The line of people stretched out into the parking lot of Georgia Winery this past Saturday and it wasn’t just to tase their wine.
The Georgia Winery was serving up pizza at their new pizzeria and guests were there to celebrate the grand opening. I was among the first 50 people in line. It was also my first time visiting the winery since I moved to Chattanooga five years ago.
The family run winery started in 1982 when retired Dr. Maurice Rawlings purchased 55 acres of land and started growing Native American grapes like Muscadine. In 1996 Dr. Rawlings let his daughter Patty Prouty take over the business. Today, Prouty’s daughter Tara Traymore is running the operation, and her brother Adrian is the Vineyard Manager.
Tara was busy Saturday as more guests entered the pizzeria, requiring her to bring in extra tables and seats to accommodate everyone. The menu offered five pizzas and included which of their wines would make the perfect pairing. All their pizzas feature a 12” Pinsa crust – a lighter lower carb and lower calorie alternative to traditional pizza crusts. The resulting pizza is more like a flatbread pizza – oval not round.
I ordered the Cellar Slice, bold zesty pepperoni piled high over bubbling cheese with hot honey drizzle and Italian seasoning. The suggested wine pairing was the winery’s Tail Gate Red. I sat down with my wine and waited for my pizza. It was Tara herself who handed me my pizza box. It was still steaming hot when I opened it.
The sweet red wine complimented the savory bite of pepperoni, the tomato sauce was rich, the crust was crisp. It was a match made in heaven.
Tara said the intent of their pizzeria was to duplicate the same high quality dedicated to making their wines while providing guests with delicious pizzas, a food most people enjoy. She said another key was to provide it in a timely manner using fresh ingredients.
“Under six minutes,” she said. “Today was a good test because they got full and they really passed the test.”
She said the idea for a pizzeria came about a year ago and it took nearly a whole year to finish the construction. The pizzeria occupies a section of the building to the right of the entrance she said was previously underutilized. It was packed on Saturday. Folks enjoyed their pizza and wine or soda or beer. Others were at the wine tasting bar.
“We have five free wine tastings,” she said. “We have dry wines; we have sweet wines. We have a lot of fruit wines as well.”
After eating I walked over to the wine bar where Meredith prepared our wine tasting offerings which included a nod to Christmas with wines called “Naughty,” and “Nice.” After the initial five free samples, guests could purchase another five samples for $5.
“We do tours every day at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. and you can walk through the production area,” Tara said. “We bottle all our wines here. We have a capacity of 60,000-gallons right now. So, you walk through and see the whole winemaking process and see all the tanks and all the areas that you normally don't get to see just coming in as a customer.”
Tara said the type of grapes they use and their fermentation style makes them different from West Coast wines. “It’s actually a slow, cold fermentation as opposed to heat or chemicals,” she said. “What we strive for is wines that will appeal to anybody. We try to get it to taste like the juice instead of alcohol or wine so if it's a blackberry juice before you ferment it, we try to get the end product to taste like the juice.”
In addition to pizza, the menu lists two dessert offerings, ice cream and a delightful dessert called the peanut butter porch swing. A fudgy peanut butter brownie topped with a toffee crunch. It comes with a scoop of ice cream and a splash of Scarlett wine and balsamic glaze. It’s meant to be shared but only if you want to.
Tara said the winery held frequent events prior to the COVID pandemic. She said they plan to offer more events now that the pizzeria is open.
Georgia Winery & Tasting Room & Pizzeria
- 6469 Battlefield Parkway, Ringgold, GA
- (706) 937-9463
- Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.
- Sunday 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.
- www.georgiawines.com