Wine tripping in Georgia: a day's trip

Wines & Vines, Feb, 1992

Donald and Nancy Panoz have given a new look to the Old South. They have developed a winery and recreation resort 30 miles north of Atlanta - in the scenic north Georgia country. Judging by the thousands of visitors (250,000 last year) their marketing perspective is vastly popular.

The complex is called Chateau Elan. There is a 16th Century French chateau style central building, a state of the art winery, two restaurants, a wine museum, free tours and wine tastings daily, an 18-hole golf course (with more coming), petite chateaus for visitors, homesites with golf course views and 200 acres of vineyard. All of this on a 2400-acre holding in Barrow, Hall and Gwinnett counties located on a major north-south freeway - I-85 at exit 48.

The first vineyards were planted in 1983, under the aegis of German-born and educated Ed Friedrich, who previously had been a winemaker/manager in California and Arkansas and who was the first to make soft" (low or no A.C.) wines when he was at San Martin winery in northern California. After Friedrich's untimely death due to cancer the winemaking responsibility at Elan fell to a Frenchman, Jean Courtois.

The winery was founded in 1984 and since then has won 135 medals in various competitions.

The founder and chief executive officer of Chateau Elan is Donald Panoz, 55, (his wife, Nancy, is president). Panoz, who got his first exposure to wine by watching his Italian grandfather make wine at home, also is founder and CEO of a pharmaceutical research, development and marketing company, Elan Corporation, headquartered in Ireland with subsidiaries on the Continent, the Pacific Basin and the U.S. One of these subsidiaries is in the scenic mountains of north Georgia at Gainesville.

Georgia was not known as a wine state (there are eight wineries now). But Panoz, knowing of the mild climate of north Georgia from visits to his business in Gainesville, attributed this to the area's English and Scottish background of whiskey making rather than wine .

He has planted Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Seyval Blanc and Chambourcin cultivars. All but the last two are vinifera; Seyval and Chambourcin are French American crosses. In addition to the 200 acres of mostly vinifera there are muscadine vineyards.

There is sufficient rain to make irrigation unnecessary, but a vigorous spray program is essential because of high humidity. The number of vines to the acre is half that in most California plantings because of the need for maximum airflow around the vines due to the humidity.

The preventive spray program is every other week from the beginning of April to the end of July. The spray involves Bayleton, Captan, and Rovzal as fungicides and Sevin as an insecticide.

Reducing the number of vines makes yields lower. The vinifera tonnage in the 1991 harvest was 152 tons.

Wine production has grown from 35,000 gallons in 1990; there are projections of 150,000 gallons annually by the turn of the century. Fruit supply is augmented by purchases from other Georgia growers and other states, including California.

The first production was in 1984: 2100 cases each of Johannisberg (White) Riesling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc and Ruby Cabernet, plus 2,000 cases of Duncan Creek Muscadine.

Distribution is mostly in Georgia and Tennessee. The brand can be also found in Bermuda. Four restaurants have it on their wine lists in New York City and two 4-star restaurants serve it in Dublin, Ireland.

The percentage of wine sales at the Chateau and through distribution channels is about 50-50.

The winery is by any measure the largest and best known in the state. It has a visitors center open daily and offers an art gallery, meeting rooms, wine tours and tastings, plus a retail store, banquet rooms, picnic areas, a seven-mile cross-country horse pace course, nature trails, a pavilion-concert area in addition to the wine museum and two restaurants.

Of the latter, Cafe Elan is an open air bistro with eight entrees and a Sunday brunch buffet. Le Clos is formal dining with prices from $36 per person on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings only, with reservations and a coat-and-tie requested.

American style food at reasonable prices can be found Tuesday through Sunday at the golf club house.

Chateau Elan has banqueting for groups with customized menus for receptions, corporate meetings, weddings, wine seminars and fund-raisers. Audio-visual is available for business sessions.

Special events are scheduled throughout the year, with summer concerts and galas on occasions such as New Year's Eve and the annual November Vineyard Run.

The resort employs 140 people, with the winery as the focus, but that number likely will swell with completion in May of 1992 of The Spa, combining European style facilities and American health promotional activities plus 14 luxurious overnight accommodations.

On the drawing board is an Inn at Chateau Elan, with lodging, conference facilities, graphic services, computer lab and business services. A second 18-hole championship golf course is planned plus a 9-hole par 3 course; construction on the latter is scheduled to begin late in 1991. The attention paid to golf is because Panoz is an enthusiastic player in both the U.S. and Ireland, where he likes the Athlone Country Club near his pharmaceutical plant; it makes prescription drugs only including two sold in the U.S.: Cardizem and Verlan, both for the heart. Panoz has a 19 handicap index.