Sommelier Talk: Running Blackberry Mountain, a Fine Wine Paradise in the Smokies

At the sequel to Tennessee's Blackberry Farm, Logan Griffin has built a wine cellar worth traveling for

Devoted fans of Blackberry Farm have a hard time imagining any place that could beat the hospitality and beauty of this bucolic eastern Tennessee retreat, a luxury destination globally renowned for its wine and food. But the Farm has a rival of its own design: sister resort Blackberry Mountain.

Opened in 2019 just seven miles from the original and perched high in the Smoky Mountains on 5,200 acres, the property boasts equally refined luxury, unparalleled vistas and an ambitious wine program helmed by Logan Griffin. A longtime Blackberry Farm sommelier, he has risen to the challenge of building a cellar with first-class pedigree, yet differentiated from the original's famous 150,000-bottle collection.

The seeds for Griffin's hospitality career were planted early, while he was growing up in Pennsylvania and helping his parents prepare food for their catering business in their home kitchen. He got his first restaurant gig at 15 and went on to study at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He joined the Blackberry Farm team in 2011, where he worked closely with its legendary founder, the late Sam Beall, and wine director Andy Chabot.

After Beall's tragic death, the family felt it was important that those who knew him well instill his legacy and spirit into the new property, so Griffin was tapped to develop and run the wine program. As the Mountain has grown, from a handful of luxury rooms to 75, so has the cellar, from 100 selections to over 1,100 overseen by a team of eight sommeliers.

While the Farm has held Wine Spectator's Grand Award since 2006, together the Blackberry properties comprise one of the country's most impressive and extensive wine programs, with a total value of approximately $10 million.

Wine Spectator senior editor Kristen Bieler sat down with Griffin at Blackberry Mountain over a bottle of 2013 Georges Vernay Condrieu Coteau de Vernon to talk about his favorite bottles, the best region for wine values and the wine trend he wishes would disappear.

Wine Spectator: How is your wine and spirits program at Blackberry Mountain distinguished from the Farm?

First, our spirits offerings are different: The Farm stocks hundreds of different Bourbons, while we have extensive selections of agave spirits, gins and amaros. Our cellar is smaller—we have 8,500 bottles while they have 150,000—and we have a different focus, as well. You will find more traditional selections there, and here we have many lesser-known, more cerebral bottles. We are about 60 percent Old World, with a strong focus on Rhône, Champagne, Burgundy and many derivatives of those wines from New World regions. And I love introducing guests to new wines from France's Jura region or Greece.

We are looking for family estates—preferably multigenerational—making wines in an unmanipulated way. Our business model is built on legacy, so we align that with our wine program.

Describe one bottle that blew you away early in your career.

During my first time at Blackberry Farm for my working interview, I was fortunate enough to dine at the Barn [the property's formal restaurant]. The sommelier opened a bottle of 2003 Cayuse Cailloux Vineyard Syrah to pair with the lamb entrée. It was one of the most revelatory wines I had ever tasted: so distinctive, fascinating and complex. I had never before tasted a wine that made my senses light up like that. To this day, I always make sure to have a Cayuse on the wine list.

Your list reveals you as a champion of Viognier, both from the grape's origins in Rhône's Condrieu appellation and New World versions like Alban Vineyards from California's Central Coast and Roar from Santa Lucia Highlands. What do you like about the grape?

Viognier is totally underappreciated, in my opinion. From Condrieu, I like Georges Vernay, François Villard and Yves Gangloff, and a number of producers in California really know how to work with the grape. Great Viognier has a very narrow margin for error, and I like the high wire act in these great examples, the versions with real focus and energy.

What's the best value in wine right now?

Cru Beaujolais. My colleagues will give me a hard time about this, as I’ve not always been the biggest supporter of this region, but I’ve finally seen the light. I’ve tasted many compelling wines from this region over the last couple of years. Particularly as we see shrinking supply and increasingly prohibitive pricing from Burgundy, Beaujolais has become a refuge for those looking to scratch that Burgundy itch. I’m particularly blown away by the wines of Domaine de Vernus (a Guillaume Rouget syndicate domaine). Knowing that the wines of Rouget clock in at several hundreds or even thousands of dollars, these expressions of Beaujolais are world-class. The domaine's cru Régnié retails for about $40 and can be found on wine lists between $100 to $140.

Most expensive bottle on your list?

The 2001 Domaine Leroy Clos Vougeot for $11,495. But ounce for ounce, it's the 1920 Seppeltsfield Para Vintage Tawny, Grenache from Australia's Barossa region, which costs $5,000 for 100 milliliters.

A wine trend you hope will go away?

I’ve seen a real rise in demand for high-octane wines that are manipulated by oak and over-extraction. The wines that I’m selling are still categorically "dry," but some wines come very close to crossing that "dry" line. Prior to the pandemic, I saw a surge in educated and thoughtful wine drinkers. Since returning to some normalcy, I fear that a lot of consumers have associated grocery store wines as the new standard bearer for quality since they weren't experiencing fine wines at restaurants or visiting vineyards. I hope that palates veer back toward "dry" styles of wine.

How did the 2016 Clos Erasmus Sam Beall Cuvée, from the cultish Priorat producer, come to be?

We wanted to honor Sam and his love of both the Grenache grape and Clos Erasmus. Erasmus was also Sam's middle name so it seemed fortuitous that he loved that wine! After Sam's passing, our good friend Eric Solomon (who imports the wine and is married to the winemaker, Daphne Glorian) reached out asking if we wanted to make a custom cuvée in his honor.

The following year, when the 2016 vintage was in barrel, Daphne, Eric and I tasted a number of different barrel samples and blends, but in the end, we chose a single, specific barrel of Garnacha that we all agreed was special in its intensity and purity. They only make eight barrels of Clos Erasmus each year, so this was an amazing offer to let us take a single barrel for this special cuvée. The Clos Erasmus label has a silhouette of Erasmus of Rotterdam. We used Sam's unmistakable silhouette for the label of the Sam Erasmus Beall Cuvee 2016.

After a long shift, what is your wind-down routine?

I’m a sucker for clichéd crime dramas. I usually get home, put something on the TV like Law & Order and jump on my stationary bike or use my wife's at-home sauna. (I look ridiculous in that thing.)

How do you spend your time outside of work?

Because of the work hours I keep, on my days off, I really try to focus on family time. My wife and I go in opposite directions for the most part. So I like to dedicate that time to her and my daughter. That being said, I love landscaping and so my yard, flowers and bushes get a lot of my attention.