North Georgia has become one of the finest wine producing regions on the east coast. There are over 20 vineyards and wineries in the area, each providing its own variety of wine which creates some of the most interesting images of the "taste" of fine wine. This may be the Peach State, but grapes are their passion, and the clusters in their vineyards produce award-winning wines, which are gaining national recognition and fueling the emergence of North Georgia as a prominent wine region. The Blue Ridge mountains combine the perfect terrain, soil, drainage, and elevation necessary for the vineyards to produce wines that reveal this “sense of place,” or terroir, which separates their wines from those made in other geographically diverse regions. The soil composition is very much like that of Italy’s Piedmont region, which produces some of the most prestigious wines in the world.