James May June 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 24
Stonewall Creek
Vineyards
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TIGER, GA
•
BACK UP ON the northern end of the state— a scenic
two hour cruise from Atlanta through the mountains—
just a few miles from the Carolina’s borders is Tiger,
Georgia, home to Stonewall Creek Vineyards. The
town sits at nearly 2,000 feet, making it among the
highest in Georgia and in the heart of Georgia’s highest mountains. Tiger is in Rabun County, home to a
number of waterfalls cascading off the mountains and
the most rain of any county in the state, among the
most rain of any county in the South. Perhaps because
of all that rain and the easily-draining slopes of the
area, the area makes for great grape-growing.
Sandi and Mark Diehl are the owners of Stonewall
Creek, taking it over from their friends the Facklers
in 2018. Sandi’s family is Italian and the love of wine
started from her grandparents, who always had a
glass of red with dinner and were making wine at
home even during prohibition.
“After an introduction to home winemaking in
Nonna Angelina’s basement in 1979, there was a visit
to Italy for a cousin’s wedding with home vineyards,
and of course, homemade wine,” said Mark. “It was
after this visit that we made our first wine in our home
in 2006. As our children were leaving the nest, there
was time in the schedule to start a new hobby and we
did. Our home winemaking started with a kit wine in
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2006 and grew every year for a decade, becoming a
winemaking “school” with over 20 families. In 2007 I got
my first shipment of fresh grapes from Lodi, CA and by
2010, I was organizing a fresh wine grape purchase for
the entire Atlanta area.”
In 2010, the Diehls learned that their friends the
Facklers were planting a new vineyard at Stonewall.
They had started with 150 vines of Malbec grapes in
2005 and in 2010 were planting a vinifera vineyard.
Mark and Sandi made a few trips to help plant the
vines in the spring and to harvest the grapes in the
fall. Along the way, the Diehls traveled to Napa Valley,
