European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 10, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday september 10. 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 shifting from Shine to wine Down South by Dudley Clendinen new York times a s a chorus of katydids began to serenade the Lall of night irom the Mountain Laurel beyond the Cabin porch Tobe a White Likker Man held a Glass of his Host s homemade wild lox grape wine. All things considered he said i d rather have my old  behind the Cabin near Clayton a. The Mountain Rose into the Chattahoochee National Forest. Back in the 50s i d have three or Lour stills going at the same time Tobe said. He cooked his Mash into the 1960s, and in hidden gullies near clean streams in the vastness of the Woods Here other men still do. Selling Shine by the gallon lug it remains a Staple of these Hills. But As Tobe said lots of the people i used to sell to they died because they older than i was. You just can t make Money at  he Rose spat a Stream of Brown tobacco juice toward the darkening Woods and poured himself some More wild Fox. In Northern Georgia and across the South the time the tastes and the population have been changing. In red Clay Fields beside the Woods and Hills that once held stills a new Breed of Farmer is planting vines. And from Florida to Virginia from Mississippi to the Carolinas Are wineries making wine. I m Happy to report that most of these states but not Louisiana have blossomed with vineyards and wineries Leon Adams author of wines of America said from his Home in Sausalito. Calif. Georgia is a very Good  the settings of these efforts Range irom modest to magnificent. Outside Clayton. Russell Dobbins Tobe s Host grows Bunch grapes in his Garden and gathers wild Fox grapes from the vines that flourish in the Woods making wine irom them in the basement of the rambling Cabin he built after retiring from Bethlehem steel. He likes the wine better than the Apple Brandy the Moonshiner used to offer him. Just a bit Southwest near Clarkesville. Ga., Down Stone pile Road from the Stone pile Baptist Church Tom Slick a real estate entrepreneur has established Stone pile vineyards. Thirty acres 12 nectar of trellises Vidal serval Blanc cabernet franc and 23 other varieties of grapes Roll in a Leafy carpet toward the Foothills of the Blue Ridge looming Distant in the summer Haze. For two years they have yielded wine. Up in Asheville. N.c., William a. V. Cecil has 220 acres of vines under cultivation and a winery in operation at his Grandfather s historic Biltmore estate Selling the Chateaux Biltmore Label to tourists and to 18 store accounts in North Carolina. G. R. Ammerman. Head of the department of food science and human nutrition at Mississippi state University at Starkville. Said there were no commercial wineries in the Region 10 years ago. The new commercial efforts have not been As Slick put it. A Lead pipe  he has had to Battle record droughts record Rains record freezes and the dry passions of local Southern baptists who approved of grapes but not fermenting them. Like Slick s grapes the Biltmore vineyards were Hurt by crippling freezes last Winter and Many vineyards have failed because of weather fungus bacteria Public rejection or inadequate financing. There were five vineyards in Florida a year ago. All of them new. Now there Are two. But the tact of dozens of commercial vineyards across the South and their attempt in the last five years to grow european vines has made reality an old american dream. New York time Dol Vitell Jon it ii a winemaker of Slom Pil v Yard in Georgia. One of the Foremost authorities of his Era on european wines was Thomas  said Parks Redwine. A wine judge who established the first annual Southern barrel tasting at the Atlanta International wine festival last october. At his Home in Monticello. In Virginia he attempted to grow the line european vines. And every time they would  now in Virginia in the Carolinas. In North Georgia Northern Mississippi even in Florida. Redwine said. Vilis Vin Ilera. The Type of wine grape that All the line wines of the world come from is being grown. The planning of that grape and of French american hybrids together with a continuing Effort to civilize the Strong Sweet native grapes of the South constitute the new viticulture of the Region. It is being aided by research and training programs developed at the University of Florida and Mississippi state University. Like the Moonshine Industry of earlier years the new viticulture has roots in prohibition. The passing of the prohibition Law actually stimulated the growing of grapes in this country said John a. Mortensen a geneticist and professor of viticulture at the University of Florida. During prohibition grapes ostensibly were sold As food hut people were buying the grapes and making their stuff at  Mortensen said. This All happened in the 1920s, and it stimulated planting in Florida like  he said but the bacteria and climate attacked the vines with equal vigor and like Jefferson s plantings they began to die in 1933. The Florida grape growers association lobbied the state legislature Lor Money to allow the Watermelon Field Labo Alory in Leesburg to research the problem As the vineyards succumbed in the 1940s to disease and the effect of prohibition s end the Laboratory began to develop Iho first disease resistant grapes. It produced several varieties in the 19cos and 1970s, vines that awaited the interim of those willing to risk planting them com Meic