Local Winemaker Celebrates 30th Harvest Season
The Master Winemaker for the Rocky Top Wine Trail has been harvesting Tennessee grapes since before he could even drive a car. With the conclusion of this harvest season this week, Doug Seitz will have successfully completed his 30th grape harvest and wine vintage! Just in 2014 alone, Doug and his winemaking staff of five crewmembers have created more than a dozen new and seasonal wines for the enjoyment of the 70,000+ customers on the wine trail along with the regular 75 wines they keep year round.
Doug’s career began in Middle Tennessee in 1984 at the age of thirteen. His journey back to the Rocky Top Wine Trail detoured through Ohio and Illinois before he and his wife Kari settled down in Maryville with their three children. As past President of the Tennessee Farm Winegrower’s Association Doug developed strong relationships with dozens of vineyard owners across the State of Tennessee; the five wineries on the Rocky Top Wine Trail alone crush between 800,000 and 1.4 million pounds of Tennessee grapes annually.
Making local wine with local grapes in the Volunteer State naturally involves the processing of Muscadines. Late Jefferson County vineyard owner Troy Perrin shared his secret for making great Muscadine with Doug a few years before Troy succumbed to cancer. Doug tweaked his own recipe, and Perrin’s legacy continues on the Rocky Top Wine Trail, where more than thirty percent of all of the wine produced is Muscadine-based. Doug can often be heard to say that “you can just be a winery in the South, but to be a true ‘Southern Winery’ you need to make good Muscadine wine.”
The more than 70 varieties of wine available at Eagle Springs Winery, Apple Barn Winery, Hillside Winery, Mountain Valley Winery, and Sugarland Cellars Winery range from dry reds that appeal to Pinot Noir lovers to Italian-style sparkling wines and sweet fruit wines made from blueberries, blackberries, and cherries. All these wines have been inspirations from Doug’s long career as a winemaker.
