At the winery, tastings and tours are offered every day. Principals and staff have collaborated with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development on a series of local TV commercials, featuring Brooks.
"The State (of Tennessee)is excited," says Christel Foley, who manages the winery and brings her bubbly and sparkling personality to bear on everything from press interviews to pouring wine for guests. "They're looking at us as a huge draw to Tennessee." The department is lining up travel writers to spread the word far and wide that's there's a new wine '" actually, a dozen new wines '" in Tennessee.
The vineyards at Arrington have yielded six white wines, five varieties of red, and a raspberry dessert wine. The whites include a Chardonnay, the Stags' White, aViognier, a Riesling, a Gewurztraminer, and a Muscat called Sweet Liberty; the reds, a Merlot, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Syrah, a dry rose (Desert Rose), and the Red Fox Red. There are 20 acres of vines on the 75-acre property; the winery also buys grapes from New York and California and other places. All the wine is made here, barreled and fermented and bottled here.
The process began in 2003, when partners Fred Mindermann and Kip Summers purchased property in Arrington with the purpose of establishing a commercial winery. Mindermann, a healthcare executive, has been a grape grower and winemaker since college in 1980; he and Summers planted a research vineyard in 2001 on Mindermann's property in Brentwood. (They named it Liberty Hill Vineyard, and their Sweet Liberty Muscat was christened in its honor.) Summers was chief winemaker at Beachaven Winery in Clarksville (TN) for a dozen years before entering the partnership.
Mindermann met Kix Brooks in church, where the sermon that day must have from the Book of Joel, which says, "the mountains shall drip sweet wine." The musician joined Mindermann and Summers, and Arrington Vineyards was formally established in 2006.
The winery's products are not yet sold in stores '" Lipman Brothers, the designated distributor, is working on a strategy '" but they can be shipped to all legal states (Tennessee's not one) and purchased at the vineyard's Tasting Lodge. Tastings are always free to those over 21, who can get a sample of every variety. Cheese and crackers are sold in the gift shop, and visitors are encouraged to bring their own picnic baskets, purchase a wine they like, and drink it outside on the deck or the lawn overlooking the splendid panorama of rolling hills.
"It's a cool place to visit even if you don't like wine," Foley says. "Kids and families are always welcome. You can sit out here and watch the sunset '" you can see for miles."
The sun is what makes the wine, of course -- "Wine is sunlight, held together by water," Galileo said '" but Kip Summers helps things along in his lab. ("There's a lot of magic to it," Foley says.)
"Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance," was the judgment of wise old Ben Franklin. "Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." A visit to Arrington Vineyards is almost like a religious experience. Kix Brooks visits all the time, and it's not unusual to see him behind the bar, pouring wine for guests. Music and wine have their affinities, after all. Some would go further, like Robert Louis Stevenson, who said: "Wine is bottled poetry."
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