and recipes. Broken into 365 brief entries, you can dip in and out as you like. After reading this book I now have come to believe that my family may be related to Winnie the Pooh. Here are some examples.

March 28

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,”

Said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh, “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

March 10

Paraphrased from Theo’s Birth

1985 in Paris Kay Salter gave birth to their son Theo. Jim had read once that the lips of the future kings of France were moistened at birth with a good French wine so they would always remember the taste. Being the bon vivant that he was he purchased a bottle of Chateau Latour for the occasion. As Kay was being wheeled into the delivery room Jim took a moment to speak to their French obstetrician, Dr. Bazan, who had been summoned from a dinner party and was still wearing his evening clothes. Jim explained that when the baby was born they would like to wet its lips with the wine. Things proceeded as expected and at one in the morning Jim was standing outside the delivery room when he heard the cry of an infant followed by, “Pull the cork,” from Dr. Bazan. A few drops of wine were applied to Theo’s lips and then the remainder of the bottle was shared by Jim, Kay, the doctors and the nurses in celebration.

Later the Salters purchased a case of another fine Bordeaux, Chateau Leonville-Barton 1985, the year of Theo’s birth. When Theo was old enough to drink, they asked hopefully, “Recognize the taste?” He looked as if he did.

Speaking of fine wines, my husband and I lived in Houston during the seventies. His mother had told him to always buy the least expensive house in the very best neighborhood. Good advice even today. We bought a darling one bedroom cottage on an acre in the close in Memorial area, east of Voss Road; a very fine neighborhood indeed. We were visiting with our neighbor one day and he asked if we liked wine. We were young and thought we knew a little bit about wine so we said yes. He invited us to dinner the following Saturday.

Before dinner he took us to his wine cellar for a sherry he had blended himself. If you aren’t familiar with Houston, cellars are a bit of a rarity there. He had his built for his wine collection, which was quite vast and contained many bottles of rare vintages. In fact during that time Tony’s, one of Houston’s finest restaurants, would occasionally call to borrow a bottle from him if a customer ordered something from their wine menu that they happened to be out of.

At the dinner table were three wine glasses at each place setting. He and his wife announced that we would be doing a wine tasting of three vintages to taste the difference in them. Much to our surprise (and delight) on the table sat a three bottles wine, a Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1962, a 1964 and a 1966. Needless to say all three were excellent and the finest wine we’d ever tasted. We did our best to carry on a conversation about fine wines as if we knew something, which we really didn’t. As the evening progressed he excused himself and went back to the cellar and brought up another bottle of wine. This time it was a Chateau Duhart-Milon-Rothschild 1964. He explained that the Duhart vineyard was across the street from the Lafite but because it wasn’t labeled a Lafite, it was less expensive. It was every bit as good as the Lafite in our eyes as well as his and he was the expert. They graciously gave us the labels from the four wines, which we framed and they still hang in our kitchen today.

Do you have any food books you read frequently? If you do, I hope you’ll share the titles with me.