Still Pond Winery
1575 Still Pond Road
Arlington, GA 39813
(800) 475-1193
www.stillpond.com
We’ve had a number of people that grew up in the area stop by, and visit and they all had the same tale that their father farmed somewhere along the sides of this property over the years and everybody had their own stump. And if you would put $2 in this stump, miraculously overnight it would turn into a pint of shine. And supposedly it was real good shine too. – Charles Cowart
I was born in 1981, lived here all my life. I’ve grew up out here, spent the summers out here with my grandfather…This is all I know. – Charlie Cowart
West of the city of Albany, in southwestern Georgia, not far from the Alabama line, three generations of Cowart men have grown grapes, first for fresh, eating grapes, now for wine. Charlie Cowart, the eldest of the three, managed a cattle farm and was the first to ponder the possibilities of wine, when he planted 50 acres of muscadines in the 1970s. His son, Charles, leveraged that dream when, in 2003, he began making his own lime of Still Pond wine from Cowart-grown grapes.
Still Pond got its name from the spring fed pond that dominates the property. Some say there was a Confederate brandy still that made peach brandy there during the Civil War. That may be a tall story, but digs into the dirt around the pond have revealed peach pit middens.
Today, a third generation of the Cowart family, Charlie (named for his grandfather) is the winemaker for Still Pond. He’s working to increase production and introduce drier wines made from muscadine grape varieties.
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Two interviews, Charles Cowart and his son, Charlie Cowart, are featured on this page. Jump to Charlie Cowart interview.
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript (Charles Cowart interview) as a PDF, please click here.
Subject: Charles Cowart
Date: August 26, 2008
Location: Still Pond Winery, Williamsburg, Georgia
Interviewer & Photographer: John T Edge
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John T Edge: I’m with Charles Cowart; Mr. Cowart if you would tell me your date of birth?
Charles Cowart: You’re—you’re between Leery and Arlington in what’s known as the Williamsburg community. Born and raised here on this piece of property. Okay; the date of birth is December 10, 1952.
And this piece of property is called Still Pond—is that the name?
Yeah; actually it’s Still Pond. This property was actually a part of a very large cattle operation. It was a little over 10,000 acres and my father was the general manager for that. We—we basically raised cattle and some small feed crops, some grains and corns for silage and he was having a hard time keeping field hands 12-months out of the year. So we came up with this idea about planting muscadine grapes on part of the property and all your hand-work, your pruning, your—your planting, that is done in the wintertime when he had excess labor. So that’s sort of how we got started. Early ‘70s the owner of the—of the property, who was a multi-millionaire and owned land all over the world, passed away and his family began cashing out. And my father was able to buy the section of land that he had planted the grapes on with the idea of semi-retiring here. At that time it was about 50-acres of muscadines and he built a house here and moved out on the property and just started slowing growing from there.
And was there any family history of growing muscadine previous to that? Had his father before him grown them or—?
No; this—well everybody said you know we—well he had just totally lost every lick of sense he ever had but he had a contract with Canandaigua Winery in New York before he ever harvested the first crop and so this sort of added a little bit of justification to it, and we would mechanically—at that time mechanically harvest, and this was 38 years ago and we would mechanically harvest the fruit, put it in 55-gallon drums, put a lid on them and roll these drums in the back of a semi by hand and send them to North Carolina to an apple juice processor. They would crush the fruit there and then send the juice onto Canandaigua.
When my father got—when he became owner of the property they—the fresh market slowly started beginning to emerge and for many, many years were hand-picking about half the vineyard, grading, packing, and selling table grapes. The other half and what we didn’t use for fresh market was sold as whole fruit to wineries for them to produce their wines from. They—I know you’re—you’re looking at the history; they—the Still Pond where the place got its name from is—is here about 100-yards from the winery and it’s a big spring fed pond. The legend was that there was a Confederate brandy still that made peach brandy there during the Civil War. I don't know how much truth is to that but I know when we were building a reservoir behind that for additional holding water we actually dug up peach pits. And I don't know—I never remember any peach trees here, so maybe so. But when I was growing up here there was two old bachelors that lived back here on these springs, always had a brand new—the biggest Studebaker that was ever made and they were very, very eccentric and never worked. So we—we knew they were making a lot of corn wine back here.
And as—as—after we opened this winery we’ve had a number of people that grew up in the area stop by and visit and they all had the same tale that their father farmed somewhere along the sides of this property over the years and—and everybody had their own stump. And if you would put $2 in this stump miraculously overnight it would turn into a pint of shine. And supposedly it was real good shine too.
And the gentlemen—the bachelor gentlemen who had their—what were their names?
It was the Hunt brothers. It was—actually it was three of them; one stayed institutionalized most of the time. He would have bee—he would come home occasionally but wouldn’t be able to stay too long. They’d always have to take him back, but—. It was Mr. Larry and Mr. Simon Hunt. Mr. Larry was the—I guess he was the front man; he—the old house they lived in had no electricity, no running water, no indoor facilities, and—but he always dressed to a T with his little fedora on and his sport coat and his—his little tie. I guess Mr. Simon was the one that did all the work ‘cause he always kept his sport coat on but he had his overalls on up under them, and carried a croaker sack that had—had a neck sling cut into it and an old single barrel shotgun everywhere he went. So I think he was the deliveryman and the collection man. And but they—they—they lived here for quite a number of years.
And one story I’ll never forget, as I said it was a cattle operation and we raised calves and calving time was—was always wintertime. And we were checking the pasture one morning adjacent to this—where the vineyard is now, and late December, early January, extremely cold, frost everywhere on the ground and there was a single tree out in the middle of the pasture. And I saw something under this tree, and when I got a little closer to it and it was Mr. Simon. He was leaned up against the tree and had his old shotgun propped up beside it, and there was actual frost on the front of his overalls. So you know we—we were sure he was dead; you know he had—that’s as far as he had made it. And we pulled up by the tree and he—the eyes popped open and he said how about giving me a ride home buddy? But I guess he had just imbibed a little too much on the way home and had to—had to spend the rest of the night there. But they were quite colorful characters.
My father was—was actually Charles Webb Cowart. Everybody called him Charlie and so I’m—I’m a junior and our youngest son is Charles P. Cowart and so we just—we alternate Charles and Charlie.
And when he decided to start raising muscadine that was a bold thing to do in this neck of the woods?
Very much so. And as I said it was totally unheard of. There—there was no grapes of—of any kind planted around here, just what was growing wild in the woods and—but he saw a niche market there for this type of fruit and pursued it and we’re very glad he did.
And was there anything particular about the climate of this—this corner of—of southwestern Georgia that was either good for growing muscadine or bad for growing muscadine?
The—apparently so; I mean we—we have abundant wild muscadines) growing up and down the creek banks and in the low areas here. Our soil is a Tifton sandy loam type soil; we get a very, very good amount of—of summertime—we get a lot of hot days and of course that’s—muscadines) love hot, dry weather and we get a lot of hot, dry weather.
And you spoke about the beginnings of this with your father and the grape varieties that he was growing. What are y’all growing now?
We’re—we’re still sticking with the—we love this Carlos. The Carlos is a very tough vine. During the fresh market days we were very, very heavy with Frye and it’s—it’s the big pretty sweet fruit; it’s got eye appeal. The Frye for the bronze, the black Frye for the—for your darker fruit, but it’s a very low-producer and we’re looking for juice quantities now. We’re looking at gallons per acre out and then—then market price on the fresh market. So over the years we’ve been steadily replacing the Frye which their lifespan we’re finding here in South Georgia is about half of that of a Carlos vine. So we’re—we’re going back with Carlos. We’re planting a lot of Noble.
The—the red muscadine wines are—are very, very popular. We’re seeing more and more health information come out about them, especially the—the red wines, even though the bronze fruit, skins, and seeds are just as high but you get more in the red wine. So demand for that is definitely growing and we’re also planting some Magnolia which lets us—they tend to ripen just ahead of the Carlos so we’re trying to extend our season a little bit.
And as you, you know as this new consumer embraces muscadine as—for its health-giving qualities are you—what’s the person—what’s the profile of the person that’s drinking this for pleasure? Is that changing?
Most definitely; I—when we opened here I would have assumed—and I did assume that our target market was going to be my age and above. And it’s—it’s—that’s not the case. We’re seeing 25 to—to 45 being our major market. These people are very health conscious; they’re—they’re up-to-date on what’s being published as far as health foods. They’re—they’re concerned about their diets and you know what I would classify as the beer drinkers now are the—the wine people. And one of the big things with us—so when—we were not wine people; we—we didn’t drink a lot of wine, and I think that helped us here with our winery because we didn’t know what wine was supposed to take like. We wanted a wine that tasted good and—which is not hard to do with a muscadine. And we see everyday people come in here and they want a chardonnay or a merlot or a Cabernet and they leave with the sweetest bottle of wine we’ve got because they didn’t realize that wine could taste like that. So—and we’re appealing to the—to the non-wine drinker. We’re giving them something that they can enjoy rather than something they can scrutinize.
And I wanted to ask you about the picture behind you. That’s your father?
Yes; it is. That’s my father and as I said he was the—the general manager for the cattle operation and was responsible for the initial plantings of the grapes. They—he passed away in ’91 and at that time I was working for Caterpillar and—but had become—this was a family farm so to speak, and it was either do away with it and—and continue on or me come back. I was an only child, so the choice wasn’t too hard. You know I wanted to come home. It’s—it’s a lot to be said for signing your own paycheck even though it’s—might not be as much it was if somebody else was signing it. [Laughs] But I don't regret it at all; we were—we were—we’re a whole family here now. Both of my sons work here. My youngest son is the winemaker; my oldest son is the vineyard manager.
Tell me their names.
Charlie—Charlie Cowart is our youngest and he’s the winemaker and Jake—Jacob is our oldest son and he’s our vineyard manager. He had worked briefly at Lake Ridge down in Clermont right after he got out of school and got him a lot of good experience there and was able to come home. When our youngest son left to go to school he made it real clear that when I get through with this nonsense you know I want a place to come back to, so that was the beginnings of the—the winery thoughts. At that time, you know we—we’ve got to do something here to create something and so right now—and my wife and I and my two sons and two daughters-in-law and my brand new—brand new grandchild are all right here within a stone’s throw of each other.
And from ’73 you sold grapes and juice to others but then what year did you first start making your own wine?
We started in 2003; we opened the doors on the winery here in 2003. And it is—that has been a very learning experience. We dealt with—with wineries for basically 40 years and the first batch of wine that we ever produced was I think 2,600 gallons back in one of these vats and it wouldn’t have happened without the very good relationships that we had built up over the years with these winemakers. They’ve come and they’ve spent weekends with us; they’ve spent weeks with us. I’ve got Mama’s phone number and girlfriend’s phone number and you know—give us a call and let us know, and they have—they’ve really guided us. We tried to—to pick out the ones that we liked their wine and take a piece of this one and a piece of that one and sort of put it together to come up with our unique wine that we produce here. And—and you know their advice was not so much as—as what to do but what not to do, you know don't—don't make this mistake.
And what—so if in 2003 you set out to make wine, what happened the first time you—you set out to make wine?
We—we had good results. We were very fortunate, the good Lord was looking after us; he—he kept us from totally screwing everything up and we think we produced about 800 cases that year. Pretty much sold those out; we were able to—
And that idea that Georgia grown product, does that resonate with the consumers that seek you out because it’s not that easy to get here? [Laughs] I mean you’re—you’re down—you’re how far out of Albany?
We’re about 30-miles out of Albany. We did this thing sort of opposite. Most wineries build a winery and then plant a few vines and then buy fruit; of course we had the vineyard here. We now have 170-acres of vines and our biggest project here is processing—is harvesting and processing juice for other wineries. And so it wouldn’t make sense for us to move the winery you know 30-miles away. So our winery is here, and you got to be looking for us to find us. You’re not going to happen up on us, and some more good information that I got from—from another winery was when we were talking about building this building and putting this facility in we were visiting wineries. We were going to Chateau Élan, we were going to Habersham, we were going to—to Lake Ridge, you know; they’re—they’re all on major thoroughfares. They’re all in tourist towns and—and the people there were telling us location—location—location. And we knew you know that is just not going to happen here in southwest Georgia. And then we started making some rounds to some smaller wineries and one I guess he was just as far out in the woods as—as we are out in central Alabama and he thought—
Morgan Creek; you know he told us—said hey you be the destination. You know don't—don't let those come in and—and tell you that. And you know as our friendship grew with Chautauqua and—and George you know I posed that question to him and they are—you pull off an exit ramp of I-10 and you turn in their driveway. And you—you may not be able to put this on here but all he says—you don't want those; they just pee on the floor and steal the toilet paper. [Laughs]
He said you—you need to build a base and he said everybody that passes by here is saving their money on their way to Biloxi or they’re coming home broke. We’re not making our living from this interstate. And but you know location has a lot to do with it; you know Habersham there in Helen get a lot of visitors every year. And they’re—they’re doing great with that up there. Chateau Elan, they’ve created their own place there and it’s absolutely beautiful. We can't do that; you know it’s just economically not feasible for us to do it and—but we—when we see a car coming we know they’re coming to see us [Laughs] and it’s a good possibility he’s coming here to buy wine.
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
Subject: Charlie Cowart
Date: August 26, 2008
Location: Still Pond Winery, Williamsburg, Georgia
Interviewer & Photographer: John T Edge
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John T Edge: I’m here with Charlie Cowart, at Still Pond Winery.
Charlie Cowart: I was born in 1981, lived here all my life. I’ve grew up out here, spent the summers out here with my grandfather. Actually this is pretty much the only job I’ve ever had, so besides leaving and going to college and I would come home and help. I always helped during the summer, so this—this is all I know.
So in 2003 you returned from college and that’s the same year y’all started making wine—according to your father?
Yes, yes; like I say it all runs together. We’re so far in the middle of nowhere we—we don't—we gauge everything by when we harvest, when we’re setting fruit, you know when it’s hot and cold I guess but yes that’s the year we started making wine. I believe we started selling—had the tasting room and started selling wine that year and started crushing our own fruit that year.
And tell me how one goes about making wine. If you’ve never made wine before, what—what did you do?
Well we—we spent a lot of time—or I spent a lot of time reading books. Of course I could look at a stack of books this high [Gestures] and then spend 10-minutes with someone who has done it for 10 years and you could learn more. And that’s mainly what—the way we learned is—. Of course we’ve been selling fruit to other wineries ever since my grandfather started the vineyard; even though we were mainly fresh fruit sales—we still sold some fruit to wineries. And we had become friends with those winemakers at those wineries and went and spent time with them and they were very, very nice to give us information you know.
They said hey there’s no secret to making good wine; they said you know I’ll tell you how to do it. It’s like—it’s like a picture; I can tell 10 people to paint this picture and it’s going to be 10 different pictures, so—. And so we went and I had their cell phone numbers, their home phone numbers, and you know of course it was—it was very tense around harvest time when it was we have to do something. We had the plan worked out in our head but it never goes the way you have it worked in your head. So and knock—knock on wood, now we pretty much can stand on our own feet. We—we know it pretty good enough where—where we’re on our own but thanks to those other winemakers. The first two—three years of us making wine, if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be this far right now. They were very generous with their information.
Before we got into wine we—our family really wasn’t big wine drinkers and—and you know we—the wineries that we sold grapes to they would send us some bottles or we’d go visit and get bottles and we’d drink it and we loved it. You know it—it was—of course it was all muscadine wine.
And still to this day that’s pretty much the only wine I’ll drink. I’ll try other wines, but I just you know don't have a desire to and—and I think that’s what has helped us to develop our brand the way it is now. You know our wine is—is not for the wine snob out in California who likes to drink vintage merlots or chardonnays. Our wine is for the simple Southern, you know—for a Southerner who—who likes muscadine grapes, likes the way it tastes, who you know isn't—isn't going to turn his nose to something just because it’s from the South in other words, you know who will appreciate it.
Like—like my father says all the time; we were raised on Coca Cola and Sweet Tea so we—so we like a sweeter wine, even though we—we do make dry muscadine wines. So—but most people when they hear Muscadine they automatically assume granddaddy’s backyard and the milk jug—super sweet. And that’s not so and that’s something we’re trying to prove that you know a Muscadine can be a good wine, can be appreciated no matter who you are, you know. It’s—it can be dry, sweet, semi-sweet—however you make it.
It—it seems that you know and this seems to be the case no matter if you’re talking about vinifera grapes or—or native grapes that people talk about dry wines but what they really like are sweet wines. [Laughs]
Exactly—exactly; you know we’ll get a lot of people that—that come in and—and they’ll—they’ll say you know simply I believe because it’s one of your most popular varieties of grapes are merlot and chardonnay. Everybody knows those two wines and those two varieties. And they’ll come in and they’ll say I want similar to this, and we’ll give them our driest wine and—and they won't like it. They’ll buy the bottle of the sweet wine before they leave and that only leads you to believe that they just told you that because they—that was the only name they could think of and they were wanting—wanting you to think that they knew what they wanted. But you know a lot of people assume that all wines are bittersweet, turn your mouth inside out, but with Muscadine wines it’s not the case. And the majority of people do like a sweeter, smoother drinking wine.
And talk to me about the wines y’all make. There’s how many varieties?
Well we do 10 different wines; one seasonal wine; and we’re about to come out with a new wine, so and of course all those are made from mainly from Carlos, Noble, and Magnolia and Higgins varieties of muscadine so which a lot of people don't realize that there are other specific varieties of a muscadine grape.
And for someone of your generation making wine, who are you seeing as your consumers? Who—who is drinking your wine?
The—of course we have a very wide audience that come in the tasting room here. We—we see anyone from people my age to people my parents’ age and even older that are drinking our wine. We have a lot of people that drink our red wines because of the health benefits. There’s been a lot of research done on red muscadines and proved that they’re much higher in the resveratrol and antioxidants than your French hybrid or vinifera type grapes. So that—that has attracted a lot of our older customers to—to drinking for their health; and as far—even though the white wines are still good for you the red wines are better. And of course we—as far as coming in here, people drinking muscadine wine are just—just good ole people you know, people that—that like to drink for a cocktail but not—they’re not going home and they’re you know fixing a five-course meal and going to sip a glass of wine with each meal. They’re going home and they want a glass of wine to drink while they cook something.
And is that—I mean one thing I’m curious about is you know is there a new generation of—of wine consumer who knows vinifera grapes, knows you were talking about merlot and chardonnay and that they’re drinking both merlot and chardonnay and they’re drinking muscadine? Do you see a younger generation, your generation rediscovering muscadine as well?
I—I think so; I have quite a few friends that come out here and really love the muscadine wine you know. Of course some of my wife’s friends, they drink all different kinds of wine. They have an appreciation for all of it, so you know—you know it’s just—at certain times if they—pretty much whatever they’ve got a bottle of they’ll drink I believe [Laughs] but—but I think certain people they appreciate all wines. They’re not going—going to snub their nose at one certain wine. They you know—if it’s good, it’s good.