It was his early family life in Jamestown that introduced Fay Wheeler to vineyards, and one of its tasty by-products, wine.

 

"My father grew lots of grapes and after my mother used all she needed for juice and jelly, some would accidentally turn into wine,” Wheeler said.

 

Any Tennessee household can legally produce wine for its own use, but not for sale.

 

While pursuing a career as an Air Force intelligence officer, Wheeler was stationed in Europe for well over a decade where wine was as common as Coke in this country, his interest in wine became even more pronounced. It was then that he met his wife Kathy; a Scottish lass who worked for the British Civil Service.  "We spent our last two years in the Air Force in Europe on Crete,” he said, adding that of all the places he could choose, it would be that beautiful Greek island.

 

After retiring from the Air Force, he returned to his native Tennessee and Jamestown, taking up a second career there.  However, when the Tennessee State Legislature voted in the Grape and Wine Act in 1977 that permitted winegrowers to produce and sell wine at retail, Wheeler got interested in a new venture.

 

"The hitch was that all of the grapes had to be grown in Tennessee.  Of course, at that time, we were talking about very few grapes" he said, pointing out that the main reason for new law was to encourage more grape growing in the state.

 

The number of small home vineyards around the countryside proved that given the site and climatic conditions, good grapes and good wines could be produced in Tennessee.

 

"It takes a minimum of three years before new grapevines are ready to start producing grapes,” Wheeler said.  "I had very little experience, but I planted eight acres of grapes at Jamestown and went into the business.”

 

Wheeler said he was lucky that the weather co-operated most of the time.  Some wine grape varieties need a long growing season to ripen properly, sometimes up to 180 frost-free days.  “One late spring frost can be devastating," he said.

 

In 1980, Fay Wheeler’s Jamestown venture became the first licensed winery in Tennessee in modern times.  Most of the grapes were from his Cumberland Plateau vineyards. After ten years in business he sold sold Highland Manor and planned to give up the commercial wine business. However, he soon realized that he missed it, and wanted to continue.  He, along with his partners, opened Stonehaus Winery at the Geneses Road exit at I-40 in 1990.

Fay Wheeler is a guiding force behind Stonehaus - as well as what might be termed the "Tennessee Phenomenon" in general.  Fay is a founding father of the local wine industry, if that term is appropriate to such a young region.  Stonehaus has helped point the way towards a much more solidly-founded winery economy for the region.

 

Stonehaus’ massive tasting room sales-sales, which are beyond the usual industry performance, are no mere accident.  They are built upon two factors.  First, they required a realism about the wine potential from available grapes, a realism, by the way, filtered through a knowledgeable familiarity with the world's great wines.  Second, and equally important, they required an appreciation of the need to access the market.

 

Impressive tasting-room sales are being achieved by locating wine facilities in close proximity to inter-state off ramps.  Stonehaus is located at the Genesis Road exit of I-40 near Crossville, Tennessee.  Wheeler, however, did not rely only upon interstate access to the tasting room.  Stonehaus was designed as a mini-mall complex with adjoining shops for what Fay Wheeler calls "compatible business." Currently included in the Stonehaus complex are a gift and candy shop, an extensive antique shop, an Educational Toy Shop, and one of Crossville's most exclusive restaurants, Halcyon Days.  The concept of multi-draw retailing has been successfully applied to Stonehaus' wine marketing.

 

Interstate retail logic, of course, is not the only factor driving the ”Tennessee Phenomenon.” It was fortunate that the state's first commercial winemaker was also a knowledgeable oenophile.  Fay Wheeler spent many years in Europe and is one of the few American members of the French Ducal Ordre de la Croix de Bourgogne, dedicated to Burgundy wines, and is also a Master Knight in the American Knights of the Vine.  Fay lived in the state's experimental stage of viticulture, both as an early vineyard operator and as a board member of the Tennessee Enology and Viticulture Society that oversaw test planting in eleven sites across the state. He is also a recipient of Tennessee's prestigious Homer Blitch Award.

 

That experience taught that the Tennessee wine industry would not be based upon European varietals. The climate simply forbade it.  For example, a 20-acre planting of Cabernet and Chardonnay was recently destroyed by 10-degree temperatures following a period of 75-degree highs. Sap-filled trunks simply shattered leaving only phylloxera-resistant rootstocks to renew the vineyard.

 

Fay Wheeler realized that the industry would be based upon American varieties and French Hybrids.  He refused, however, to accept that as a limitation.  Borrowing from certain European wine traditions, especially from Bordeaux, he realized that blending could add complexity to wines.  

 

Fruit quality in the wine is critical to Stonehaus’ proprietorials. Wines achieve their character from the various fruit qualities of the constituent varietals.  Fruit is everything to this style of wine and Stonehaus' wine processing has begun to reflect that fact.

 

Using Pasco Poly cooling panels in Criterion polyethylene tanks, wines are fermented at a slow rate and at a temperature Western wineries might consider impractical, if not impossible.  Wines are slowly fermented over months, not weeks, by keeping tanks at a Consistent temperature below 50' at the mid-tank thermometers.

 

Fermentation air-locks never come off the tanks and head spaces are allowed which would be frightening in still wines.  Standard practices, such as racking, are conducted at these low temperatures; indicating- that even some settling occurs during such slow fermentations.  Fay tells us that the consistent sub-50 degree temperature even provides needed cold stabilization.  The long periods below 50 degrees apparently substitute for the lower temperatures often thought necessary to drop out tartrates.

 

The objective of this unique cellaring is better retention of fruit quality in the wine.  Stonehaus' cooperage may also aid this goal.  Stonehaus wine tanks are the white polyethylene Criterion tanks provided by Pasco Poly Tank.  Stonehaus is equipped with 57 Criterion poly tanks, which Fay Wheeler finds preferable to the stainless tanks he used in his first winery.  Research conducted at the University of Bordeaux found that poly tanks reduce wine.  That is, they eliminate the oxygen that is known to be the enemy of fruit flavors in wine.  While the chemistry of this observation is not fully understood, Fay Wheeler believes the results may be valid.  Poly may indeed help retain fruit character in wine.  While the impact of poly tanks upon fruit retention may still be speculative, other characteristics of Stonehaus' Criterion tanks are less so.  Fay says that the tanks are easier to clean and he especially likes the way the tanks easily display wine levels.  They are also much more cost effective when compared to stainless steel.

 

 

Wheeler belongs to a very active state association called the Tennessee Viticultural and Enological Society.  They are a group of people who are versed in the art of grape growing and know how to make excellent wines.  Early on they decided to do some experimentation and researched areas all over Tennessee that could be suitable for wine grapes.

 

"We found four growers with sites located at higher elevations (above, 800 ft), four growers at lower elevations, and three growers located near major TVA lakes.  They planted 100 vines of ten different varieties – everything from the finest old world wine grapes to the common Concord.  We wanted to find out which varieties would flourish in certain areas.  We even got a grant through the Department of Community and Economic Development.  Also the Department of Agriculture, and the University of Tennessee provided invaluable assistance" Wheeler said.

 

"In the period of only a decade, commercial wineries went from zero to 15 and today we have approximately 300 acres of vines growing within the state."

 

Wheeler & Nix grow only a few grapes at Stonehaus Winery.  Most of the grapes come from a grower m Portland, Tennessee. Thirty plus acres are supplying about one hundred tons a year.

 

"The McMinn county area produces some of the best Muscadine grapes around, an old southern favorite," Wheeler said.  "Muscadine is by far our most popular wine; outselling the others two to one."

 

 

While Stonehaus buys grapes from other growers, Wheeler and Nix keep a steady watch on the progress of the fruit that is purchased. "Deciding on the moment to harvest is the key," Wheeler said.  The grapes are trucked to Stonehaus Winery where they are crushed, pressed, and fermented.  For white wines it will be 1 year or less, but for reds it may be two years, before they are ready for consumption.

 

Stonehaus Winery invites you to stop by for a visit. You won’t be disappointed!