Georgia

Atlanta Is Finally Selling Local Georgia Wine

Published

2 months ago

August 26, 2024

Atlanta Is Finally Selling Local Georgia Wine

There is now a place to find locally made Georgia wine in the city.

Vine Fine Wine in Decatur is the first wine shop to stock the state’s wine. Earlier this February, Eater Atlanta sparked a discussion in the wine community about why Atlanta restaurants don’t serve Georgia wine. Since then, Cloudland Vineyards and Winery in Buford, Georgia, has landed three of its wines at the Decatur shop, including a Marsanne skin-contact white wine, a pet-nat bubbly made from chardonnay, and a red wine made with a local hybrid called lomanto. All are priced at around $30.

“It seemed like a no-brainer for us,” says Madeline Long, co-owner of Vine Fine Wine. “We have local sourdough crackers, local honey, local ceramics … it only seemed natural to extend that to wine.”

Long and her husband Sam Pilch opened the Decatur shop in April. Since then, Long says many people have inquired about local wine. The shop only takes on organic and sustainable farming wines, which is hard to find in Georgia. Cloudland Vineyards is one of the only wineries in the state making unfined and unfiltered, natural wines with some organic farming, bringing Georgia winemaking up to speed with modern times.

Quality and consumer demand are the biggest reasons why local wines don’t make an appearance in the city. The next reason is an information gap on distribution. According to the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, winemakers with a Georgia Farm Winery License may sell their wines directly to restaurants. A wholesaler license allows them to self-distribute in Georgia, eliminating the need for a distributor. This is a major missing piece of the puzzle for restaurant sommeliers and wine shop owners who believe they need a distributor to buy Georgia wine for their inventory.

North Georgia is an agritourism destination, from pumpkin patches and orchards to vineyards. Most of the sales from these farms happen by direct-to-consumer business, meaning visitors buy directly from the farms. Wineries with a wholesaler license can sell to Atlanta shops and restaurants, albeit taking a profit hit on wholesale price. But there are other benefits.

“Wholesale is a really good way of getting people interested in our product,” says Blessy Devasia, general manager and assistant winemaker at Cloudland Vineyards and Winery, which opened in 2020. “There aren’t enough Georgia wines on wine lists because there weren’t a lot of good Georgia wines out there that were worth being on the list.”

Devasia says that is changing. Sean Wilburn, owner and winemaker at Cloudland (formerly Chateau Elan and Biltmore), and Devasia have a minimal intervention and organic approach to winemaking in Georgia. The plots for the lomanto and villard blanc grapes are organically managed — which means they are sprayed minimally during the growing season with an organic spray to control disease pressure. The duo hopes the vineyard will become regenerative organic certified next year.

“People see Georgia wine and they run away,” says Devasia. “People say, ‘I tried a Georgia cab in the ’80s and it was terrible.’ And they never try a local wine again. We’ve come a long way from that. I want to create enough confidence where people can say, ‘Wow, they’re making some great wine.’”

As for the taste, Cloudland’s skin-contact Marsanne is the most unique of the lineup with a gold color and notes of orange peel, cantaloupe, nutmeg, honey, grilled apricots, and herbs. The pet-nat is the most easy-going and refreshing with notes of green apples, pears, and lemons.

“People are interested in trying new things and I think people want Georgia wine to succeed,” says Long. “If they’re up for it, I say give it a try, at the very least.”

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Georgia

Men’s Hoops Cruises in Season Opener

Published

2 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Press Room

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech men’s basketball opened the 2024-25 campaign with a 85-62 rout over visiting West Georgia on Wednesday evening at McCamish Pavilion.

Playing his first game in the White and Gold, Oklahoma transfer Javian McCollum led Georgia Tech (1-0) with a game-high 18 points. Kowacie Reeves Jr. added 15 points and Baye Ndongo chipped in 10 to round out three scorers in double-figures for the Yellow Jackets. Ten different players scored for the Jackets, who never trailed in the opener.

Thanks to five points from McCollum and four from Reeves, Tech raced out to an early 11-2 lead and never looked back. The Jackets closed the first half with a 26-13 run and led by 21 at the break, 50-29. The advantage never shrank to less than 20 in the second period, despite making just one field goal in the final nine minutes of the game.

Georgia Tech’s 23-point win was aided by seven assists from Naithan George and 10 rebounds from Colorado transfer Luke O’Brien, both game highs. McCollum had four steals to go along with his 18 points.

The margin of victory was the Jackets’ largest under head coach Damon Stoudamire, surpassing its 22-point win over Georgia Southern in last season’s opener.

Shelton Williams-Dryden led West Georgia (0-2) with 13 points.

Tech returns to action on Sunday when it hosts North Florida. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. at McCamish Pavilion and the game will be televised on ACC Network Extra.

Georgia Tech’s bench celebrates after Javian McCollum scores three of his game-high 18 points in Wednesday’s season opener vs. West Georgia. (photo by Eldon Lindsay)

POST-GAME NOTES

TEAM NOTES

Tech is 39-7 in season openers since joining the ACC for the 1979-80 season, 37-5 when those openers are at home.
Tech is playing its first seven games of the season at McCamish Pavilion, the longest homestand to start a season for the Yellow Jackets since 1980-81 The Jackets do not play away from home until Dec. 3 (ACC opener at North Carolina).
Tech posted its largest margin of victory under Damon Stoudamire – 23 points. Tech’s largest margin of victory last year was 22 points in the Yellow Jackets’ season-opener vs. Georgia Southern (84-62).
Tech shot 63.4 percent inside the arc (26-of-41).
Tech scored 50 points in the first half and connected on 56.8 percent from the floor.
Tech assisted on 20 of its 33 made field goals (60.6 percent).

PLAYER NOTES

Javian McCollum’s 18 points against West Georgia got him over 1,000 points for his career. He began the season with 990 (590 in two seasons at Siena, 400 in his one season at Oklahoma).
McCollum has scored in double figures 45 times in his career.
McCollum’s four steals against West Georgia were one more than any player had for Tech last season.
McCollum stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals against West Georgia.
Naithan George had seven assists vs. West Georgia, the ninth time in his career he has dished seven or more. His career high in assists is 11 vs. Notre Dame, Jan. 9, 2024.
Luke O’Brien posted his sixth career double-figure rebound game with 10 vs. West Georgia (the previous five all in the 2022-23 season). Career high 14 vs. Seton Hall on March 14, 2023.
Kowacie Reeves, Jr., scored 15 points against West Georgia, his 14^th double-figure game as a Yellow Jacket and 33^rd of his career.
Baye Ndongo scored 10 points with seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks against UWG. It was his 20^th career double-figure scoring game.
Damon Stoudamire is one of 19 head coaches at the NCAA Division I level who played in the NBA.

Naithan George dished out a game-high seven assists in the first game of his sophomore campaign. (photo by Eldon Lindsay)

MULTIMEDIA

PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO

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Georgia

Trump flips Georgia in 2024 presidential election

Published

10 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Press Room

Trump flips Georgia in 2024 presidential election – CBS News

Watch CBS News

Former President Donald Trump won the key battleground state of Georgia in 2024, CBS News projects. President Biden won the state by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020. CBS News’ Dave Malkoff has more from Atlanta.

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Georgia

FBI investigating bomb threats at Georgia polling places

Published

19 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Press Room

FBI investigating bomb threats at Georgia polling places

Bomb threats at metro Atlanta polling places

The FBI is investigating a series of bomb threats targeting polling places across Georgia and other battleground states.

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. – The FBI and Georgia election officials are looking into a series of bomb threats that forced some polling locations to temporarily close on Election Day.

The threats were reported throughout the day at polling locations in three metro Atlanta counties, all with large numbers of Democratic voters, and into the evening at Pennsylvania polling places and election offices where ballots were being counted.

Bomb threats were also reported in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin, according to state election officials.

Was Georgia election impacted by bomb threats?

Bomb threats topped headlines across Georgia from multiple polling locations. They closed down momentarily, and ended up staying open later. Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger said Georgia’s fast reaction time thwarted any impact the bad actors responsible were hoping to create.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that Georgia would “not be intimidated” by any threats towards the voting process.

“That just shows you the resilience of our system and our people. We’re battle-tested,” Raffensperger said.

In Fulton County, 32 of 177 polling places received bomb threats and five were briefly evacuated. The polling locations were able to reopen after the threats.

Fulton County officials say an officer was stationed at each polling location for voter safety.

“We planned heavily for bomb threat and good thing we did,” one Fulton County law enforcement official said at an election update on Tuesday.

A voter enters the polling station at Lucky Shoals Park Recreation Center on Nov. 5, 2024, in Norcross, Georgia. (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

In DeKalb County, six polling locations received bomb threats, including the Reid Coffer Library off LaVista Road in Tucker.

“I went around the Kroger to the main entrance, and I tried to turn left, and there were a bunch of cops and people saying ‘Don’t turn in. You have to come back later,’” voter Lelia Cryor said.

Thankfully, none of the threats were deemed credible. The FBI said many hoax bomb threats in several states appeared to originate from Russian email domains, though federal cybersecurity officials cautioned that the culprits were not necessarily Russian.

Raffensperger will give another update on the election at the Georgia Capitol at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

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