Taste of place

Karl Boegner, owner and winemaker for Wolf Mountain Vineyard in Dahlonega, makes several wines, including his well-received bordeaux-style reds and sparkling wines that debuted this year. While he has a solid cadre of loyal customers —- and a growing stack of gold medals and favorable reviews —- it’s tough for a small winemaker from an undistinguished wine region to create a buzz if he cannot get anyone to try his wine.

“Knowing that the quality is there is important to consumers,” Boegner said. “Is this local wine a good one or not? … We have not had a lot of positive role models in the past. So there hasn’t been a lot of enthusiasm for Georgia wine.”

But with relaxed shipping regulations and an increased interest in wine, consumers can find out for themselves how much better Georgia wines have become. Slowly but surely, as pioneering winemakers from Napa Valley to Oregon proved, word gets around about quality wines. Growth follows.

While restaurants and wine shops offer their sympathy to quality Georgia winemakers, they cannot force their customers to buy Georgia wine —- even when those customers enthusiastically support other types of locally produced products.

“I sell about a bottle [of Georgia wine] a month,” admitted Nicolas Quinones, owner and wine buyer for Atlanta’s Woodfire Grill, which specializes in seasonal, locally sourced menus. Quinones offers several Georgia wine selections from Persimmon Creek Vineyards and Tiger Mountain Vineyards. In fact, he’s fond of Persimmon Creek’s cabernet franc and the eclectic petit manseng from Tiger Mountain.

“The cab franc from Persimmon Creek has great flavors, but in comparison to something similar from the Languedoc, [France], it’s hard to compete,” Quinones said. “[The Languedoc wine] is less expensive and it is an awesome wine. It is going to take some patience for customers to start paying more for something from Georgia.”

A recent dinner at Parish restaurant in Inman Park celebrated the farm-to-table movement, which brings chefs closer to the farmers in their region. Justin Amick, general manager and wine buyer for Parish, brought in beets and carrots from Forest Park, oysters from North Carolina, polenta from Athens and pork from South Carolina.

Chef Tim Magee talked to guests about how he prepared the dishes, and had a lot to say about sustainable food production and the wisdom of locally sourced foods.

So what filled the wine glasses next to the plates? Wines made from pinot noir, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and semillon grapes grown in California, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Sauternes, France.

“We can’t serve [Georgia wines] every time,” said Amick, who features different local farmers at weekly, multicourse dinners. “There are only so many local winemakers and wines to choose from. It would get boring to have the same wines every time.”

Amick is right. At the moment, there are only 21 Georgia wineries.

Parish features several Persimmon Creek wines on its wine list and Amick says he plans to add to that soon. “It is cool they are making wine in our backyard, and I see no reason not to start bringing them in.”

The Clayton winery is ready to take his order. Sonny Hardman, co-owner of Persimmon Creek with wife Mary Ann, says it frustrates him to see all the fuss over farm-to-table produce, when he farms 17 acres of wine grapes, but cannot get many distributors, restaurants and consumers to take Georgia wines seriously.

“Some of us are making really good wines up here,” Hardman said.

“Mary Ann focuses on the restaurants throughout the state and is continually educating the sommeliers. Once you get in front of them, it’s not too hard for them to see that our riesling may pair nicely with a dish featuring local Georgia shrimp.”

Magee wants to be more supportive of the local wine industry, but points out that it’s a lot easier to get diners excited about locally grown produce —- tomatoes and brussels sprouts that they are familiar with —- than to get them charged up about wine from an unknown region, even if that region is only 70 miles up Ga. 400.

“The learning curve is a lot longer for wine than for food,” Magee said. “For the most part, wine produced outside places like California and France is such a new phenomena that people are not used to it.

“In three to five years, I definitely see Atlanta restaurants featuring more local wines. The familiarity will be there along with the quality and the selection.”

Quinones also sees a brighter future for Georgia winemakers.

“I think as long as the quality continues to improve, more and more people with an open mind will look for these wines [even with higher prices].”

He sees a time in the future when local diners will delight in a symbiotic relationship between Georgia farmers and winemakers.

“After all, anyone who’s been to a wine region knows that the wines always taste better when you enjoy them with local food.”

Gil Kulers writes the Kulers Uncorked column Thursdays in the Food & Drink section.

Celebrating all of America’s wine

This week wine lovers nationwide will get to know their local wines. Regional Wine Week (through Friday) —- the brainchild of wine columnists Jeff Siegel (Fort Worth [Texas] Star-Telegram and Dave McIntyre of The Washington Post —- celebrates the diversity and unheralded quality found in all American wines, not just those from California.

“If you’re in Burgundy, you don’t drink wine from Bordeaux,” said Siegel, author of the blog the Wine Curmudgeon. “But Americans think that if it doesn’t come from California, it must be [crummy]. And that’s just plain wrong.”

> ON THE WEB: More than 50 writers and bloggers will discuss and evaluate wines from 15 states, plus Ontario and British Columbia. Log on to www.drinklocalwine.com.