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Certain cities have reputations as being the center of the action for certain endeavors. Professional gamblers go to Las Vegas, would be stage actors go to New York City to be near Broadway, and country music song-writers go to Nashville, Tennessee. Sure, you can still be successful in those careers in other cities, but there’s no substitute for being in the center of the action.

Nashville, Tennessee, is home to the Grand Ole Opry, the undisputed Mecca of the country music world. The list of performers who starred on the Opry stage reads like a who’s who of the country music world. Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Roy Acuff, and Patsy Cline all appeared there and were well-received.

One notable performer, though, was practically booed off the stage after his first and only appearance at the Grand Ole Opry. After his show, it is said, the Opry’s manager told him to give up singing and go back to truck-driving. The angry young guitar player stormed out and vowed never to return. He never did, though he went on to become possibly the biggest music name of all time. That young man was Elvis Presley.

In Hollywood, they say, there are no waiters or waitresses. There are only actors and actresses making ends meet while waiting for their big break. The same can be said of Nashville. If a big name record producer sits down at any restaurant table in Nashville, chances are they’ll have one or more demo tapes from the restaurant staff in their hands when they leave.

For those hoping to make it in the country music industry, the proximity and access to other country music professionals in Nashville, Tennessee is an irresistible draw. Even country music fans make regular pilgrimages to the city known as the country music capital of the world. Such attractions as The Country Music Hall of Fame, The Music Valley Wax Museum and the Wild Horse Saloon are must see destinations for both fans and future stars of the country music world.

The number of record companies and record producers in Nashville is probably the highest of any place in the United States on a per capita basis. Those with a song and a dream won’t find any place that offers a better chance of getting in the door for an audition or getting the song they wrote heard by a bona fide country music star.

It’s possible to make it in country music without starting in Nashville, but if you do make it onto the country music charts, you’ll end up there eventually.

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When you think about the South and Atlanta in particular, several images most often come to mind: Spanish moss swaying gently in the breeze draped over live oak branches, mint juleps and iced tea being sipped in the shade on covered porches, and great antebellum mansions surrounded by cotton fields a la Gone With the Wind.

Some of those images are still found in Atlanta today but the beautiful antebellum mansions are rare beauties indeed. Antebellum means “before war” and is most often used to denote the time before the American Civil War. In the war, Atlanta was a major city in the Confederate States of America, and provided essential war supplies to the South’s effort. Atlanta had been an affluent Southern city funded with cotton and rice profits and was considered one of the cultural hubs of the South. Elaborate great houses ringed the city and the surrounding land. Once the war started, it was a very different scene in Atlanta.

The city elders and the Confederate leadership itself understood Atlanta’s vulnerability to Union attack. Shutting down the war machine in the city would be a huge strategic and confidence blow to the South. The inevitable finally happened in September 1864. The movie Gone With the Wind chronicles the invasion of Atlanta by the North. The city was evacuated and surrendered. The Union forces then made the city a base of operations for two months. When they left to continue the infamous “March to the Sea”, Union General William Sherman ordered the city burned to the ground. The vast majority of the city’s houses and mansions were rendered to black ash. Only the hospitals and churches were spared.

Today, few mansions built before the Civil War survive although many were built after the war in the “antebellum style”. In fact, only six Atlanta residences of any description that were built before the war still exist today. The spirit of the Antebellum period was kept alive, however, and many mansions were built between 1880 and 1930. These unique showpieces display varying blends of pre-war and Victorian sensibilities. Some have become museums over time, but many still remain in private hands.

Southern mansions in Atlanta almost invariably share common characteristics. While these are considered quaint and ornamental in today’s light, they were practical in the early part of the past century. Deep covered porches that run the across the full width of both the front and back of the house gave residents and visitors respite from the hot humid days of summer. East and west facing windows allowed a breeze to flow through the house during hot spells and allowed the warmth of the sun in on chilly winter mornings. If you look up at the ceiling of the covered porch, you may still see the original paint color, called “haint blue”, that residents believed would keep out evil spirits- or “haints”.

Southern mansions in Atlanta still give those passing by a taste of life in a more genteel time.

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One of the most intriguing qualities about wine is that the grapes that produce the best wines in the world cannot be grown everywhere. The wines of each particular region have specific qualities derived from the grapes of the area. The grapes themselves can have vastly different characteristics that come from the soil, the rain and the micro-climate. The same grape grown in five different locations around the world will produce fundamentally different wines. The culmination of the environmental inputs into a grape’s qualities is called terroir. Each region’s terroir establishes the essence of their wines. The history of each wine region is also part of the charm of the wine that it produces.

One of the largest determinates of a great wine growing region is its soil. Different wine grapes appreciate different soils. Many grapes originating from France, such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot thrive best in limestone soil. German varietals prefer a more acidic soil that contains slate.

The California wine growing region is certainly younger than many of the great European vineyards, but it has a microclimate that produces some of the best wines in the world. While the most famous wine-making regions in California lie to the north including the world-famous Napa Valley, Southern California is beginning to become recognized as outstanding wine region in its own right.

There are seven distinct Appellations in Southern California- areas whose names are widely recognized and protected to ensure the quality of the wines. The Southern California wine region encompasses over 350,000 acres of land and over 40 wineries.

What makes this region ideally suited to wine production is the microclimate produced by its proximity to the Pacific Ocean. The ocean acts as a temperature modulator and gives off heat to protect against the cold as well as cools off hot summer days. This allows the grapes to grow without experiencing extremes of temperature and produces a grape that has a balance of sugar and acid as it ripens.

The soil of Southern California also plays a large part in the nature of its wines. There is a variety of soil types in the region that produces many variations in wines. The most common soil type is granitic. Granite permeates the soil today in the foothills of Southern California as the outcome of erosion of the Sierra Nevada range. Granitic soil provides good drainage and little nutrients, which is important for great wine grapes. The lack of nutrients forces the vines’ roots to burrow deep into the soil to find moisture and “food”. The depth and complexity of this root structure gives the grapes a robust and hearty character.

Southern California wines are coming into their own in the past few years, stealing medals from more established regions. While Zinfandel is the wine most closely associated with California, the southern region also produces world-class French, German and Italian varietals with a uniquely California complexity. The perfect confluence of earth, air, and sky create some of the most memorable wines that deserve their place on the world stage.