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Roo Mountain co-owners Shawn Scott and Michelle Raffaele are in their third season of grape harvesting and are already expanding their vineyard and winery operation.
At 4,151 feet above sea level, Cowpen Mountain is the highest peak in the Cohutta Wilderness Area and the ninth-tallest mountain in Georgia. And although technically in Fannin County, perhaps one of its best views is from Roo Mountain Vineyards just northwest of Ellijay.
Indeed, visitors to the new winery and its veranda-with-a-vista might imagine the range of mountains ramping up to Cowpen in the distance all holding signal fires like a scene from the Lord of the Rings trilogy — it’s that breathtaking with only a farm below and neither a subdivision nor cell-phone tower in sight.
“This was all wooded when we
bought it. We knew there was going to be a view, but we didn’t know how spectacular it was till we started clearing,” said Michelle Raffaele, who with her partner Shawn Scott built and operate Roo Mountain, Gilmer County’s newest winery. “So we cleared about seven acres and exposed a view.”
The couple finally cleared out of Florida in 2007 and bought a cabin on Lake Buckhorn further up Boardtown Road.
“We previously owned Squiggles Car Wash (in Highlands at East Ellijay) and sold it in 2018, and in the same week purchased this farm,” added Raffaele.
“We love the county, we love this side of the county, and we love Ellijay and Blue Ridge,” Scott said. “We had the property in Florida, and around 2015 or ‘16 I just didn’t want to go down there anymore … we love this part of Ellijay — there’s something about leaving downtown and going up Boardtown Road with all the cows and pastures. It’s kinda nice.”
However, to keep his partner in Ellijay full time, Scott explained there had to be a farm.
“The property was originally 222 acres, so the next step was now that we have this farm Michelle wanted to have a vineyard,” he said. “So this is her go-round; I was very selfish in previous times in the car-wash industry … (and) never really thought about Michelle. She wanted farm animals and that kind of stuff, so we have a barn down there that is set up for it.”
Preparing the vineyard
With its cleared frontage on Old Flat Creek Road, the couple knew the property would be ideal for a vineyard.
“We searched for a viticulturalist … (and) reached out to Fritz Westover out of Texas, but although he works with other wineries in the area he was not taking any new clients at the time,” said Scott. “Michelle begged him to at least come and take a look at the property. So he came and looked at it, and we told him what our vision was — and he saw it. He said, ‘I’m going to take you guys on.’ The beauty part with Fritz is that he usually goes into a vineyard after they’ve been having issues because they don’t know how to fix them, but for us it was from the ground up.”
Next, sonar mapping and soil tests were carried out on the rolling terrain to “nail down the pasture as a potential site for the grapes,” Scott shared.
“We learned the elevation at 1,700 feet above sea level was ideal,” he continued. “After two years of testing, infrastructure and deciding what to plant, we put in the first vines in 2020. We were fortunate to harvest the following year in 2021 and 2022, so this (autumn) will be our third harvest since we put the vines in.”
Along with Westover’s help, Scott and Raffaele tended the vines for the first two years. In 2022, they hired a vineyard manager, Eraldi Trifka, from Montaluce Winery in Dahlonega.
While Trifka began to manage the vineyard, the couple continued to work on their home on the property and also started clearing ground for their rooftop garden tasting bar and veranda. Then, work commenced on the winery facility in the basement.
“We ran into some challenges (with the winery) because we wanted this building to be geothermal,” said Scott. “It’s an extremely efficient building since we built it into the hillside.”
Although Scott contracted Covid and was hospitalized four days at the inception of the pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020, it didn’t stop work on the property and their vision.
“We currently grow four varieties of grapes– Petite Verdot, Merlot, Petite Manseng and Chambourcin,” Raffaele noted. “So (Westover) advised us on what root stock to graft the varieties on to, and that controls the vigor and how fast they grow. And the trellis system, everything’s full-on VSP (vertical shoot position). Currently we have six acres in grapes. We’ve just purchased another 27 acres, and we’re going to be growing and expanding our vineyard.”
Catering to adults
Unlike some other wineries in the mountain region that bill themselves as family-friendly, Roo Mountain is “doing something different with our 21 and over age restriction,” Raffaele said. “We are offering some family events, but for the most part the tasting room is 21 and over. I think that that has been widely received. People are very excited about it.”
Scott admits there has been some “blow-back” to the adults-only constraint.
“But it’s very few and far between,” he said. “People will generally go on Google and leave a one-star review based on the (21 and over) policy. They can’t bring their kids, so they leave a one-star review. But they haven’t been to the venue, and they haven’t seen it or tasted any wines.”
“We really want it to be an adult atmosphere here,” Raffaele emphasized. “There’s plenty of other wineries that are family-friendly. We welcome dogs, but for the most part we want it to be an adult experience.”
“We’re bringing people on little by little because you know how hard it is to find employees right now, they’re jumping around so often,” Scott said. “We’re lucky enough to have great employees; we treat them like family and pay them extremely well so they stay with us. That’s kinda where we are today.”
And there’s always that view.
“People have their drinks and when they’re finished for the evening or getting ready to leave, they always go over there (to the edge of the veranda) and take pictures, family photos, with the mountains in the background,” Scott shared.
“Some people stay through the storms too, and after the storm comes through it’s beautiful with the clouds going back up into the sky. People just have a great time here, this property’s got a really good vibe to it. We had people here from Big Door Vineyards in Woodstock (recently), and they’ve said people are talking about you guys. All the way over in Murphy (N.C.) we’re hearing the same thing. It’s kinda just spreading organically, I guess you could say.”
“We have spectacular sunsets, and the view is spectacular in the fall,” Raffaele chimed in.
So how did the name come about?
“The name Roo comes from Rooster,” Scott began. “The previous owner gave us the deeds going back to the very first deed on this property, which is the Cherokee Indians when they were rounded up. I think they were doing 175-acre lots in that lottery, so we’ll blow (the maps) up and put them in the new building so that people can be looking at that. The rooster was a symbol of good fortune and the start of a new day and all that good stuff.”
Following a tour of the facility Raffaele said with a smile, “You have to love this industry because it consumes you.”
Added Scott, “There’s never a day off!”