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interested in growing grapes, it will bring further diversity to
our agricultural base, especially in rural Alabama, and diversity on a
small scale is still opportunity for the farmer.”
Just five years old, Morgan Creek is already looking for more farmers to grow muscadines and blue-berries. The winery has about six acres of muscadines that produce about 10 percent of the grapes for its wine; the other 90 percent comes from growers at $500 per ton. At the sight of raised eyebrows, Charlie repeated, “Yes, $500 a ton. At five tons an acre, a farmer can increase his income significantly.”
The Brammers also buy their blueberries from growers. Several acres have been a U-Pik-Em Farm at Morgan Creek for more than 20 years, and a very popular June recreation. Charlie says his wine customer base was built on blueberry picking and word-of-mouth advertising.
“Our wine and small winery products in general are becoming more and more popular,” Charles, Jr., said. “It’s a comfortable wine for most people. Everybody is familiar with muscadine grapes in Alabama. We’ve all picked them as children and many of us have made them into wine as adults. Our ‘blue collar’ wine is filling a niche market that nobody else wanted to fool with. We’re not wine geeks, we can’t name all the fancy, expensive bottles of wine, but we have good wine and a good time.”
Well sure, one might say, lots of people make muscadine wine at home. But wait, one might answer, Morgan Creek wine is far superior in quality and taste to those “homemade” wines through the use of state-of-the-art equipment which monitors fermentation, heating and cooling processes to a fine art.
Morgan Creek wine is in 300 stores in Alabama and another 25 in Mississippi, and sold by Charles Brammer, Jr., through his
distribution company. Last season produced 10,000 cases of red and white wine, varieties ranging from red, white, dry, semi-sweet-and sweet wines from both fruits.
From start to finish, the process takes about 10 weeks including pressing the grapes, heating, fermenting, pumping over (removing grape residue), settling, racking (drawing clean wine off top) and cold stabilization. Morgan Creek wine is stored in tanks four to six months for a better quality product.
And it’s good for you, Charlie says. Muscadine grapes contains much more
reseveratrol, a beneficial chemical with health producing properties. Scientific research at
UAB, Harvard and the University of Georgia proves reseveratrol possesses antioxidant, anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory and even anticarcinogenic properties. “I have customers who tell me their doctors have prescribed just one or two glasses a day for better hearts and better sleep,” Charlie said.
Charlie said he’s been called gutsy for starting a winery at 70, but his life-long dream was to work with wine. His work resumé includes a stint as a firefighter when he was a young man. Firemen were called smoke eaters then. Between swallowing smoke and being hit by lightning in 1955, Charlie decided to become an insurance writer. He retired to Harpersville and 30 acres of land where the winery took shape.
“It’s the best thing I ever did. If I hadn’t done it then, I would still do it when I’m 80,” he said.
Mary Brammer said her husband “sort of conned” her into the winery, promising it would be a very small 2,000 case operation. Now, Mary runs the wine shop where wines, gift baskets and wine accoutrements are sold. She even runs the wine
tastings, she said, a task both Brammers consider a hoot. “We meet the nicest people,” Mary explained. “We have people from Japan and people from Childersburg standing right next to each other here. Isn’t that crazy? We ask people from France and Germany, why are you at our little winery and they tell us they are wine growers and want to learn about different wines. Wine people are always looking for something new. They think Americans need to learn to relax, though. They are much more laid back than we are,” she added.
The Brammer men get a kick out of people at the tastings telling tales about grandma making muscadine wine and serving it to the preacher. All kinds of stories are shared, Charlie said.
Recently the Brammers joined other winemakers in trying to change Alabama law governing wine sales. The Native Farm Winery Act passed in 2001 allowed Alabama wineries to sell directly to retailers and had a low $25 per-year license fee. In 2004 the Alabama Legislature changed the bill to remove retailer access and raised the fee to $1,000. Wineries must now sell to a distributor and the distributor sells to stores. A 2005 House Bill 665 would have allowed wineries manufacturing less than 100,000 gallons to sell directly at wholesale provided the manufacturer used at least 50 percent Alabama fruit. About 85 percent of states in the country have this type licensing, according to the Alabama Wineries and Grape Growers Association. The bill passed the House but stalled on the Senate floor and never came to a vote. “Next session we hope for better; we are very proud of our small wine industry here in Alabama, and with minimal support from our Legislature, we may survive,” said AWGGA President Wilson.
The family at Morgan Creek is familiar with the bill and the problem of direct sales, says Charles, Jr., adding that the sale of wine is structured much as alcohol sales in Alabama. Small wineries consider the bill totally unfair to small wineries. “There is no other product that you
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