Georgia has a wine trail. So do Florida and Tennessee. Now an Alabama trade association and a tourism group are joining the Southern ranks and adding a wine trail to Alabama’s list of attractions. Eight wineries operate in northern Alabama, and one vintner boasts that he’d put his wines up against California’s any day.
But a Baptist leader is protesting the idea of luring tourists with booze. The Rev. Robert Griffin, moderator of the Chilton Baptist Association and pastor of a Baptist church, maintains that his church is “on record as being opposed to any kind of alcohol-related industry.”
This isn’t the first alcohol incident the state has come against recently — in October, the state opened a liquor store on a Sunday afternoon in Birmingham. The governor intervened, and the agency promised it would never happen again.
This time it looks like the heathen booze-lovers won: brochures will list the eight participating wineries in Alabama. Those who visit all eight will get a special wine glass with all the logos from the wineries on it.