Welcome to The Affordable Wine Snob!  As a resident of Georgia, I will start this blog with something local - a winery located south of Chattanooga in northwest Georgia.

Georgia Winery – Chardonnay and Sweetwater Valley Farm Colby

My first experience with The Georgia Winery was years ago when they had a small tasting room in Dahlonega.  Back then, the wines were sweet and semi-sweet.  Many of the labels made White Zinfandel taste dry by comparison.  They were great tasting wines for a specific, sweet-drinking audience.

But no more! 

I rediscovered The Georgia Winery on a business trip, driving from Nashville to Atlanta, a few years ago.  Remembering the Chattanooga Blush, a big time award winner for The Georgia Winery, I stopped in and was surprised to discover they were now making a whole line of dry wines.

I stopped in again last week, again on that drive from Nashville to Atlanta, for their dry tasting.  I topped off the tasting with a glass of 2015 Chardonnay.  Unoaked, this Chardonnay is crisp, not at all sweet, and, to me, reminiscent of an Oregon Unoaked Chardonnay.   There are flavors of apple and mineral.  Order a glass of this and see what they’re serving on their cheese plate – it pairs very well with Goat Cheese topped with pepper jelly.

Other nice dry wines from the tasting – Tera Bella, a semi-dry white; their Cabernet Sauvignon tastes young and will surely continue to improve over time; and a competitive Syrah that would impress most red wine drinkers.

And don’t forget to try Chattanooga Blush, even if you are a dry wine drinker.  It’s flavor and fullness has earned its list of awards.

An extra bonus at the winery’s tasting room are Sweetwater Valley Farm cheeses, a farm in Eastern Tennessee.  The cheese plate featured their Colby.  Also worth mentioning is their Smoked White Cheddar.  Affordable, local to Tennessee and northern Georgia, and worth a taste.  Their cheeses aren’t elaborate, but they are consistently fabulous.

The Georgia Winery’s Chardonnay is a great bottle at a great price point - $18.95.  So stop in the next time you’re coming down I75 south.  They’re only a few exits south of the Georgia/Tennessee border.