ON THE NET
http://www.georgiawines.com/
RINGGOLD, Ga. — The Georgia Winery on Battlefield Parkway, started as a hobby by Dr. Maurice Rawlings Sr. 25 years ago as the state’s first farm winery, has grown into a booming business, owner Patty Prouty said.
“Dad purchased about 50 acres in Chattanooga Valley with the idea of farming,” she said. “The land was mostly shale and clay and was not suitable for farming. I jokingly referred to him as a ‘closet farmer.’”
Mrs. Prouty said the agricultural extension service determined the land could grow grapes, and 15 acres of grapes and muscadines were planted.
She said her father visited the land on weekends to work and considered it a hobby.
A few years after Dr. Rawlings planted the vineyard, Mrs. Prouty said they realized the grapes had too hard a struggle with humid and warm nights. Those vines were removed and replaced with muscadines.
These days, Mrs. Prouty said, it’s a labor-intensive business caring for the vineyards, making and bottling wines and managing the wine tasting area and large gift shop with wines, wine-making supplies and wine-themed items, as well as hand-crafted fudge and pastries, cheese and other items.
“We started selling from the Chattanooga Valley location initially, but opened the tasting and sales building on Battlefield Parkway in 1986,” she said. “The business has grown by leaps and bounds every year. Sales really jumped when we began promoting our product with signs on Interstate 75 in 1996 for the Olympics in Atlanta.”
The growth included moving into a 15,000-square-foot building on Battlefield Parkway in 2004. There are 18 employees, including production manager Wayne Goins and event coordinators Dolores Jones and Rhonda Massey.
Valette Stables, a retiree from Springfield, Ill., is one of those I-75 motorists lured to the winery. She was shopping in the winery last week while on her way home to Illinois after visiting a relative in Florida.
“I have visited wineries in California and Illinois, but this is my first stop here,” Ms. Stables said. “I’m Christmas shopping and looking at some wine-themed items from the gift shop. They have a good selection.”
Customer Tommy Qualls is from Hamilton County, Tenn. He said his parents and practically everyone in his family comes to the Georgia Winery for their wine.
“I like the organic varieties, and they have a good selection of gifts,” he said. “You can get about anything you want.”
It’s the wine that inspires Mrs. Prouty.
“We make about 12,000 cases of wine annually, have a storage capacity of 66,000 gallons and have four other tasting centers around the state,” she said.
The wines have won 220 medals in competitions over the quarter century of operation.
Mrs. Prouty said she plans to have an online store ready within a week for Internet orders if Gov. Sonny Perdue signs legislation on his desk from the Georgia General Assembly.
She said there is a market of potential customers out there waiting on Internet sales to be allowed. As evidence, she said one customer comes from Missouri each year with a truck to pick up 25 cases of wine for his use and for friends.
“Internet shopping will become more popular as time passes because it saves travel time and high-priced gas,” Mrs. Prouty said. “It’s an estimate, but I think wine sales will initially increase 15 to 20 percent if Internet sales are approved here.”
She said the winery is certified as an organic muscadine grower. No herbicides or pesticides are used on the fruit.
A special freeze fermentation technique permits the Georgia Winery to retain the fresh flavor of the fruit normally lost when wine is fermented at traditional higher temperatures.
Mrs. Prouty said the resulting wine tastes like eating the fruit right from the vines.
Not all the wines are sweet. There are at least 20 wines, including Tara Bella, a dry, white muscadine wine, that won a gold medal in the North Florida Wine Competition among entries from 33 states and 11 foreign countries.
Mrs. Prouty said she’s come to love the work.
“There was a time I wanted out of this operation if I could manage it,” she said. “Now I don’t want to leave. There are headaches and stress with running a business, but I now see it as a blessing.”
