Groups pop cork on Ala. Wine Trail; Southern Baptists greet it with boos

CALERA, Ala. — Alabama has all sorts of tourist trails — there's one for civil rights, another for birds and yet another for old churches. The newest one was introduced Tuesday to promote the state's wineries, but Baptists aren't joining in the toast.

A trade association and a tourism group came up with the Alabama Wine Trail to lure visitors to the state's eight wineries, which produce everything from fruity muscadine and peach wines to more traditional varieties such as merlot and chardonnay.

Tom Vizzini hopes the trail will increase traffic at his Vizzini Farms Winery, which produces as many as 3,000 cases a year. He located it on the outskirts of Birmingham after running up against church opposition in a more rural area.

"We put our wines up against any of them from California," said Vizzini, whose grandfather was a vintner in Sicily.

But some say the wine can stay on the West Coast.

A Baptist leader in neighboring Chilton County said his group opposed plans for a winery there and doesn't like the idea of luring tourists to his home turf or anywhere else in Alabama to imbibe.

"We are on record as being opposed to any kind of alcohol-related industry," said the Rev. Robert Griffin, moderator of the Chilton Baptist Association and pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Clanton. "I would support visiting old, historic churches, but as far as visiting wineries ..."

It's not just wine that draws scorn in conservative Alabama, where more than a third of the state's counties remain dry 75 years after Prohibition and Southern Baptist churches claim about a quarter of the state's population.

The state regulates all alcohol sales, and it drew criticism in October for opening a state-run liquor store in downtown Birmingham on a Sunday afternoon. The governor intervened, and the agency said it wouldn't happen again.

The Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association hopes its new wine promotion brings visitors to north Alabama, and it's staying out of the moral debate over alcohol.

"We look at this purely from the tourist perspective," said Dana Lee Jennings, CEO of the association. "It's about introducing a new tourism venue. Folks have enjoyed going through other states and visiting their wineries and shops with homemade cheeses and other things."

The surrounding states of Georgia, Florida and Tennessee already have wine trails, and Kentucky has a bourbon trail.

"Thank God for Mississippi. We're ahead of them," said Vizzini.

Tourist brochures will list the eight participating wineries in Alabama, and visitors will get a "passport" for workers to stamp. Anyone who visits all the wineries will get a wine glass bearing the logos of each company, Vizzini said.

"And they'll get to taste some very good wine," he said.

The trail is made up of members of the Alabama Wineries Association, one of two small wine groups in the state. The head of the other organization, Lee Beadles, said overcoming opposition to alcohol is a constant hurdle for the group.

Alabama law limits home wine production to five gallons at a time, and Beadles said his Alabama Wineries and Grape Growers Association hasn't been able to get much support for increasing the cap for hobbyists.

"We have such a Bible Belt population that when you say you're going to increase production ... in this state they think there will be a drunk in every house," Beadles said. "There are a lot of people in this state with wine in their closets."