A Visit to Local Wineries

We decided to go to some local wineries yesterday -- local if a 75 to 90 minute drive is local. We chose three in particular, all of them well-reviewed and recommended by friends, some of whose opinions on wine we value. We were excited for the day.

All three are situated in the north Georgia mountains. From any of them, looking in the right direction, you can see Brasstown Bald rising up nearly 4800ft/1450m above sea level. This is a thinly populated area, so looking in any direction, you see a veritable sea of green from all of the dense forests in the rolling hills. The soil here is quite minerally, particularly dense in granite. Winters are cool, and while summers are hot, thanks to the elevation, they are frequently nearly 10 or more degrees cooler than you would find roughly 80 miles to the south by southwest in downtown Atlanta. It's also less humid here although still not ideal for grape growing.

At the wineries, we learned that most of the white grapes are grown locally and while a few are sourced from California, the red grapes are largely grown locally as well. It's an interesting collection. We found Chardonnay, Marsanne, Roussanne, Petit Manseng, and Viognier among the whites and Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Caberet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdotm and Tannat among the reds that were locally grown.

Still reeling from the lockdown, tastings are done differently at each one. At the first, you had your choice of two tastings of 6 wines each. We found it quite pricey for what we got -- small tasting pours of each of 6 wines for $25. The prosciutto and burrata accompaniment, at $12 was a far better value.

On the wines in particular, the most noteworthy were the sparkling Cuvee Brut (100% Chardonnay) and the sparkling Brut Rose (50% Cuvee Brut, 50% of their own Claret simply blended in). Neither was made in the Methode Champenoise. On the traditional 100 point scale, I would probably rate the first of those about an 86 and the second a point or two higher. Among the other wines, the whites were unexciting and lacked any sense of complexity. The reds lacked balance. Overall, it was a disappointment.

At the second stop, they were not doing formal tasting lineups, but you could order flights of two ounce pours. We chose a white flight B ($24) and a higher end red Flight ($30). The whites featured a Marsanne, a Marsanne-Roussanne blend, and a Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier blend. There seemed to be an overemphasis on new oak aging as a selling point. While the Marsanne was good enough to probably merit about an 87 or 88, at $34, it was not worth it. The other whites were less interesting. Among the reds, there were two curious blends and a Reserve Tannat. The first, labeled a Super-Tuscan, was Merlot-based with a good amount of Sangiovese and a bit of Cabernet. We found it lacked balance. The second wine was a bit of a kitchen sink red wine as it had a bit of everything imaginable. It was quite spicy and very tannic. It was probably not helped by being served at about 75 degrees. Finally, the Reserve Tannat priced at $57 for a bottle was okay. Far too young to be consumed, it was also quite tannic with the tannins hitting the palate far more to the front than one might expect. I think this wine has potential, but it should not be presented for at least another year as it's not close yet. To go with this, we had the highly recommended duck pastrami salad. Dearest chef, you simply cannot pair bitter greens with a highly acidic dressing and walnuts and expect this to show well with the wine. As for the duck pastrami, it was there if you searched really hard.

For the third and final stop of the day, we visited Yonah Mountain Vineyards. I'm willing to name them here because they did things better. For their COVID-restricted procedures, they are serving only bottles or single glasses. So, we ordered one glass apiece -- a 2016 Petit Verdot ($12) and a Genesis X (their 10th bottling of their Bordeaux-style red blend) ($14). We were offered the option of plastic stemless glasses (gratis) or monogrammed Riedel tasting glasses at $5 each (less than our cost would be). We chose the glasses.

As the wines were brought out, we were pleasantly surprised. They came from bottles that were stored in a temperature-controlled environment. I would guess that each came out at about 62 degrees. The Genesis was quite jammy and perhaps a bit over the top. It wasn't that it was too tannic or had too much body or too much alcohol, but rather that it had just a bit too much uncomplementary to its other components for our liking. It was still likely the second best wine of the day. I would happily drink it, but would not purchase it at that price point.

The Petit Verdot was excellent. I give it 92 points with aging potential. Dark fruit, savory herbs, dark flowers, some minerality from the local soil, rounded yet supple tannins all combined in a nicely balanced wine. This would pair wonderfully with most any beef dish with mushrooms in a natural gravy or with a mushroom risotto. We'll find out over time as we brought a few bottles home with us.

Our day was an enjoyable respite from the same old same old of COVID purgatory. The wine was less than we had hoped for, but still made for a good day. If you want to know what the other wineries were, I'm happy to tell you privately, but I'm not inclined to embarrass them publicly as many others love both of them.

That said, we highly recommend Yonah Mountain Vineyards.