By Carrie Drury

My father has owned a boutique wine distribution company for ten years. Due to his decline in health, I took over daily operations a year ago. We are a small distribution company that works with family-owned, limited production, small batch vineyards that are unique and distinct in style, thus their name: “Boutique.”

Now that the wine is being sold in grocery stores and the fact that there are over 600,000 wine labels out there, being small and trying to compete with the larger distributors forced me to re-evaluate our portfolio. We rely on the retailers and restaurants that carry our brands to hand sell them and bring attention to them, and that unfortunately does not always happen, so we get lost in mass-produced consumer wines that are brand popular. For that reason we are working hard to bring in more spirits. We are looking for small batch bourbons, gins and rums. We have found, what I believe, is one of the best tequilas on the market in our Vikera Tequila brand and very proud to have brought it to middle Tennessee. But because we are known as a wine business, I wanted to find a “niche” wine.

Driving through downtown Franklin one day, I started thinking of how I could incorporate my new love of the wine business with the love of my hometown. Franklin has come a long way from being what it was when I was growing up here to what it is now. As I was stopped at a red light, I noticed I hardly knew a face on the sidewalk. I watched as tourists went in one store and then another. I starting thinking; what if I designed a custom wine label that would appeal to tourists and locals alike? I began writing down ideas, drawing sketches, and came up with The Franklin Historic Wine Collection, making The Battle of Franklin our first series in that collection. I found a talented graphics designer who got my vision from the start and with that, my idea took life! Never having done this before, there were a few hurdles. It’s not as easy as designing a label, placing it on a bottle and selling it to a restaurant or store. There are so many rules and regulations to follow. There were days when I just about gave up.

Once I received approval on the label, it was time to choose the wine. Thinking that was going to be the easy part, actually turned out to be a little harder than expected. At first, my thought was that we would sell the wine as a novelty - something the tourists could take back home with them from their time spent here. And that our locals would enjoy a local wine brand as well. However, I wanted the wine to be really good and not just simply “novelty” tasting wine. We spent months tasting wines and though that was, and does sound fun, it was also overwhelming. In the end, I chose a vineyard from Santa Barbara and worked extremely close with the winemaker in selecting exactly what we would bottle. I was involved in the entire winemaking process, from harvest to bottling.

My dad has always said there is a story to be found in every bottle of wine. These wines have a story. I will be so proud to see people enjoy them. Learn more about Harvest Beverage Company at harvestbeveragecompany.com and The Battle of Franklin wine collection at franklinwinecollection.com.

The Historic Franklin Wine Collection, first of many in the series, is The Battle of Franklin:

Carnton - Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 - Santa Ynez Valley, California

Eastern Flank - Pinot Noir 2018 - Santa Barbara County California

Cotton Gin Assault - White Blend 2018 - Santa Barbara County, California

Winstead Hill - Chardonnay 2019 - Santa Barbara County, California - To be released April 2020