Cruv's Georgia map centers on the mountain foothills north of Atlanta: Dahlonega, Helen, Ellijay and the Upper Hiwassee Highlands. Check Cruv for who is pouring now and what is on the calendar.
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Dahlonega, in the Blue Ridge foothills about an hour north of Atlanta, is the town Georgia's tourism office calls the heart of the state's wine country. The Dahlonega Plateau AVA (2018) spans parts of Lumpkin and White counties.
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Helen is a Bavarian-style mountain town in the Blue Ridge, and its visitors bureau presents it as a base for winery day trips, with wineries within about 30 miles in several directions.
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Ellijay, in Gilmer County, combines vineyards and tasting rooms with the county's apple orchards, and the county chamber promotes the area as Ellijay Wine Country. It lies outside both the Dahlonega Plateau and Upper Hiwassee Highlands AVAs.
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The Upper Hiwassee Highlands AVA, established in 2014, lies in the upper Hiwassee River basin of the southern Appalachians and crosses the state line: Georgia's Towns, Union and Fannin counties, and North Carolina's Cherokee and Clay counties.
Georgia's grape story has two halves: native muscadines, which grow across the state outside the cold mountains, and European bunch grapes and French-American hybrids in the mountains of north Georgia.
White
Carlos is a bronze-skinned muscadine that the New Georgia Encyclopedia pairs with Noble as the two main muscadines for wine. Muscadines in general do well across Georgia, especially in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain.
Red
Noble is a black-skinned muscadine that the University of Georgia's muscadine program calls the leading red wine cultivar. Muscadines thrive in the Piedmont, and growers plant them across the state outside the cold mountains.
White
Chardonnay is among the primary varieties on the Blue Ridge's southern flank, a zone that takes in the Dahlonega and Helen areas, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia. The Helen visitors bureau lists it too.
Red
Merlot grows in the same Dahlonega and Helen zone, where it is a primary variety along with Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Helen visitors bureau also lists it among North Georgia's grapes.
Red
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the primary varieties grown around Dahlonega and Helen. The Helen visitors bureau lists it too, among the grapes that North Georgia wineries grow.
Red
Chambourcin is a French-American hybrid that the New Georgia Encyclopedia names, with Seyval Blanc, as best adapted to the Tennessee Valley zone north of the Blue Ridge, the coldest of the four climate zones it describes.
