Discover The Rocky Top Wine Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains

Hillside Winery is the perfect way to start your Smoky Mountain adventure. Its red roof and wrap-around porch are a sure giveaway that fun is about to commence. Once inside, you’ll notice a large retail space to sip and shop or for your designated driver to peruse while you head back to the tasting room to savor. Banked by a bird’s eye view of the wine making process, the tasting room offers limited free tastings seven days a week. Make sure to try the bubbly sweet Muscadine Spumante wine which is made with 100% Tennessee Muscadine and sports a beautiful Pipevine Swallowtail on its label. On top of it all, they buy nearly 80% of their fruit locally.

Producing apple-based wines onsite since 1994, Apple Barn Winery is just across the road from the Little Pigeon River and is part of a whole apple mecca of sorts. On the hill behind the winery, there is a trellised orchard of four apple varieties – Jonathan, Macintosh, Granny Smith and Winesap. After crushing the apples and blending them with juice and yeast, the fermentation process begins. The dry apple wines are aged up to a year in American, Hungarian and French oak barrels, while the sweet ones are fermented in stainless tanks up to 60 days prior to bottling. Unlike grape-based wines, apple wines do not require lengthy periods of aging.

Mountain Valley Winery opened in 1991 and is Tennessee’s largest winery. Just beyond the Titanic Museum headed toward Gatlinburg on the right, you can’t miss the flagstone rotunda from the road. Scoot on in to the tasting room to sample a host of French and German-style sweet wines. Try the Mountain Valley Red which has been their most popular wine since the winery’s inception and is made with 100% Tennessee concord grapes and other native varieties. They offer several gift baskets filled with wine and cheese for purchase or you can select your favorite combo to be enjoyed out back on their patio. Free tours of the production facility are available noon to 5 p.m. every day.

The Apple Barn Dessert Wine Shoppe is a unique stop for wine enthusiasts. Located in the Apple Barn Village in Sevierville, you'll find apple brandy-fortified dessert wines that are rich and indulgent. Stop in for a sample including fan favorites like Apple Pie, Blueberry and Blackberry dessert wine.

Home of the unique and world-famous cotton candy wine, Gatlinburg Winery creates sweet wine flavors you won't find anywhere else. Cotton candy wine comes in original (a sweet grape wine with a push of vanilla), blueberry and peach flavors. The winery also has a white wine Mountaingria that has splashes of mango, peach and lemon flavors; Key lime cheesecake that is sweet, creamy and refreshing; a muscadine Great Smoky Red and the sparkling Mystic Moonlight with a hint of honeysuckle.

Enjoy some time on the patio and sipping local wine at the family owned and family grown winery, Tennessee Mountain View Winery. Set against the Great Smoky Mountains, you'll find one of the largest selections of wines including sweet, semi-sweet and dry wines. Try an assortment of four wines paired with local cheeses or savor a local cheese board with your wine of choice, featuring three different cheeses, three salamis, sweet fig spread and a variety of crackers. It's a great way to spend a long afternoon in the mountains.

While traveling the Rocky Top Wine Trail, you may want to stop for a bite to eat. There is Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant, conveniently down the road from Apple Barn Winery. Housed in an expanded 1870s farmhouse, the restaurant was started in 1986 and still retains its home-sweet-home charm to this day. It’s why so many folks have made frequent returns for more than 30 years in an attempt to relive fond childhood memories. The restaurant is divided into several rooms much like the old house, but with two special tables outfitted with porch swings on the original porch. There’s always a wait for these, but folks don’t seem to mind. No matter where you sit, apple fritters are served with apple butter sourced from next door at the Apple Barn and Cider Mill along with non-alcoholic juleps as complimentary starters all day, every day. Don’t miss the Famous Fried Chicken or maybe Momma’s Country Meatloaf is more your jam. Regardless, save room for apple cobbler.

A great way to end your day is with dinner at Anakeesta. Escape the hustle and bustle of downtown Gatlinburg by hopping aboard the world’s only chondola which is half chair lift, half gondola. You’ll ride up the mountain for about 20 minutes before experiencing what can only be called nature’s ultimate theme park and a first-rate, open-air dining hall, Cliff Top Grill and Bar. Sip on a local beer paired with perhaps a burger sourced from farms in the area, all while soaking up those stunning panoramic views.