Chesser Island Winery

Our Winery

Located in Folkston, Georgia (known nationally as the Gateway to the Okefenokee), Chesser Island Winery officially started in 2005 and is committed to creating handcrafted sparkling wines in the traditional methode champenoise (a.k.a. methode traditonelle) style. The end results are unique, fruit forward, sparkling wines that honor their handcrafted creation with impressive quality. For those that prefer still wines, our winery also crafts several varieties of non-sparkling wines comprised exclusively of Georgia grown fruits. At present, we have released four sparkling wines and three still wines.

Each wine variety produced by our winery tells a story about the Okefenokee on its label. Of the 400,000 visitors to the Swamp annually, very few actually get a chance to truly experience the physical wonders of the area or learn about the incredibly rich history forged in the “land of trembling earth.” By relaying this information through our wines, the Okefenokee visitor has an opportunity to carry a little local history and a great bottle of wine home with them.

Our Heritage

Positioned on the eastern side of the Okefenokee Swamp, Chesser Island was home to many generations of Chessers that forged a living and self sustaining life off the rugged but beautiful land located in and around the Great Swamp. The Chesser Island Homestead was built in 1927 by Tom Chesser and stands today as a tribute and testament to the independent way of life and spirit of adventure expressed by Tom, his wife Iva and their seven children raised on the Island. Each bottle of wine has a sketch of the Homestead on the label in honor of Tom and his family’s faith, hard work and extinct way of life.

Our Process

Once our base wine is created using the best fruits in Georgia, traditional French champagne techniques are employed in creating magic in each bottle of sparkling wine. This process is very time consuming and labor intensive as each wine is handled an average of 20 times before being handled one last time by the ultimate consumer.

The secondary fermentation used to create the millions of wonderfully tiny bubbles in each bottle occurs naturally in the same bottle that the wine is sold. Other less expensive and easier techniques could be used but we believe the quality of the final product would suffer. Hard work should not stand in the way of a quality product.