Each October, not all that far from Peter Seifarth’s Crane Creek Vineyards winery in north Georgia, the town of Blairsville holds its annual Sorghum Festival. And why not? One historian has described Blairsville as “the capital of north Georgia’s sweet sorghum country.”
The Upper Hiwassee Highlands AVA, which straddles the Georgia-North Carolina border (and includes Blairsville) is hardly a stereotypical wine region. If a half-century-old sorghum festival isn’t enough, there’s a centuries-long tradition of whiskey bootlegging in the region’s hills and hollers, as well as a social and cultural history that dates to some of the earliest European settlements in North America. And that doesn’t take into account any of the wine stuff.
“This is not wine country like everyone thinks about wine country,” says Jamie Crotts, who went to high school with Seifarth in north Georgia and is today the wine director at Husk Savannah, a farm-to-table restaurant in the Georgia coastal city that sells Crane Creek wine. “It’s small producers carving out vineyards among the mountains. It’s not like any other AVA you’ve seen.”
Technically, the AVA is 690 square miles, more or less shaped like an ink blot, sitting toward the southern end of the Appalachian Mountain region. It includes parts of northern Georgia and southern North Carolina and stretches almost to the Tennessee border in the west. The AVA takes in the upper portions of the Hiwassee River, from the river’s headwaters in Towns County, Georgia, to the Hiwassee Dam on Hiwassee Lake in Cherokee County, North Carolina. The portion of the river that flows north of the dam, outside the viticultural area, is often referred to as the “lower” river.
But a technical description doesn’t even begin to do the region justice. “If you look at the soil and the climate, and even the elevation, there’s a good bit of variation even within the AVA,” says Steve Thompson, whose family has farmed the land where his Nottely River Valley Vineyards is located on the North Carolina side since 1820. “There’s so much variation in the soil that there’s even a reason to do a sub-AVA.”
The AVA’s average elevation is almost 2,000 feet, but there are vineyards located on valley floors that are only half as high. Valley River Vineyards, owned by Elaine Dockery, is on the North Carolina side and sits at about 1,500 feet. Seifarth and Crane Creek, about 15 miles away, is at almost 2,000 feet. This means significant differences in temperature, rainfall, humidity and soil composition. The valley floors are warmer and wetter; the soil tends to be less clay-like than at higher elevations. Up at Crane Creek, Seifarth can grow Vitis vinifera without worrying about Pierce’s disease; those at lower elevations aren’t as fortunate.
The result: Grape selection is a hodgepodge of vinifera, hybrids (both French-American and more modern varieties) and native grapes like Niagara and Muscadines. Some 80 percent of Crane Creek’s plantings are hybrids, including Chambourcin, Seyval Blanc, Traminette and some Norton. But Seifarth has also planted Cabernet Franc, Grüner Veltliner and Albariño, for which he has high hopes. The region’s remoteness is yet another unique feature—and advantage. “That’s one reason why my father chose this place,” says Seifarth, whose parents, Eric and DeAnn, started growing grapes there in 1995. “He wanted something that was very remote, where he could try growing grapes at altitude. I think that’s played out well.” And, of course, there’s always the Sorghum Festival for good measure.
Quick Facts
- Date AVA Established: 2014
- Total Acreage: 690 square miles
- Planted Acreage: less than 100
- Most Planted Red Wine Grape: Chambourcin
- Most Planted White Wine Grape: Seyval Blanc
- Climate: Humid, subtropical
- Number of Wineries: 9
- Fun Fact: The AVA includes the Hiwassee Dam, built in the 1930s by the Tennessee Valley Authority for flood control and to bring electricity to the most rural parts of the region.
This article originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!
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Published: August 26, 2024
