Follow the trail By Teri Greene
13
active Alabama wineries showcase diversity and dedication of local vintners
Want to tour the wine country? There’s no need to book a trip to Napa Valley. Raise a toast to the wines of Alabama as laid out on the Alabama Wine Trail.
Top left: Grapes thrive in the sandy soil at the Berta Vineyard in Albertville. Above: Jim Eddins, founder of the state’s original winery. Right: The Berta family opened its winery in 2005.
W
ine is created in and flows through the state in rural enclaves far off welltraveled roads, often at the end of long stretches of highway and gravel driveways. There are 13 active wineries on the Alabama Wine Trail – up from eight when the trail debuted – the oldest one established nearly 35 years ago, others reaping the first fruits of their labor, and plenty in between, winding their way from the hills of the north to the southern coastal area. In 2006, with the introduction of the brochure outlining those locations, the reality was made visible. You can find the trail at www.alabamawinetrail.net or, for updates, www.facebook.com/alabamawinetrail. “We got involved in the early stages trying to create a statewide wine trail,” says Tami Reist, president of Decaturbased Alabama Mountain Lakes Association, which teamed with The Alabama Wineries Association to create a point-by-point guide to Alabama wineries and wine-related events in the state.
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Getting folks to follow three trails – the Plateau, the Valley and Ridge and the Coastal Plain – may lead to a lot of people seeing Alabama in a new light. Visit just a couple, and you’ll get a sense of both the diversity and the dedication of these vintners.
Family tradition
Wine has been Jules J. Berta’s family business for generations in his native Hungary. In 1993, Berta planted his first vineyards in Albertville, Ala. In 2005, on five acres of a 50-acre spread, he and his wife, Becky, officially opened the vineyard and winery. It sits at the end of a country road in the state’s mountainous region. Like most points on the trail, this is a start-to-finish establishment, tended by family. www.alabamaliving.coop