This feature is a question-and-answer session with a new Blount County Chamber member. So, here we go with our 178th installment visiting with Jonathan Ball, chief operating officer of the Gatlinburg/Townsend Wine Trail, which enhances cooperative marketing for the wineries along the trail and offers guests who visit VIP access to see what winemaking is all about.
Describe more about the wine trail: Our wine trail is a great opportunity for customers to visit and sample what Tennessee Wine is all about! Each winery along the trail offers their own uniquely crafted wines and is owned/operated independently. Many of the wineries even use locally grown grapes right from Blount County!
How did you get started? Originally, we started helping another wine trail kick off in 2009 and thought of bringing the idea to Gatlinburg/Townsend. It’s such an incredible thing to see what should be “competitors” working together to promote each other. And the result is a rising tide raising all ships.
What is your background? After graduating at Maryville College. I started dragging hoses and crushing grapes at Hillside Winery in Sevierville during their harvest crush in 2009. Learned the trade to a small degree and then went on to learn how to take people through a wine tasting and explain all the nuances of wine. Found that marketing was my favorite area and started to branch out from there.
Describe your customers: Anyone who is even remotely interested in learning about wine all the way to true wine connoisseurs! Most of our customers have never tried wine before and every winery along the trail loves to educate and help simplify what many feel is a complicated art – sampling and enjoying wine.
Who is your mentor? Don Collier, owner of Mountain Valley Vineyards in Pigeon Forge TN, has been a true mentor to me over the last 14 years. He started his winery in 1991 and went on to open 5 more. In the last two decades he has been President of the Tennessee Farm Winegrowers Alliance 6 times.