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Pretty in Pink: While this Georgia gem celebrates a musical and historical legacy, Macon shines in its cherry-blossom showcase

It all came about because he slipped on the ice. Well, to be fair it came about because he wanted to be a doctor, but we’ll get to that. Jeffrey Leder was on one of his walks—“I’m a walker,” he says—along those slick New York City streets, when he hit a patch of ice and fell. Though undamaged, the fall sealed his desire for warmer climates, and after closing his New York gallery, Leder found himself exploring Greenville, South Carolina.

“It was love at first sight,” the longtime painter explains. After an initial encounter downtown, Leder walked (yes, walked) through the West End and into the Village of West Greenville, which happened to be celebrating First Friday.

“It confirmed this was the place for me,” Leder says.

By place, Mr. Leder means current place, as he’s experienced a myriad of places in his time. During his adolescence, Leder lived in Puerto Rico, where he was “introduced to color and flavor.” But his artistic enthusiasm held bloom until his third year at the University of Michigan. Realizing his medical studies required an elective, Leder enrolled in a watercolor course on Saturday mornings.

“I start to take the class, and I fall in love with art,” he says. “I could not get enough of it.”

Needless to say Jeffrey Leder never became a doctor. His newfound passion led him to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and then to San Juan, where at 22 years old he sold out his first one-person exhibition. By his mid-twenties, Leder was represented by the West Broadway Gallery in Soho, and the next few decades saw not only progress in paint, but also success in marketing, which exposed him to travels across Latin America and Europe.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my time,” Leder says. “Life is not beautifully fluid and peaceful, not necessarily. But this is the chance we have to do things. To affect the world in a particular way, a positive way hopefully.”

It’s an inspiring philosophy he doesn’t consciously put into his work, but perhaps finds its way there all the same. Label Leder a minimalist or reductivist—for him it’s mainly about form and color. He pulls a small notebook from his pocket, leafing through graph-lined pages, exposing hundreds of geometric drawings.

“I get into a particular groove, of angles . . .  it’s like meditation for me,” he says. “I don’t pass any judgment while I’m doing it, I let it flow out. Later on, I’ll go and choose which ones I want to develop further.”

Color choice, too, is a subconscious act, and Leder admits they don’t always work. However, while reflecting on his paintings, it’s clear each color holds its weight; the dark and the light all exude purpose. The effect is sobering, but in a peaceful way.

“It’s my understanding from reading and studying and understanding life, that we have dissonance,” Leder explains. “But we each need to take that discipline and make as much harmony as we possibly can.”

You can find Jeffrey Leder’s work at Art & Light in Greenville. He has shown at ArtHelix in Brooklyn, NY, and will be featured in a group show at the Miller Gallery in Charleston in May. For more, visit jeffreylederart.com; @jeffreylederart.

Faraway Home: A Greenville family combines their love for travel, Moroccan culture, and artisan craftsmanship into an online marketplace of refined, original wares: Broaden Goods

If you’re yearning for a quiet winter getaway after the holiday flurry, Château Élan provides the perfect respite. Just under two hours via I-85 South, the resort is a destination in itself. Based in Braselton, Georgia, Château Élan encompasses a winery, a 275-room inn and conference center, a separate spa, and a new 95-room lodge.

As you drive up to the inn, the first sight to spy is the winery, modeled after a sixteenth-century French château. In the middle of the circular driveway, the statue Dancing in Grapes, depicting a woman joyfully stomping the famous fruit, sets the mood for your stay.

The winery embodies the vision of Donald Panoz and his wife, Nancy. In 1981, the couple visited the area in search of a distribution site for Don’s company, Élan Pharmaceuticals, the nicotine patch pioneer. En route to a friend’s home, the couple paused at a roadside fruit stand to purchase a hostess gift. The chosen basket contained local muscadine grapes, leading Panoz to wonder if vinifera, or common, grapes would also thrive in the northeast Georgia foothills.

The answer, given the region’s clay soil and hot, humid climate, was a resounding “no,” but that didn’t stop Panoz. He proceeded to purchase 3,500 acres, planting 200 acres with vinifera grapes. In 1986, he opened the 42,000-square-foot winery. Now flanked by a Parisian-style tasting patio, Panoz’s winery produces 40,000 cases a year, earning the title of largest winery in the state.

A day at Château Élan begins with an American buffet breakfast at resort restaurant Versailles, located on the inn’s lower level. A set of tennis, a round of golf on one of four courses, or a workout in the on-site gym will stoke your midday appetite for bangers and mash and Guinness on tap at Paddy’s, which Panoz—who lived in Ireland for 30 years—added to quell his nostalgia for his corner pub.

Reserve the afternoon for the spa, which hides behind the inn with 35 treatment rooms and the Fleur de Lys café. A full menu of massages and body treatments includes the HydraFacial, an advanced medical-grade skin-care treatment reported to reverse your look by 10 years. Then it’s back to your room to freshen up. A French country-estate feel pervades, whether it be a spacious inn room with Gallic-inspired furnishings or one of the 14 spa suites (no work desks here), with a custom-made soaking tub.

Before dinner, pop by the winery for a “flight” (seven) of Italian winemaker Simone Bergese’s award-winning vino. When Bergese joined the staff in 2013, he replaced all the vinifera grapes with native muscadines. Today, he sources 27 vinifera varietals from California, while his muscadine wines are vinted with Georgia grapes.

End the day at Marc, the winery’s recently rebranded restaurant. Request a seat on the heated verandah overlooking vine-covered hillsides, and tuck into a Brasstown beef bistro filet or a roasted poulet rouge from Chef Cameron Udick’s menu of locally sourced, seasonal cuisine. Polish off your meal with a glass of Château Élan’s full-bodied American Port, and you, too, may be tempted to dance in the grapes yourself.

Château Élan, 100 Rue Charlemagne, Braselton, Georgia. (678) 425-0900, chateauelan.com