Wineries boost economy, tourism in state

CALERA, May 06, 2008 (www.GrapeVineTrail.com) -- Just off the interstate deep in Shelby County, the grapes have yet to peek from their vines.

A winery built by the Patrick family is quaint, made of cream-colored stone, the winding roads before it lined by dark brown wooden fences.

The Ozan Vineyard is less than two years old. The backs of the labels on its bottles are emblazoned with a one-word invitation: "Cheers!" The winery is part of the new Alabama Wine Trail, whose eight wineries produce everything from peach wine to merlot and chardonnay. The trail is in its infancy, but state tourism officials look for it to attract more wine-loving tourists and boost revenues in hotels, restaurants and other attractions along the trail.

The wine trail runs from near Huntsville in north Alabama to Atmore, a small town just north of the Florida line in the state's southwest corner. The council is prepared to expand, and welcome more wineries into the fold.

"Four years ago, we only had four wineries," said Patti Culp, executive director of the Alabama Travel Council. "We are going to market the wine trail not just as the 'trail,' but as the whole package for the surrounding areas."

With up to 10,000 visitors to each of the wineries every year, the director of a north Alabama tourism bureau believes Alabama winery sales will grow now that the state is helping wineries promote their product.

"Essentially, they have gone from marketing their own to the state partnering together to (have) national and international marketing," said Debbie Wilson, who is executive director of Florence-Lauderdale Tourism Bureau as well as president of the Alabama Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The diversity of the wineries' products and locations fuel her optimism.

"I think it has a lot of potential because (the wineries) are spread out all over the state. It's just another tool and attraction that we haven't had before," she said.

The partnership already has helped the Patrick family, which owns four acres. Since the trail officially opened earlier this month, the family's Web site traffic has tripled.

The Patricks are making plans to expand their wine-making production -- a huge leap of faith for a family that planted its first grapes in 2001 just to see if they would grow.

The Patricks said they're in on the ground floor of a growth industry.

"The trend is that people will drink more wine over time," said Burt Patrick, who lives in Atlanta, but who owns the winery with his parents, Roger and Shelby Patrick.

"I think people are more health conscious -- people want a good meal and a glass of wine," he said. "Wine consumption is increasing as beer is declining."

Right idea, right time People are willing to travel and pay for good food and drink, said Neville Bhada, spokesman for the Southeastern Tourism Society.

Culinary tourism is the industry's hot trend right now, he said. Couple that with high gas prices, which tend to make people stay closer to home when they have free time, and the Alabama Wine Trail could be the right thing at just the right time.

"The one common trait we share as vacationers is the need to eat and drink," Bhada said. "With people staying a little closer to home, I would not be surprised to see sales increase (for the trail). There's a term called 'stay-cations' -- the two-week vacations are pretty much gone.

"People are traveling shorter distances and staying for two or three nights," he said.

Last year, tourism was a $7 billion industry in Alabama, and Dana Lee Jennings, president and CEO of Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association, thinks that number will be bigger in 2008.

But creating a quality experience for visitors is what the trail is about, Jennings said. That means taking advice -- and a wine trail is something people want, she said.

"I have worked here for four and a half years, and not one month goes by where people don't ask when we'll have a wine trail," she added.

The wine trail is called a "cash register attraction," Wilson said, because it will generate money for every county on the trail. People visiting wineries in the Birmingham area also can visit the theme park Alabama Adventure. When they're close to Mobile, they can drop in on the battleship Alabama and Bellingrath Gardens.

Wineries attract the kind of tourist that everyone likes -- those who have money and don't mind spending it for something worthwhile, officials said.

"It gives Alabama a little more sophistication," she said. "It's an image enhancer."

The trail itself surprises Jahn Coppey, who owns Wills Creek Vineyards with his wife, Janie Coppey. A member of the Alabama Wineries Association, Coppey knows people don't associate Alabama with wine. But he's quick to note that people unfamiliar with the state also might not think there would be a plant that makes Mercedes vehicles near Tuscaloosa.

Coppey expects the trail to produce a 20 percent increase in traffic at each of the eight wineries.

Word of mouth helps, too.

Once people visit the wineries, it becomes a "have you been there" question, he said.

The increased tourism results in more wine purchases, which leads to increased production, which will make it necessary to increase the capacity of the wineries, Jahn Coppey said.

"We don't have enough capacity to supply the demand," he said. "We'll have to supply more grapes."

Most wineries are in rural areas that can benefit greatly from increased tourism, Culp said. Travelers need a reason to get off the interstate, and "what could be more romantic than visiting the wineries?

"There's no question that it will increase tourism by leaps and bounds," she said. "And agri-tourism is one of the things that we've wanted to promote.

"We have a variety of what you can find at every winery in Alabama, from the simplistic to the elegant farms."

Everyone has to start somewhere, Roger Patrick said, even the wineries in Napa Valley, Calif.

"We wanted to be a part of the trail," he said. "I've been to California ... and it's a beautiful country. My son has been to Europe and visited some of the French wineries there, and thought our ground looked like theirs ... we found that it did grow certain grapes. And we thought we'd get into it in a small way, for fun and profit.

"We've had our fun -- but it's hard work."

Culp sees a Southeastern Wine Trail in the future. Bhada agrees that it's a good idea, but his agency doesn't have immediate plans to promote one.

"I do see that in the future, but there's no definitive date," Bhada said. "There are so many different kinds of wines grown in the South. We deal with several different people. We have not, as of yet, put a tour together."

Even in the early weeks of the Alabama Wine Trail, sales and expectations are right on track for the Ozan Vineyard. Recently, the family released five additional 2006 and 2007 wines that have been aged and bottled -- Chilton County Peach wine, White Muscadine, 2006 Merlot, 2006 Sansovecggie, and Vidal, a white wine.

"We make 1,000 cases a year of wine," he said. "We are looking to expand -- we're looking to grow to a 3,000 to 4,000 case level within four to five years. Over time, we want to earn our place at the table, so to speak."

Running a winery, Culp said, is an intimate business. Families want to keep it on a smaller scale.

"I think that's the ambiance of it," she said. "It's not like corporate California wineries -- their hearts are in it. It's a way for them to use their talents as vintners. They are proud of what they do, and every one of them is so dedicated."

That kind of down-home dedication has brought visitors from all over -- Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois and Alabama's sister states, Georgia and Mississippi.

"The I-65 corridor has proven to be the one main highway," Jennings said. "We have people who come through Alabama on their way to the beach. North Alabama is the halfway point for most of our visitors -- most people, from within our marketing area, will drive 10 hours just to get to us."

And while many people know of the wineries, having them grouped as a trail definitely helps.

"It's nice they all can be listed on a brochure ... the wine trail is updating existing items at the welcome centers," Patrick said.

"We used the trail to attract the folks for day trips. We have a lot of people come up from Montgomery -- all the people up there for Air Force leadership training because they are there from all over the country and world -- from Alaska to Hawaii," he said.

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