Chateau Elan Winery & Resort, the resort destination and conference center located just north of Atlanta, was winner of the coveted 2001 Gold Tee Award. Chosen by thousands of readers of Meetings & Conventions Magazine the award to Chateau Elan recognizes the outstanding golf and cutting-edge meeting facilities at the 3,500 acre resort.

Meeting planners who subscribe to Meetings & Conventions magazine received blank ballots and were asked to select the golf resorts where they have had their best meeting experiences. Selections by meeting planners were by vote and based on total recall, unaided by lists of resort properties or advertisers.

Votes were based on key criteria including: overall service, the finest golf courses, creative food and beverage services and an overall spectacular meeting experience. Chateau Elan recently completed a $5 million comprehensive program designed to provide its conference group and incentive guests with cutting-edge high-speed internet access at its 25,000 square foot Conference Center, while upgrading the resort's physical property and resort amenities.

The strategic initiative with Virginia-based Core Communications as the provider of high-speed internet access and management solutions maintains Chateau Elan's position in the forefront of technology advances on behalf of its conference groups. With 54 holes of championship golf on three courses, each possessing signature characteristics of beauty and shotmaking strategies, individuals and participants in corporate outings will find few courses that resonate with more of a sense of sheer pleasure and challenge than the tournament quality courses at Chateau Elan.

There is even a nine hole, par three executive ``Wee Links'' walking course with landscaped holes, bunkers and small bent grass greens for those players who do not have time for the full 18 or who wish to perfect their short game and putting strokes.

The resort's centerpiece, a 16th century style French Chateau surrounded by acres of lush vineyards, houses the largest producing winery in the state of Georgia. A 276 Mobil Four-Star Inn, a 30,000 square foot European Spa with 14 suites and seven distinctive restaurants including Paddy's Irish Pub complete the unmatched resort amenities package.

Chateau Elan Winery & Resort is the national flagship property of a branded group of luxury hotels and resorts in the U.S. and Internationally including: Chateau Elan Hotel & Spa, an 81 room boutique property located on the legendary ``Hairpin Turn'' at Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, Florida; Granite Steps, a magnificently restored 1881 B&B mansion located in the Historic District of Savannah, GA; St. Andrews Bay, a new $80 million golf, resort, spa and conference center opened in June in St. Andrews, Scotland; and Diablo Grande, a 33,000 acre golf resort, winery and Spa scheduled to open 2002 in Patterson, California, about 90 miles S.E. of San Francisco.