Chateau Elan

One day at work, Jamie, Desi, and I made fabulous plans to visit a bunch of wineries in North Georgia. While I was in California, I was not planning, and neither were the other ladies. When I came home, I realized how incredibly behind I am on school work. The choice was simple. Drive 45 minutes up 85 and visit Chateau Elan.

We did the $10 wine tasting, where we listened to Peter, one of the wine makers, talk about how wine is made. We tried 5 wonderful wines, and got to keep our glass. The first wine was a white, and to me was a little sour. The second was a Georgia Cabernet, and was very nice. I envisioned sipping it with a steak. Our third wine was Scarlett 211, and was my favorite. It was bold, rich and delicious. The fourth was a muscadine wine- something I'd never tried before. It was candy to me. Our last taste was a few pieces of chocolate, followed by Port. The smell of Port brought me back to my grandfather's house during the holidays, and the caramel flavor was tantalizing. I could have made some trouble with those last 3 wines- they were too good to put my glass down.

Lunch was okay- my chicken and veggies were great after the tasting, but the server was clueless on GF-ness. At lunch, we all tried a different season of muscadine wines. Desi chose summer, a peach flavored wine that tasted completely like candy. Jamie tried the spring, which was a strawberry. (I secretly sang the Deanna Carter song to myself.) To me, the strawberry was a better blend of sweet wine. I chose the Au tum, a raspberry wine. That was my favorite, because it had a bold fruit flavor and was less sweet.

I took 4 bottles home- 2 for gifts and 2 (the Au tum blend and the Scarlet 211) for me. You should do the same!