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(865) 745-2902

Our Winery

Tank Room | Wine Testing Laboratory | Scientific Quality Control Processes

Open in 2015, The Winery at Seven Springs Farm is one of the newest and most state-of-the-art wineries in Tennessee. Our selection of onsite-produced wines is varied, containing dry, semi-dry, and sweet. You’ll love the expertly balanced wines Nikki Riddle and Michael Coombs have crafted.

View Our Selection
Taste Our Wine
Come View Our Tank Room

There is always something new to learn about wine. It can be a great hobby. We are proud to show off our facility and talk about wine making in more depth.

Bring a jacket. It is cold inside, just like a cave — 58 degrees F. This is the best temperature for storing wine because it limits microbial growth. Everything inside our state-of-the-art winery is engineered to control the environment necessary to produce the best wine possible, from the ground up.

Sanitation

Our winemakers believe that proper sanitation in incredibly important in creating great wine. As a result, everything in the Tank room can be washed and sanitized.

  • The walls are made of PVC so they can be easily washed down.
  • The lights and plugs are waterproof.
  • The stainless steel tanks can be easily washed and sanitized. We wash and sanitize every time we use a tank, before and after it is emptied or filled. We climb inside to clean.
Equipment
  • Stainless Steel Tanks. Six 510-gallon. Stainless steel imparts no flavor to the wine like plastic can. These were manufactured by Vance Metal Fabricators in New York who worked with us so that we could design them to meet our exact specifications. We designed the tanks so that they are fully jacketed so we can control the temperature during the manufacturing process.
  • Complete Laboratory. We can do all of our wine testing in-house.
Processes

Temperature Control. We run 26 degree food grade glycol to individual tanks through the pipes on the ceiling. When the temperature of a tank rises above the temperature at which we have the thermostat set, a ball valve opens and the glycol flows through the jackets to cool the tanks. Heat is a byproduct of fermentation. Keeping the wine cold helps to retain the fruity aromas and flavors to enhance your enjoyment of the wine.

Testing. It is important to test during every phase of wine production:  before you pick the grapes, during the fermentation process when the juice turns into wine, and before bottling the wine.  Testing is necessary to monitor the stability of the wine,  to help us make blending decisions, and to help us learn so we can improve for next year.

  • Grapes – We test pH, titratable acidity and brix (sugar content) to make harvest decisions.
  • Juice – We test pH, titratable acidity and brix (sugar content).  In addition, we also test yeast assimilable nitrogen (amount of food for yeast) necessary for healthy fermentations, to determine if we need to make any adjustments to the juice before fermentation.
  • After fermentation starts – We test sugar levels every day to make sure fermentation is progressing properly.
  • Before bottling.  To know when fermentation ends.
  • Red Wine.  We test and monitor malolactic fermentation in red wines.
  • All Wine.  We test sulfite levels (monthly), alcohol, titratable acidity, pH, residual sugar, volatile acidity plus many more.