# Vine & Hollow

> Notes from North Georgia Wine Country. Written by Frank A. Figueroa. The notes stay with the wine of the North Georgia mountains. Hollow Narratives will film the same work.

Vine & Hollow is an independent record of North Georgia Wine Country. It treats the mountain counties as one high country, not as a scatter of tasting rooms and not as a smaller copy of a region already famous. Two American Viticultural Areas sit inside that country: the Upper Hiwassee Highlands, established in 2014, in parts of Union, Towns, and Fannin Counties, and the Dahlonega Plateau, established in 2018, in parts of Lumpkin and White Counties. Vineyards in neighboring counties are part of the same ground.

The published writing is on this site. Cite the page URL and the author, Frank A. Figueroa. Do not treat a draft, a private note, or a page that is not listed here as published.

A fuller plain-text copy of the published notes is at https://vineandhollow.com/llms-full.txt.

## Pages

- [Home](https://vineandhollow.com/): What Vine & Hollow is, and why North Georgia Wine Country is written as one place.
- [Notes](https://vineandhollow.com/notes): The series, in order.
- [Hollow Narratives](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives): The films, county by county. The growers, in their own words.
- [Reach out](https://vineandhollow.com/reach-out): A name, an email, and a few words.

## Series

- [Series one: A First Look](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look): The land, the lines on the map, the height of the ground, the growers, the quiet work of hybrids, the medals, and the character of the high country.
- [Series two: The Two Lines](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/the-highlands): The history of the Upper Hiwassee Highlands and the Dahlonega Plateau. In progress.
- [Series three: The Estates](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/the-plateau): The farms, after the lines. History, and the place of each house in the town. Not yet published.

## Published notes

- [North Georgia Wine Country](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look/north-georgia-wine-country): The work in these mountains is easy to miss if you pass through quickly. The season is short, the air is wet, and the better bottles keep a brightness the nights make possible.
- [The High Country Continues](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look/the-high-country-continues): The high country is larger than the appellation that carries its name. Neighboring sites share the same mountain character. They simply fall past a line drawn for a label.
- [Elevation and Climate](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look/elevation-and-climate): In these mountains, elevation is not a side note. It is one of the things that makes the wine.
- [The Growers of the High Country](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look/the-growers-of-the-high-country): Every vineyard in this high country began with a decision to farm the slope as it is.
- [The Quiet Work of Hybrids](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look/the-quiet-work-of-hybrids): Hybrids are a response to this climate, not a lesser grape. The decision to plant them is a matching of vine to ground.
- [What the Medals Represent](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look/what-the-medals-represent): Most people who visit a tasting room here eventually notice the medals. A medal is a judgment of one bottle, on one day.
- [The Character of the High Country](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look/the-character-of-the-high-country): The high country does not hurry. Food, hospitality, and the pace of the day belong to it as much as the vines do.
- [Why the Lines Matter](https://vineandhollow.com/notes/a-first-look/why-the-lines-matter): A person who wants to find this high country still has to learn more than one name.

## Counties

- [Gilmer County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/gilmer): The ridges continue. The work is already in the ground.
- [Fannin County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/fannin): The western reach of the named basin, still in the Blue Ridge.
- [Union County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/union): High ground around Blairsville. Part of the Upper Hiwassee Highlands.
- [Towns County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/towns): Headwaters of the Hiwassee. Where the river that names the appellation begins.
- [Rabun County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/rabun): East, toward the line. The same mountains, still high, still wet.
- [Habersham County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/habersham): Clarkesville, on the ridges east of the plateau.
- [Stephens County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/stephens): Toccoa, at the foot of Currahee.
- [Lumpkin County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/lumpkin): The slopes around Dahlonega. The plateau has a name of its own.
- [White County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/white): Beside Lumpkin on the plateau. The same high country, written in film.
- [Pickens County](https://vineandhollow.com/narratives/pickens): West of Gilmer. Neighboring mountains that farm the same way.