- [David] "A Fork In The Road" was brought to you by.

- I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia-grown.

♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ ♪ I see the shine from afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me you're a star ♪ ♪ Oh, baby ♪ ♪ Feels good, feels right ♪ ♪ Take the feeling pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ - I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia-grown.

- The fascinating and ever-changing world of agriculture.

Let's hit the road here in Georgia and meet the farmers, producers, makers and bakers who keep us all fed and keep us coming back for more.

Straight ahead at "A Fork In The Road."

(mellow music) ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where I stand ♪ Georgia farmers, artisans, merchants and producers, we depend on these men and women every day of our lives through the choices we make and the food we consume.

Their strategy and approach is always shifting, but the end game remains the same, results.

(mellow music) It is a land full of wonders, high Appalachian peaks draped with lush national forest and geographical wonders.

Rabun County, Georgia, has been drawing travelers for years, not only for its natural beauty, but also for the welcoming folks who call this region home.

And over the past three decades, something different has slowly worked its way into the Rabun County scenery, an ancient species of fruit with over 10,000 known varieties has been planted and annually harvested by a few talented Georgians who are building an industry in these north Georgia mountains.

Let's begin our exploration of Rabun Wines from mountain vines in a seemingly unknown world, atop Stoney Mountain, Terra Incognita.

(upbeat classical music) As you follow the meandering gravel Forest Service road up the backbone of the Tallulah Ridge for a mile and a half, you may seem like you are heading into no man's land, but that is normal.

That's just part of the allure.

Torsten and Sarah Ernst have turned their dream into a reality, and Terra Incognita is the culmination.

(upbeat classical music) Terra Incognita, what's it mean?

- Unknown territory in Latin.

In the olden days, before the entire world was discovered, there were cloudy parts beyond the maps.

And that was always written on the maps as "terra incognita" and say there'd be dragons here and all sorts of neat stuff.

'Cause nobody knew, you know, what was out there.

It was all cloudy and then they're like, okay, you push through the clouds and like now you see that there's good farmland or whatever out there.

So that's the way I kind of think it here, as you drive up our, you know, Forester Service road, you still are in the clouds, right?

And then hopefully once you come up here and see the view and get to experience the new world, Terra Incognita is known territory at that point.

- It's perfect, that's the exact feel I had.

I came up, I saw the pavilion, I saw the ski lift chairs.

It was this undiscovered world.

You truly feel a world away.

And there's really no place like this.

They have the old Sky Valley ski resort chairs that are situated to give you an optimal view of the Terra Incognita vineyard and Blue Ridge Mountains that lie in the distance.

The colorful Himalayan flags that represent the five elements of the earth, just add to that feeling of adventure and escape from the norm.

- My parents are from Germany, at least, my dad was from Germany and my mom's family was from Germany.

So we had, you know, a lot of time over there, mostly in the Black Forest.

And you'd have these guest houses that were in the mountains and with, you know, small farms and the way people made those work is they would invite guests to stay, local food, local wines.

And the other thing that we had there was huge grape vineyards, you know, right along the Rhine Valley on the flanks of the Black Forest.

You know, those are two things that we didn't have here and that we really enjoyed.

And we're like, you know, we've got this piece of property that we just spent a lot of time maintaining.

Long story short, my brother got an opportunity to work at Habersham Winery and he said, hey, you know, I did this cool study where they tried to determine what locations were best for vineyards.

And that was for White County, and he had the data that extended up to Rabun County where we are, and it turned out to be in the highest category of quality sites because we have good sun aspect, good elevation, so the temperatures are cooler, airflow, steep terrain, elevation, that's kind of what makes a good vineyard.

(upbeat instrumental music) - Torsten and Sarah love adventure in their life.

And amongst the constant work of protecting and maintaining their vineyard, they managed to blaze an amazing mountain biking trail through the woods and ridges of Stoney Mountain.

An experience that alone is worth the trip to the special destination.

I was just doing my best to keep up with Torsten.

(upbeat music) And after the ride it was time to do a little work, knowing I was going to be in the tasting room a little later, I had to earn my keep.

Today is not harvest day, but we possibly could do it, right?

- Today would be a great harvest day.

- Okay, all right.

(both chuckling) Tomorrow is a scheduled harvest day.

- Tomorrow is the new harvest.

- [David] They are gorgeous right now and these are- - These are traminette.

- Traminette?

I can eat 'em right now, right?

- Yeah.

- All right, all right.

- Absolutely.

That is a zero day pre-harvest interval seed.

- Hmm, that's perfect.

- Yep.

So these are about as sweet.

I think these are pushing 23 brix right now, which is very sweet.

And the acids are, you know, pretty low, at least as low as we're gonna get around here.

So these are actually ideal for picking, you know, that cluster right there is where you want to be, just like that.

And since these are leaf picking, I can't stop eating this grape, it's so delicious.

- That's good.

We just went on a bike ride, we're thirsty.

Alaqua Crawford, works alongside Torsten, took me on a tour of where the wine making magic happened.

- All the grapes fall down here.

We have a pump that catches this and it pumps it into the press if we are making white wine, - Okay.

- or straight into the tank if we are making red wine.

- Okay.

- Alaqua then brought me upstairs to cool down and refresh with a little wine tasting and sampling.

- I was gonna start you off with our True North here.

- True North, all right.

- So this- - What grapes are we getting here?

- This is Chardonel, which is a hybrid of Chardonnay and Seyval Blanc.

The hybrids just do really well in this area, I'm sure, like, Torsten has mentioned to you.

And it's aged and fermented in stainless steel, so it's a nice, like, easy drinking- - Oh yeah, yeah, that's great 'cause Torsten and I just came off the biking trails.

- Yeah.

The Celestial Spheres is a pretty unique wine.

It is a blend of Muscadine and (indistinct) - Okay.

- But we've taken it and carbonated it, and kind of made it, you know, like a little party wine.

- It's more like a champagne.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah, okay.

- I have a customer that comes up here all the time and she's just fabulous, and she walks right up to me, she's like, give me the mimosa juice, you know, and I just give her an entire bottle, and she brings her own orange juice and she just sits with her husband and they just have a nice time so.

- Oh, that's awesome.

Oh, yeah, I see what she's saying.

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, the Muscadine has such a distinct flavor for sure.

That's such a true Georgia grape.

Not as many up here.

Yeah, they kinda like the warmer climate.

So we source those out of a vineyard in South Georgia where they just are so prolific, you know, they just love that hot, humid weather down there.

- Yeah, that's where I'll be tomorrow.

(Alaqua laughs) Down at Paulk, is that where you get it?

- Yeah, it is, yeah.

- I'll be at Paulk tomorrow, that's funny.

Many wedding vows have occurred here, understandably so.

The venue is picture perfect, rain or shine.

The Ernsts make you feel at home in their unique escape from the norm.

They're growing quality Georgia grapes in a beautiful mountain setting, and serving fantastic wine in a destination that's truly divine.

We now journey to the back roads of Rabun from Clarkesville over to Tiger, and the prestigious vineyard, tasting room and winery known as Stonewall Creek.

(bright music) It began in 2004 with this here cabin, a barn and 5.8 acres of property.

Vines were grown, wine was made and Stonewall became a popular venue for folks visiting the Rabun County area.

Carl and Carla Fackler put thousands of hours of hard work and a heavy dose of passion to make this dream a reality.

But they had helped.

Watching Stonewall closely and assisting with the planning, harvesting, and wine making were Mark and Sandi Diehl, who eventually bought majority interest in the property in 2018 with a goal to continue making high quality wine and offering a tranquil, relaxing, and rewarding experience for their visitors.

And I soon found out they succeeded beyond all expectations and have had a blast in doing so.

You see, this is simply what they love.

- The Facklers and the Diehls were friends from before we bought this from 'em, and they did a great job setting it up.

They started planting vines in 2005 with just like 150 vines.

2009 we came up and helped 'em plant this vineyard here.

When they got ready to retire for the second time, we decided we were crazy enough to jump in and do this.

- And you did it, gorgeous.

- We've been grape farmers since 2018.

We're in a vineyard of Cabernet Franc and I chose that because that's my favorite grape that we grow here.

It's like a gentleman in the vineyard.

It's much easier to grow than most of the other things we grow.

- And this one likes the mountains of Georgia.

- It likes Georgia, it likes the east coast.

It can tolerate the humidity.

It's a Bordeaux grape, but it's grown all through France.

It's in the Loire Valley.

It's one that we really like here and it likes our soil.

Cabernet Franc is one of the parents of Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the most widely planted grape in the world.

So Cabernet Franc was mated with Sauvignon Blanc, hence Cabernet Sauvignon.

So a white grape made even a stronger red grape.

All these grapes have seeds.

The grape seeds are one of the signs of maturity.

When they're really ripe, these little grape seeds turn brown.

These are starting to turn brown, but they're not quite there all the way yet.

But once they start to get ripened, that's called raisin, they change colors, they start to accumulate sugar and that goes pretty fast.

So the sugar level goes up, the acid level drops and right about the point where that graph for sugar level and pH cross, that's usually where you want to harvest.

This is Petit Manseng and it is a grape that grows really well in the southeast.

It's becoming super popular, and a lot of vineyards are putting it in if they haven't.

We were lucky enough to get this put in in 2009.

It's easier to grow and it makes a really nice white wine, which we've won best in state a couple of times.

These are gonna taste even sweeter.

They have more acid, but they have more sugar.

- Hmm, yeah.

And once we stepped into the wine making process, I discovered Mark's true passion in this endeavor.

He was genuinely excited about sharing his ways of wine making, bringing science and technology into the equation.

- After we pick the grapes, we bring 'em in and right outside the door here is our crush pad.

That's where we crush the grapes and de-stem 'em, using the machine in the back here.

- So there's a way other than using just feet to crush?

- That's right.

- Okay.

- [David] I thought that was the only way.

- Don't laugh, we've done that and we actually won a gold medal with a bottle of wine with some wine that we made in 2007.

We were home wine makers.

- Really?

- [Mark] With ladies stomping it with her feet.

- That's beautiful.

- I want you to try some of this traminette.

This is a tank that we, started the fermentation last weekend.

Put your glass right on there.

This is, right now it's still in fermentation phase.

- Oh, okay, wow, yeah.

- Still cloudy.

I can put a little more there.

- Almost looks like lemonade.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And it's gonna taste kind of like a mimosa - Morning mimosa.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

Oh, this is exciting.

I'd buy that right now.

I love this.

- It is really like a mimosa.

- Yeah.

- Wouldn't you agree?

'Cause it's, we don't make sparkling wine.

We don't make champagne.

But this is still sparkling right now it's, the CO2's coming off of it.

- How long would it stay like this?

- Right now, because the yeast are still active, it'll still stay cloudy.

- Okay.

- When the yeast finish working, and which will probably be by this weekend, all the sediment will all of a sudden stop going down.

The reason that it's all in suspension, it's all those yeast are working, they're producing a lot of carbon dioxide.

- So after tasting straight from the tank, I was even more excited about the final product or products, and Sandi was kind enough to share.

Well, Mark and I were out in the vineyard.

We went and saw the process, how it gets made, the aging in the barrels.

We even went to the lab and learned a lot of science, but don't tell him, this is what I was looking forward to the most.

- We're gonna start with our cirelli.

That means sisters and Italian.

It's a blend of our Petit Manseng, Traminette and Semillon.

- That's beautiful.

- Thank you, yes.

Well, the next wine is our Petit Manseng .

It's our signature white grape.

- And it's the same color when we were out there, that same kind of golden- - Golden, yes.

- It had a similar scent, but the taste was different.

- So the next one is Cab Franc and you also saw that out in the vineyard.

- Yeah.

- That's our signature red grape.

- And I stole a lot of those.

(Sandi laughs) - And that pairs very well with lamb, you know, different kinds of meats, pork.

- And y'all do the charcuterie boards here?

- Yes, we do.

- Yeah.

That's fun, I saw a few people eating, girls were having a girls' day out, right?

- Yes, yes.

- Saw some others playing cards.

- Yes.

- I think it's so neat that you and Mark both have such a passion for this.

It goes back in your family, it's something you both wanted to do, and now you're doing it, and it's obvious you love it, looking at the care you put into these vines.

And I can tell it's just fun for you and the other workers here.

- Yeah, it's the best part of having the vineyard, getting to share it with people and you know, seeing them have fun and enjoy it.

- While sitting, snacking, sipping is a big part of what goes on here and understandably so with a setting that seems straight from a novel, there's much more to do.

(upbeat music) Stonewall Creek boasts a nine-hole disc golf course that crisscrosses the vineyard.

A popular activity for folks passing through, but there's also events like their annual Harvest Stomp in late September.

And this video pretty much speaks for itself.

(upbeat music) It is clear to me that the Diehls are doing what they love with folks they appreciate.

In a Rabun County setting, that's simply hard to beat.

Remaining in Tiger at the base of Tiger Mountain itself lies an old vineyard that launched the European vine growing traditions in the mountains of Georgia.

(bright music) Dairy cows once roamed these rolling hills and this old red barn was where these cows were milked.

But as you can see, the landscape has changed.

And these gorgeous vines now line these hills at the base of Tiger Mountain.

Dr. John Ezzard and his wife, Martha, first planted and cultivated these vines in 1995, becoming the first Georgia vineyard to successfully establish European vines in North Georgia, learning which grapes grow best in the southeastern climate and their resistance to local diseases.

Many grew well, many did not.

But that was a risk worth taking for the Ezzards.

Lenny Vitello now owns this vineyard and made the investment because he loves wine and the outdoors, and realized that this place was a perfect blend of both.

- I fell in love with the place almost immediately.

I didn't know this existed.

- Yeah.

- And it was a real eye opener to come and see how beautiful North Georgia is.

Tiger has a very long history of producing excellent wines.

We're also have the most awards of any Georgia winery.

We do have the benefit of length of time.

So to be fair, call ourselves out, we had a headstart on a lot of folks, right?

And we're looking to build on that history of success.

- Winemaker and sommelier, Luke Anderson, is in search of the perfect Georgia grape.

Luke appreciates the effort made by these Georgia mountain trailblazers and still believes there's much he and everyone else growing here in this southeastern region can learn.

- They're the first vineyard in the state of Georgia to bring Vitis vinifera to this state, which is your noble European grapevines, like your Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Vignette, things like that.

And the North Georgia wine industry is still very young, it's only about 25, 30 years old.

And so there's still a lot of room for growth, and education and testing with varietals and wine making.

And one of my passions for, like, working in this area is through my Somm studies, every kind of wine growing region in the world has its own grape.

Malbec in Argentina, Shiraz in Australia, Cab Sav and Bordeaux, France and Nebbiolo in Italy and so on and so forth.

And I feel like that grape hasn't necessarily been discovered for this region, this area yet.

And so one of my goals is to, you know, discover that grape and also make the best wine out of it that I can.

- [David] And I quickly realized that Luke has knowledge way beyond his years and exhibits a deep passion for the art of wine making and wine from this region of the world particularly.

There are some that grow quite well here.

- [Luke] Yeah, absolutely.

Norton is the only American variety we have on property at the moment.

And so it's super disease resistant and hardy.

And so that just results in a deep, dark, full-bodied red wine right off the bat.

- Husband and wife team, Miguel and McKenzie are the vineyard managers and gave me a tour of two different sections of the vineyard.

Let's begin with Miguel, who is in the process of harvesting.

- Now, these are gorgeous, this is the Norton.

They're almost look like blueberries, I want to, just eat the whole bunch.

Oh, gorgeous.

- One of the things you always wanna do is you want to, like, kind of squeeze the berry and kind of, like, put it on your arm, and see that kind of gives you an idea of the color of wine that it's going to create.

- 'Cause the fruit itself is a different color.

- Oh yeah, the inside, yeah.

- But then- - Squeeze it.

- Just looks like wine.

- Yep.

- Right there.

- Yep.

- So you get an idea of what's, what the kind of wine color you're going to be creating.

- Skins are sweet too.

After my tasting of the grapes, it was over to McKenzie who explained the purpose behind the most recently planted section of the vineyard.

Mackenzie, I was just out with Miguel.

We were eating some grapes.

- Yeah.

- Had a good time.

I learned a lot.

And in the future, this is going to be a learning center.

- This is the research block at Tiger Mountain.

We currently have 32 varieties grown in here.

Some of them are tried to be grown in Georgia, others haven't been tried before.

So you'll see some vines that are much more vigorous than the others.

And that's just allowing us an opportunity to study the vines.

They're natural resistance to mildews and just how vigorous they grow.

In about three years, we'll be having grapes and then we'll be able to measure wine quality.

And if it would be fruitful to plant on a massive level, we'll have signs up and placards.

So there'll be information not just about the varieties, but the root stocks we plant them on.

It'll be a comprehensive learning experience for not just tourists, but our local high schoolers.

- I think something neat Luke said, he said, you know, Georgia is able to grow many grapes, but we want that Georgia grape.

What is that mountain Georgia grape going to be?

We got the Muscadine down south, then up here, what's it gonna be?

That's gotta be fun to be a part of this research.

- Absolutely, yeah.

- Knowing that could happen.

The old dairy barn has been converted into an amazing restaurant with a top-notch chef who shared a few select items with Luke and me.

Of course, there's a perfect Tiger Mountain wine to pair with each of these delectable dishes and I of course had the perfect person to help me do just that.

It's gotta be a fun part of your job to work with chef saying, okay, here's the wine.

What are you gonna do with it?

I'm sure you learn a lot about the food and what he's doing, and he learns the same about what you do.

- Yeah.

It's a symbiotic relationship.

The more I understand food, and the more that helps me to understand wine, and you know, same with him.

The more he learns and understands wine, the better that he can match the food, the different flavor profiles.

We offer a lot of different varied experiences for guests.

We offer like a picnic, private tastings.

People can schedule like a barrel tasting with me, which takes about two hours and I take them through kind of like my favorite things aging in the cellar currently.

So there really is, kind of an experience for anyone who wants to come.

- I'm gonna schedule that barrel tasting right now.

- Do it.

An opening.

- Yeah.

There we go.

And this is about two years away from being in bottle, if not a little more.

- Oh.

- So keep that in mind.

- Okay, all right, this is fun.

So in two year it's gonna be a little more oaky.

- Yep.

- Little dry.

- Kinda typically, like, barely aging kind of transfers the wine from a fruity and herbaceous profile to a more earthy and robust, and over time it's just gonna get better.

- Oh, that's kind of a first for me, but it shows your- - Oh, cheers.

Oh, cheers.

(Luke laughs) - Cheers there.

- These are the Nortons.

- Yes.

- I can tell by the color.

And by the name on the barrel.

- Really cool story about the Norton on this property.

Norton was the most popularly planted varietal in all of America prior to prohibition.

But during prohibition they ripped, almost all of it out in the country, and they replanted it with table eating grapes like Concord.

The first replantings of Norton in America happened at Horton Cellars in Virginia back in 1989.

And our Horton vines came from cuttings from those plants.

So we have the babies of the oldest Norton vines in America.

So if it is a brighter hue of the same color, that indicates a young wine.

Whereas if it's this amber, brownish, brickish color towards the rim, then that indicates the wine towards its peak.

- Okay.

- So this is a good example of a young wine.

- Yeah.

- But I could even open one of our library bottles, maybe a '99 and show you guys what that browning that- - Oh, I'm not gonna turn you down on that one.

- Right on.

- Yeah.

- You can see some of the founder's names on the cork as well.

Martha Ezzard and John Ezzard.

And I can't quite make out these other ones.

- That's me.

- Yeah.

(Luke chuckles) With a wine with this much age, it doesn't really need to breathe 'cause it's kind of been breathing for the last 20 years through that cork.

Cheers.

- Cheers, Luke.

(bright music) Wow, that's special.

How fun.

- Yeah.

- It's neat to know they were doing it well when they started, you know, considering how this came out, It's an amazing experience to enjoy with a friend, with your family, with a date or even on your own.

It's a place that was made possible by a man with a dream who followed that dream, and that adoration must be contagious to anyone who roams these Rabun County Hills because everyone I meet at Tiger Mountain has a genuine love for what they do.

And after all these years, they still believe this is only the beginning.

So from the original mountain vineyards of Tiger Mountain, to picturesque mountaintop vines of Tara Incognita, and the unbelievable tasting experience at Stonewall Creek, mix in a little disc golf, mountain biking, and grape stomp festivals, I'd say you have a seemingly endless variety of good time options.

These Rabun County farmers and winemakers produce with a purpose, a passion, and the genuine love for what they do.

I'm David Zelski, see you at the next "A Fork in the Road."

(bright music) "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by.

- I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce and you'll pick Georgia-grown.

- [Narrator] From produce to people, the best things are grown and raised in Georgia.

Even in tough times, we come together, work hard and grow strong.

When you purchase Georgia-grown products, you support farmers, families, and this proud state we call home.

Together we will keep Georgia growing.

- I'm Tyler Harper.

As your agriculture commissioner, I have the honor of representing one of the hardest working groups of people in our state, our farmers.

That's why we invite you to take the Georgia Grown Challenge.

Try any Georgia specialty crop against any other state's produce, and you'll pick Georgia-grown.

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