Nashville Wineries: A Wine Lover's Guide

Wine lovers can visit six Nashville wineries and tasting rooms inside the city: Belle Meade Winery, City Winery, Grinder's Switch Winery, Amber Falls, Natchez Hills, and Love and Exile in East Nashville.

Here's the distinction many guides miss: a winery, a vineyard, and a tasting room are not necessarily the same place. Some Nashville businesses produce wine locally, while others pour bottles from vineyards elsewhere in Tennessee. Knowing the difference spares you disappointment if you're expecting rows of grapevines.

Which Nashville Wine Experience Should You Choose?

Each of the six stops gives you a different reason to visit.

Belle Meade Winery: Wine, History, and an Important Admission Detail

Start with the place that has two stories to tell.

Belle Meade Winery occupies part of the Belle Meade Historic Site, which developed as a nineteenth-century thoroughbred horse farm and plantation. The site's historical interpretation also examines the lives and labor of the enslaved people who lived there.

Do you need a historical tour ticket to taste wine?

No. A Grounds Pass starts at $24 and includes a brief tasting of four selected wines, plus access to the estate grounds, wine garden, and games court. This pass or another Belle Meade ticket is required to enter the tasting room, where you can buy wine by the glass or bottle.

Historical tours, such as the 45-minute mansion tour, start at $32 and require their own booking, so don't assume a wine experience includes the house.

For a longer tasting, the $65 Wine & Food Pairing serves five wines with small seasonal appetizers, and the $75 Wine, Bourbon & Food Pairing adds a bourbon pour and a bourbon cocktail to three wines. Both pairings last about an hour and are open only to adults 21 or older. Start times vary by day of the week, so pick an available slot when you book.

For a meal, the estate has a Meat & Three restaurant, open daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Fox Run Café, which opens Friday through Sunday.

City Winery Nashville: Wine Production in an Urban Setting

This is the winery where you can ask about fermentation.

City Winery, close to downtown, makes its wine on site in Nashville from grapes grown in top growing regions across the United States. Its Nashville winemaker, Michelle Foletta Bell, is known for wines aged in whiskey barrels.

A useful question to ask during a tasting

Where did these grapes grow, and where did the wine undergo fermentation? The first answer tells you about the fruit, and the second tells you about the winemaking.

City Winery offers guided tastings of five wines on Saturdays and Sundays, generally between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. If you'd rather compare wines on your own, the restaurant offers $20 flights of four seasonal wines.

If you want to see production, look for the harvest-season tours. They take you into the cellar as winemaking is underway and include a tasting and a cheese board, but they run only on set dates, so check the current calendar.

Grinder's Switch Winery: Taste Tennessee Wines at Marathon Village

A former automobile factory now has a wine counter.

Grinder's Switch has poured wine at Marathon Village since 2015, and you taste it at a 22-foot barnwood bar. The original winery and its 7-acre vineyard sit on a 110-acre family estate in Centerville, in Hickman County, and the Nashville room brings those wines into the city.

The name has a Grand Ole Opry connection. Grinder's Switch, a railroad switch near Centerville, became the fictional hometown of Minnie Pearl, the comedy character created by Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, who grew up in Centerville.

Two ways to taste

• For an informal visit: General tastings are walk-in only, with a flight of four wines for $10 or all eight for $20.
• For a food pairing: Reserve a private tasting to sample eight wines paired with cheeses from The Bloomy Rind, Goo Goo chocolates, and seasonal accompaniments.

Wine slushies are available to go.

Amber Falls: Tennessee Wine Inside Opry Mills

You can fit a wine tasting into a shopping trip here.

Amber Falls Winery grows grapes and makes wine on its property in Hampshire, and its Opry Mills tasting room, the only winery inside the mall, brings those wines to Nashville. It also makes a practical stop before a show at the nearby Grand Ole Opry.

• Drop in for a guided tasting, or arrange a private one in advance.
• Order wine by the glass at any time the room is open.
• Look for WineTeaZers, a blend of wine and tea sold in refillable growlers.

Natchez Hills at The Hermitage: Wine Beside a Presidential Home

History and wine share the same address here.

Natchez Hills, whose main vineyard is in Hampshire, operates a tasting room at Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, with indoor and outdoor seating that overlooks the property. The 1,120-acre site interprets Jackson's life, the plantation economy, and the experiences of enslaved people.

The tasting room opens daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and walk-in tastings start at $6 for five wines. You can also order wine by the glass, bottle, or flight, along with local craft beers on draft.

What your Hermitage ticket adds

• A Grounds Pass gets you a discount on a three-wine tasting.
• The VIP and In Their Footsteps tours get you a discount on a premier five-wine tasting.

Ticket benefits can change, so confirm them when you book.

Love and Exile: An Urban Winery With a Neighborhood Bar

This is the stop for wine with dinner.

Love and Exile makes all its wine in-house in East Nashville and serves it in a bar-and-restaurant setting. Its seasonal kitchen sends out shareable plates such as stuffed mushrooms, poutine, and whipped goat cheese.

The bar has couches, lounge seating, and fireplaces, and the patio has fire pits. Happy hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and all night on Mondays. Bottles are also for sale if you want to take a favorite home.

Three Questions That Make Any Wine Tasting More Interesting

You don't need technical vocabulary to learn something meaningful from a tasting.

1. Is this a single-variety wine or a blend? A single-variety wine mainly highlights one grape, while a blend combines several, and that can change its aroma, acidity, body, or finish.
2. Is the sweetness coming from residual sugar? Fruit aromas can make a dry wine seem sweet, so smell alone isn't a reliable guide.
3. What food changes the wine's character? Acidic wines can cut through rich foods, while tannic reds often feel softer with protein and fat. To test it, taste a wine before and after a small piece of cheese.

Can You Visit Several Nashville Wineries in One Day?

Yes, but geography and the type of tasting matter.

City Winery sits just south of downtown, Grinder's Switch lies a short distance west, and Love and Exile is across the Cumberland River in East Nashville. Belle Meade lies to the southwest, while Amber Falls and Natchez Hills are east of downtown, with Natchez Hills farther away.

If you're deciding how you'll move around when visiting several tasting rooms, sort them by area and check how long each tasting lasts, since a quick flight and a private food pairing need very different amounts of time.

For example, on a Saturday or Sunday you could start with a flight at Grinder's Switch, join the guided tasting at City Winery, and finish with dinner at Love and Exile. If Belle Meade or Natchez Hills is on your list, plan the day around that historic site rather than adding several more stops.

Before You Order Your First Flight

This short checklist is specific to Nashville's wine scene.

• Belle Meade: Are you heading to the right entrance? The site's listed address is 5025 Harding Pike, but the arrival address for visitors is 110 Leake Avenue.
• City Winery: Have you booked the guided tasting through Resy? Walk-ins are welcome only when there's room.
• Grinder's Switch: Are your plans firm? A private pairing needs 48 hours' notice to cancel.
• Amber Falls: Have you confirmed today's closing time? Weekday hours at Opry Mills can vary.
• Love and Exile: Are you going for a late glass? The bar stays open until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
• All locations: Do you have a valid ID? You must be 21 or older to drink, and you'll need a sober way home so no one drives after drinking.

Nashville's Wine Scene Rewards Curiosity

Nashville's wine scene offers experiences that have little in common with one another. In one city, you can learn how an urban winery works, try Tennessee wines in a former car factory, enjoy a glass at a historic estate, and end the night over dinner in East Nashville.

As you sip, notice which grapes and styles you enjoy most. Those discoveries can help you choose your next bottle, from a local winery or one farther away.