Winery visit-Belle Meade Plantation Winery

While visiting the Brentwood, Tennessee area we stumbled upon a plantation called the Belle Meade Plantation located in Nashville.  We decided to take a tour of the mansion and plantation.  After our guided tour was done in the mansion the guide told us that there was also a winery in the back of the mansion.  What could be better than that??  It was a surprise winery visit, and that made it even better!  We walked to the back and had a delicious wine tasting.  These were really the first "sweet" wines that I had ever had.  I thought they were very different than anything I had ever tried.  I can still taste that Red Muscadine wine.  It was so refreshing and delightful.  It was sweet and delicious.  As we all know Muscadine is a true American grape and there are still plenty of Muscadine vine that grow there at the plantation along the fence line.  We also had the Blackberry wine and the Carriage House White wine.  I did not have a wine from this winery that was bad.  It was truly a neat experience.  In fact I came home with a few bottles.  They cost around $20 each, but at the winery they have a special where if you buy a certain amount you get them for a better deal.
This winery's ideal is to recreate what was one the "premier thoroughbred racing and breeding farm in the south for over a century".  They stated that this was the center for hospitality in the 1800s.  While being hospitable they would always provide homemade wines that were made from the domestic, but also the wild, grapevines within the 5,400 acres they owned.  By starting this winery here at the Belle Meade Plantation they are trying to continue the tradition of hospitality provided more than a century ago.  Nothing is better than learning a little bit of history about the place and then getting to enjoy a beverage that probably many guests got to indulge in, in the 1800s.  I would highly recommend visiting this winery.  It is definitely a different experience from your "everyday winery".  It is just a very unique experience.  I will always remember visiting this plantation and winery.  This was one of the best things we have ever "stumbled upon". The old timey feel of the place truly just takes you back to a time when things were not as hustle and bustle.  You can sit and relax with "homemade" wine on their porches of stone buildings or anywhere around the large mansion.  They have a really good thing going with making the winery a part of the plantation and tour because it really makes you feel a part of the past obviously.

However if you are unable to visit the winery, you can still purchase the wine (which I highly recommend).  The wine itself is just as unique as the winery.  It honestly was different, in a good way, from most wine I have tasted before.