Tennessee Wine Festivals & Events

Tennessee hosts 12 wine festival listings in our directory, split between 10 large-scale events and 2 smaller gatherings such as winery dinners and wine walks. General admission prices run from $15 to $49, with an average around $32 — modest by national standards. The festival calendar clusters tightly in spring, with April and May accounting for the bulk of activity. Events are spread across the state, from Nashville and its suburbs to the Smoky Mountain foothills in the east and the Mississippi River corridor near Memphis in the west.

Tennessee is not a major wine-producing state in the way that California, Oregon, or even Virginia are. There are no nationally prominent AVAs driving the festival calendar here. What you find instead is a wine culture built around hospitality, regional pride, and the state's broader identity as a food and drink destination. Bourbon is the dominant spirit, and several festivals — including the Bourbon & Bubbles Fest in Nashville — blend sparkling wine with the state's native spirit tradition rather than pretending that divide doesn't exist. That honesty about what Tennessee actually is tends to make its events more enjoyable, not less.

Nashville is the logical home base for most visitors. The Nashville Wine & Food Festival and the Bourbon & Bubbles Fest (April 18, 2026, GA $49) both take place in or near the city, and BNA — Nashville International Airport — offers direct flights from most major US hubs. Rental cars are widely available and generally necessary if you want to reach events outside the city proper, since Tennessee's festival geography is spread across a long east-west corridor.

The Franklin Wine Festival draws attendees to the historic downtown of Franklin, just south of Nashville, where the setting along Main Street adds genuine character to the tasting format. Lebanon, about 30 miles east of Nashville, hosts the Wedding and Wine Expo (May 3, 2026), which caters to a specific audience but doubles as an accessible entry point for visitors curious about Tennessee's smaller winery scene. The Watertown Wine Festival, also in Wilson County, is a community-scale event that reflects how wine culture has taken hold in smaller Tennessee towns over the past decade.

In East Tennessee, the Lakeside of the Smokies Balloon Festival + Wine Garden combines hot air balloon launches with a wine garden format — a combination that sounds gimmicky but works well as a family-friendly outdoor event in a region that draws heavy tourism traffic from the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge corridor. Strawberry Plains, east of Knoxville, hosts the Uncorked & Unfiltered: Comedy Night at the Winery (April 24, 2026, GA $15), which is one of the most affordable events in the directory and reflects the smaller, more intimate end of the Tennessee festival spectrum.

Memphis anchors the western end of the calendar with the Memphis Food & Wine Festival, a larger event that leans into the city's formidable culinary identity. If you're flying into West Tennessee specifically for wine events, Memphis International Airport (MEM) is your entry point, and the city offers enough food and music culture to justify a longer stay around the festival.

The Sip TN Wine Festival and the Wine Over Water Festival round out the calendar with events that highlight Tennessee-made wines alongside national and international pours. Wine Over Water, held in connection with a bridge or waterfront setting depending on the year, has developed a following among visitors who want a scenic backdrop alongside their tastings.

April is the strongest month to visit if you want to maximize your options. The weather is reliably mild across most of the state, crowds are smaller than summer, and the concentration of events means you can reasonably attend two or three festivals within a single long weekend. May adds a few more options before the heat and humidity of a Tennessee summer set in. If you're planning around a specific event, book accommodations early — Nashville in particular fills up quickly in spring, and hotel rates spike during major weekend events.