BLAINE, Tenn. – In 2003, after spending their careers as mechanical engineers, Chuck and Alice Belt were either going to buy a seaworthy boat or some land. They eventually bought Alice’s uncle’s 120-acre cattle farm. They didn’t want to raise cattle. Instead, they planted grapes and opened Spout Springs Estates Winery and Vineyard.

“We learned that before prohibition Tennessee grew more grapes than they do today,” Alice said. “We thought, ‘We like wine so let’s grow grapes.’ I’m a cabernet drinker so we planted cabernet sauvignon and some chardonnay.”

Added Chuck: “We were just looking for a retirement plan. This is a pretty dumb retirement plan because it is a lot of work.

They started with a farm winery, where they grew the grapes, then took them to a bonded winery which made the wine that they could then sell on their farm.

“It’s kind of a value-added thing,” Chuck said. “We did the farm winery for a couple of years just to see if it would work for us.”

In 2006, they moved into a trailer on the property and built a beautiful house and winery with a breathtaking view of East Tennessee. It features a covered pavilion, several covered seating areas, a fire pit, and acres of lawn and trees. The winery opened in 2015.

In the meantime, they put the farm in a conservation easement in 2009. It will always remain a farm and cannot be subdivided. They don’t farm other than grapes. Chuck bales the hay and then gives it away.

Their stated mission is to redefine Tennessee vineyards and winemaking and to grow the highest quality vinifera wine grapes in the state. They have a passion for sharing knowledge with others who are interested in learning about winemaking.

They currently grow cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, chardonnay, riesling, sangiovese, stuben, and two varietals of muscadine. They make 6,000 to 7,000 bottles of wine a year. It’s hard to say which are most popular because they all sell out.

Chuck once thought that winemaking was a natural process. “If you have good grapes in the vineyard you just stand back and watch. It was hard to mess up.” He has learned that this is not the case.

Yeast is just one of the variables, he said. There are as many kinds of yeast to choose from as there are grape cultivars. The winemaker has to pick the right one, or maybe combine them. Belt has learned that by trial and error and talking with other winemakers.

Selecting the right type of wine barrel is another process. Different kinds of wood impart a different character to the wine. They have to select and order the staves and then send them to a cooperage to be made into barrels.

As with all farming, there is the weather.

“We had a late frost this year and if anything worse could have happened I don’t know what it could have been,” Chuck said. “We had a false spring so everything budded out early and then comes April. It went down to 28 degrees around the 23rd of April.”

But both believe that their efforts are worthwhile.

“We meet a lot of people, we made a lot of friends,” Chuck said. “We get a chance to minister to people. If you come here and you are torn up, broken, weary from the world, this will save you.”