ARRINGTON, Tenn. (WKRN) — Known as "Nashville's wine country," Arrington Vineyards offers scenic views, award-winning wines and live music.

"When we first started, there weren't nearly the wonderful options of wine and food in Nashville that there are now," co-founder and President of Arrington Vineyards, Kip Summers, said.

The site was originally a hog and cattle farm, and the first grapevines were planted in 2003.

"What we were looking for, specifically, was kind of a north-facing slope that would be really good for grapes," Summers explained. "Tennessee gets a lot of rain, so anything to kind of let the water run off the hill."

By 2007, the co-founder and president Kip Summers and musician Kix Brooks opened Arrington Vineyards. Later, they added a third partner.

"We wanted to basically create a piece of wine country — what you would expect to see when you go to wine country with the experience of vineyards and wineries — and basically put that down in eastern Williamson County and be a place that would attract people from Nashville, and Franklin and Murfreesboro and the region generally," Summers said.

Walking through the rows of vines, it is easy to see the growth — both literally and figuratively. What started as a dream turned into a destination.

"We are producing around 60 tons of grapes, so a little over 100,000 pounds of grapes, from all of these vines," Summers said.

"Word of mouth spread pretty quickly, and we became a very popular place to come to during the pandemic in '20 and '21, and that just continued in '22 and '23," Summers said. "We've grown a lot in the last five years."

Since then, the vineyard has attracted tourists from all over the world.

"I saw Arrington Vineyards and it looked really pretty," Kaydee Bass, a tourist from Texas, said. "So we were like, 'Let's make the drive and see what it is all about.'"

"We don't have a lot of this back home, so it was really cool to get to a true vineyard," a bachelorette from Texas, Aubrey Lang, said.

Eighteen years since their opening, new bud breaks mark the start of another growing season.

"It's more than just, 'Oh, that was interesting, or that was fun,' but it is something they can incorporate into their lives as a really positive memory," Summers said."[It's] a place they can always come back to reexperience."

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/on-tour-middle-tn/arrington-vineyards/