POWERGRAMS

32 32 vineyard's most popular brand. A "significant amount of beach traffic" brings visitors from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. "It's probably about half Alabama and half out of state," Smith says. "It's impressive that we've had people from Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida who came to Alabama just to visit Ozan Vineyards." It takes 12-15 months to go from harvesting a ripe grape to pouring its remnants from a bottle of wine. The expanded winery has 12 stainless steel tanks ranging in capacity from 50 to 1,000 gallons. There are 45 oak barrels that, when filled, weigh 550-600 pounds and are stacked four-high on steel shelving. One machine uses air pressure to fill six bottles simultaneously, which move down a conveyer belt to a corking machine and then to equipment that places foil on the top, spins the bottle and applies each designer label. "Everything used to be kind of done by hand," Smith says. "All of this new equipment has greatly increased our production speed." Ozan recently ventured into the liquor market with Yellow Hammer Spirits, using the same winery equipment to brew and bottle vodka and whiskey. They boast it is gluten-free, made in small batches through extended distilling using the "purest spring water." The whiskey is available only at Ozan, while the vodka is in ABC Stores. "We're not Grey Goose but we're not Popov either," Smith says. "The benefit of doing this is we use a lot of the expertise we've gained with wines. It's another perk for our customers." CADLE AUCTIONS In a National Historic Places District where some of the oldest businesses have succumbed to the deaths of long-time owners or the onslaught of chain retailers, Tommie Morrison isn't about to wave a white flag. The former Calera City Council member helped the old downtown get its prestigious federal designation in 2006 and is optimistic about where it is headed. Sitting behind a vintage desk, surrounded by thousands of bits and pieces of Alabama history in a building that once housed the town's first supermarket, Morrison operates Cadle Auctions, named for her father B.H. Cadle. She is old-school Calera: Her mother, Mary Kate, taught school for four decades, while Morrison taught first-graders for a quarter-century before teaching reading the remainder of her career in Shelby County schools. The store is open Thursday through Saturday, and is equal parts museum and mercantile. Opened 30 years ago, it is headquarters for Morrison's appraisal, business liquidation, estate sale and auction ventures but also houses items as eclectic as a child's casket ("Our Darling" etched on the top), a bootlegger's tool, a barber's chair, spinning wheel, and a horse and buggy harness. Wooden cut- glass display cases from defunct stores are filled with what-nots, while rows of tables bear Desert Rose, Blue Willow and Depression glass pieces. 1940s signs advertising Coca-Cola line the back wall. "I really don't like new things because they don't have any personality – none whatsoever," she says. "The workmanship, the quality isn't there anymore. Back in the day, there were true craftsmen. Today's products are all from an assembly line." Most of the treasures within the Cadle Auctions store were taken from estate sales of the first families of Calera. Some came from barns and smokehouses Morrison saw along the backroads. She periodically keeps for herself one or two of the items, including a priceless John Rogers sculpture of Rip Van Winkle she found in an attic for $15. (Abraham Lincoln had a similar Rogers statue.) Morrison laments the loss of Baer's Department Store across the street, which had opened in 1898, as well as the barber shop, toy shop and art studio that recently shut their doors. But she sees a day when the old buildings will thrive again with restaurants and specialty stores. It may never again be the hub of Calera, she says, but downtown can be special again. "We're a long ways from being abandoned," she says. "The chain stores don't care about us. If I want a loaf of bread, they have to call corporate. The family owned stores do more for the community because they know you. Downtown is the original Calera. This is the real Calera, right here." COWART DRUGS Just like most other Calera natives past and present, Kacie White grew up roaming the aisles of Cowart Drugs on the corner of Highway 31 and 17th Avenue. Unlike practically all of the others, she ended up owning the 97-year-old company. "I had a school project in the fourth grade to interview someone I wanted to be like when I grew up," White says, noting that the owner told her after they talked that she would hire her when White turned 15 years old. White returned to work at Cowart Drugs before earning a degree at Auburn University and then graduating from Samford University's School of Pharmacy. Three years ago, owner Theresa Harris asked White if she wanted to buy the store, and after the purchase, Harris became White's employee. Founded in 1920, Cowart Drugs has always been housed in the two-story white sandstone building built as a Masonic hall in 1885 but later vacated by the Freemasons for a larger facility. A huge Masonic symbol still graces the upper front of the building that is Ozan Vineyard & Winery attracts guests from across the South, ships wine to 36 states.

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