By kassidy abernathy
Alabama. A state most known for its good food, rivalry football and wine? Surprisingly, yes. Within the past decade, the state has become the home of 15 different wineries ranging from the edges of the Appalachian Mountains in North Alabama down South to Perdido.
Alabama’s warm, humid climate makes the perfect combination for developing sweet fruit wines and, of course a Southern classic, aromatic muscadine wines. Morgan Creek Vineyard in Harpersville, Alabama, 30 minutes southeast of Birmingham, offers 13 specialty wines and has an edge up on their local competitors. The vineyard houses state-of-the-art machinery custom made from Italy, and it handles every aspect of the winemaking process in-house.
Morgan Creek owners, father-son duo Charles Brammer Sr. and Charles Brammer Jr. began business in 2000 as Brammer Jr. was graduating college. As business grew, the Brammers gave much of the credit to their unique in-house production and their specialty muscadine and fruit wines.
Fruit of the Vine
Morgan Creek Vineyards prides itself on growing its own fruits such as the antioxidant-rich muscadines and blueberries, but due to large demand, around 90 percent of the fruit used is grown in Athens, Georgia. About 10 percent of the blueberries and muscadines used in the wines are grown on the 50-acre vineyard.
Robert Sims, a sales and marketing associate at Morgan Creek, said the muscadines used in the wines are still native to Alabama.
“There isn’t a real big demand for muscadine farmers in Alabama, so we go to Georgia,” Sims said.
Upkeep of the fruit grown on-site is a yearlong job. In the spring, vines are trimmed to ensure only the strongest are producing fruit and there is proper directional growth of the vines. The wooden posts that support the heaven-laden vines are adjusted and repaired to aid in the successful harvest that waits in the late summer months.
Sims said the more rain, the better in terms of the amount of muscadine fruit produced at the vineyard. Harvesting the fruits, sometimes called “crush” season, normally begins in September and can vary depending on the weather and what fruits are being used.
Only the best get picked
The beginning of “crush” season also marks the start of a little more manual labor. Due to the large acreage at Morgan Creek Vineyards, handpicking the ripened fruits is not always the most time-efficient option. Sims said the vineyard combines both mechanical picking and hand-picking for accuracy as well as timeliness when harvesting muscadines. Blueberries, however, are more delicate and are always picked by hand.
Store it up
After harvesting the fruits, or getting them delivered from places like Athens, Georgia, they are dropped into a large compressor. The fruit in the compressor is then crushed into liquid form, pumped into and stored in large metal vats to ferment. Sims said there are size small, medium and large vats in the warehouse where the wine is made, the largest being 6000 gallons. Fermentation can last anywhere from two to three weeks and is usually determined to be “ready” by a taste test.
The next step includes adding vital ingredients to guarantee the Morgan Creek signature flavor.
“When the fermentation is right, we mix the appropriate minerals and sugars with it until we like the taste,” Sims said.
If the flavor isn’t exactly right, the fermenting fruits can stay sealed in the vats for several more weeks.
Brammer Jr. said the machinery they use is what sets Morgan Creek apart.
“Every machine we have is from Italy,” Brammer Jr. said. “No one else can say that.”
Brammer Jr. said the Italian-made machinery used to make wine is the best quality available and a purchase that he considered an investment.
Put a cork in it
After the wine has been cured to the winery’s standards, it is pumped out of the metal vats and bottled. The bottling machine at Morgan Creek is comprised of several stations and can turn over 15,000 cases of wine per year. A case is comprised of 12 bottles of wine.
Once in the bottling assembly line, the empty wine bottles are rinsed out and pushed over into the next station where they are filled with whatever type of wine is being bottled. From there, a cork stamped with a Morgan Creek logo is plugged into the wine bottle and pushed to the last station, where the bottle is labeled. The bottles are then inspected to ensure quality, and then they are hand-placed in boxes to be delivered.
On the road
Delivery of Morgan Creek wines calls for early mornings and strong arms. The cases of wine are loaded into delivery trucks and delivered to over 400 stores in Alabama. Brammer Jr. said that doing it all — from picking to delivering — is hard work.
“It’s not common that a small business does everything, but that’s what makes it special,” Brammer Jr. said.
Alabama’s warm, humid climate makes the perfect combination for developing sweet fruit wines and, of course a Southern classic, aromatic muscadine wines. Morgan Creek Vineyard in Harpersville, Alabama, 30 minutes southeast of Birmingham, offers 13 specialty wines and has an edge up on their local competitors. The vineyard houses state-of-the-art machinery custom made from Italy, and it handles every aspect of the winemaking process in-house.
Morgan Creek owners, father-son duo Charles Brammer Sr. and Charles Brammer Jr. began business in 2000 as Brammer Jr. was graduating college. As business grew, the Brammers gave much of the credit to their unique in-house production and their specialty muscadine and fruit wines.
Fruit of the Vine
Morgan Creek Vineyards prides itself on growing its own fruits such as the antioxidant-rich muscadines and blueberries, but due to large demand, around 90 percent of the fruit used is grown in Athens, Georgia. About 10 percent of the blueberries and muscadines used in the wines are grown on the 50-acre vineyard.
Robert Sims, a sales and marketing associate at Morgan Creek, said the muscadines used in the wines are still native to Alabama.
“There isn’t a real big demand for muscadine farmers in Alabama, so we go to Georgia,” Sims said.
Upkeep of the fruit grown on-site is a yearlong job. In the spring, vines are trimmed to ensure only the strongest are producing fruit and there is proper directional growth of the vines. The wooden posts that support the heaven-laden vines are adjusted and repaired to aid in the successful harvest that waits in the late summer months.
Sims said the more rain, the better in terms of the amount of muscadine fruit produced at the vineyard. Harvesting the fruits, sometimes called “crush” season, normally begins in September and can vary depending on the weather and what fruits are being used.
Only the best get picked
The beginning of “crush” season also marks the start of a little more manual labor. Due to the large acreage at Morgan Creek Vineyards, handpicking the ripened fruits is not always the most time-efficient option. Sims said the vineyard combines both mechanical picking and hand-picking for accuracy as well as timeliness when harvesting muscadines. Blueberries, however, are more delicate and are always picked by hand.
Store it up
After harvesting the fruits, or getting them delivered from places like Athens, Georgia, they are dropped into a large compressor. The fruit in the compressor is then crushed into liquid form, pumped into and stored in large metal vats to ferment. Sims said there are size small, medium and large vats in the warehouse where the wine is made, the largest being 6000 gallons. Fermentation can last anywhere from two to three weeks and is usually determined to be “ready” by a taste test.
The next step includes adding vital ingredients to guarantee the Morgan Creek signature flavor.
“When the fermentation is right, we mix the appropriate minerals and sugars with it until we like the taste,” Sims said.
If the flavor isn’t exactly right, the fermenting fruits can stay sealed in the vats for several more weeks.
Brammer Jr. said the machinery they use is what sets Morgan Creek apart.
“Every machine we have is from Italy,” Brammer Jr. said. “No one else can say that.”
Brammer Jr. said the Italian-made machinery used to make wine is the best quality available and a purchase that he considered an investment.
Put a cork in it
After the wine has been cured to the winery’s standards, it is pumped out of the metal vats and bottled. The bottling machine at Morgan Creek is comprised of several stations and can turn over 15,000 cases of wine per year. A case is comprised of 12 bottles of wine.
Once in the bottling assembly line, the empty wine bottles are rinsed out and pushed over into the next station where they are filled with whatever type of wine is being bottled. From there, a cork stamped with a Morgan Creek logo is plugged into the wine bottle and pushed to the last station, where the bottle is labeled. The bottles are then inspected to ensure quality, and then they are hand-placed in boxes to be delivered.
On the road
Delivery of Morgan Creek wines calls for early mornings and strong arms. The cases of wine are loaded into delivery trucks and delivered to over 400 stores in Alabama. Brammer Jr. said that doing it all — from picking to delivering — is hard work.
“It’s not common that a small business does everything, but that’s what makes it special,” Brammer Jr. said.