Nashville's hidden 'wine country' provides taste of Tennessee in whiskey barrels

Some 30 minutes south of Nashville, Arrington Vineyards is proving that good wine doesn't have to come from California.

Co-founder Kip Summers and winemaker Chase Vienneau have spent nearly two decades coaxing character out of Tennessee soil - and now, through the Fox News Wine Shop, they're sharing it nationwide.

"I toured a winery in Napa and thought, 'Wow, I think I'm in the wrong business. I need to figure out how to do this,'" Summers recalled.

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Once he did, he met Vienneau while they were working together at a small family winery north of Nashville.

Arrington Vineyards was soon born, closer to Nashville in Williamson County, where he partnered with Kix Brooks - one half of the award-winning country music duo Brooks & Dunn.

"We started the winery down here with the idea of providing a place for people to enjoy a little bit of wine country," Summers said - "but in Middle Tennessee."

That vision had its challenges.

"They are what they are here in Middle Tennessee," Summers said of the region's conditions.

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"This time of year, we've got cool nights and warm days, and a lot of dry weather. It's a lot more humid and tropical during the summer. So, for us, it kind of boils down to which grapes can we grow here successfully?"

Vienneau, who followed Summers to Arrington Vineyards in 2008, added, "It's almost impossible to grow [Cabernet] here in Tennessee.… We've obviously had to switch over to hybrids here, which still make really good wines, and they're a little more resistant to our climate here in Tennessee."

That local experimentation led to the wine now featured in the Fox News American Wine Club. Antiquity is a red blend that spends a year in used Tennessee whiskey barrels.

"The wine that's part of this Fox Wine Club is made from a grape called Chambourcin, which is well-known in Virginia and New York, and a lot of the areas in the eastern United States," Summers said.

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The result is a "really good, consistent dry red wine for us every year," he said.

"That's one of the reasons we wanted that wine to be a part of the wine club, because it really is a true representation of what we've been doing here for three years."

"It's really versatile, too, for us," Vienneau added. "We make a Ruby-style port out of Chambourcin.… We can make a dry Rosé. We've made a really nice sparkling, French-method wine out of it."

Summers said the setting is part of the appeal.

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"When we talk about us being Nashville's wine country, we're really one of the few places you can go if you're in Nashville, and if you said to yourself, 'I'd really like to go out and hang out in a vineyard and have a bottle of wine with some cheese and a charcuterie tray - and enjoy the scenery, walk among the vines and just have a nice afternoon,'" Summers said.

"We're the only place that you can do that. Our proximity to Nashville makes it a no-brainer."

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Since Arrington Vineyards is situated near Nashville and owned by a country music star, the soundtrack matters, too.

"We've been doing music on the weekends ever since we opened," Summers said. "You don't have to sacrifice the musical experience if you want to come out here on a weekend. You can do wine and music at the same time."

"It brings us all together," Vienneau added.

The Fox News Wine Shop bottle is also a chance to introduce Tennessee wine to more Americans.

"I'm just excited that people get to try - and will have an opportunity to try - really good wine from the state of Tennessee," he said.

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"It's just such an unknown on a national basis.… Tennessee whiskey is a known quantity, but Tennessee wine is just completely unknown on a national level. Just giving people that opportunity is going to be fun."

Learn more about the Fox News Wine Shop here.