The Winery
Pressing into Excellence
Family-owned boutique winery nestled in the foothills near pristine Norris Lake, known for crafting premium small-batch wines with distinctive character, exceptional hospitality and wine tasting experiences with stunning Cumberland Mountain views.
Chapman Hill Winery opened in 2019 and medaled in three wines from the first production run they submitted to Wines of the South competition: a silver medal for a Dry Riesling, a silver medal for a cranberry wine and the Concordance Gold medal for a winery guest favorite – Labrusca Blend (American grape Concord blended with Niagara grapes). With varietals ranging in style, dryness, and sweetness, there is a perfect choice for every wine lover’s palate at this top 10 Tennessee winery.
The Tasting Room
The ambiance, comfort and hospitality of Chapman Hill are patterned after a Napa style-tasting at the counter, coupled with generous seating, savoring, and snacking indoor and outdoor spaces. Roomy couches and comfortable club chairs arranged in cozy seating groups throughout the winery tasting room accommodate 35 to 40 people. The great room’s vaulted wood ceiling and artisan accessories gives a craftsman-style ‘gathering place’ feel – inviting guests to stay and sip.
Wine lovers from around East Tennessee, across the South and throughout the country find their way to Chapman Hill to enjoy the caliber of wine often found only at West Coast wineries with longer histories. Locals, vacationers and weekend getaway travelers alike come for a tasting and stay for an afternoon. Guests who love the warm and welcoming environment show up solo with laptop ready to work or simply enjoy their wine while surfing the internet. Most days you’ll see Chuck and Sherry walking around the tasting room getting to know their guests, which is Chuck’s favorite thing to do!
The Chapman Hill selection of high-quality wines embraces a full range of finishes … light bodied, subtle, bold, robust, dry, fruity, sweet and delightful.
Sherry’s Sangria Saturdays with Pretzel Bites and Beer Cheese are a guest favorite and everyone asks the question, ‘When’s the next Sangria Saturday?’
Wine slushies are a favorite all year but especially in summer. Mulled wine is served warm in winter months.
The Deck. The Patio. The Views
Award-winning Chapman Hill Winery is located on a hilltop in a quiet mountain lake valley, just outside the gates of Deerfield Resort, one of the South’s best known lake resorts, and the largest on Norris Lake. Nestled between the Cumberland Mountains and the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains north of Knoxville, Tennessee, the grounds of the winery are close to deep water Norris Lake which boasts more than 800 miles of shoreline.
In the four seasons of balmy to warm to mild winter weather of East Tennessee, guests enjoy splitting a bottle alfresco on the elevated deck or terraced patio. The perch on the deck from high tops and comfortable couches allow guests to watch the sun setting across the rolling hills and vines in the valley. Below the covered deck, the 40 ft. x 40 ft. flagstone patio, finished in 2022, doubled the seating area. With its stacked stone fireplace that takes up one entire side of the patio, the cozy couches and comfy chairs make it a premier spot for enjoying the long summer concert series and the changing seasonal views of the Cumberland Mountain valleys.
Family Fun
Families can stay for hours while their kiddoes play on the lawn or get caught up in jumbo Jenga or family board games. Vacationers and tourists who find the winery on the map for a tasting often stay into the evening with favorite wines, a charcuterie board and family game time.
The Farm
The Wines, Vines and Valleys
Hanging in the entryway to The Tasting Room of Chapman Hill Winery is a very special painting. It’s an original by award-winning artist Sam Chapman of the farmhouse that once stood on the 700+-acre Chapman family farm in this rich green, East Tennessee lake valley – and the namesake of the winery.
We wanted to decorate the Tasting Room with photos of the old Chapman homestead, but they had been lost in family moves. Sam, son of one of the family farmers, painted an original of the only photo that was saved.
-Chuck Compton
When Chuck and Sherry knew what they wanted to name their new winery, they requested permission of their neighbors from across the two-lane country road, Sam and Vicki Chapman. The conversation about the name happened while the building was still under construction. Sam was keen to see the views from the upper level of the winery, but the only access to it at that time was a single board anchored from the ground up to a top-level window frame. The determined octogenarian, with a little help from his new neighbors, made it up the makeshift construction ramp and was able to take in the panoramic views from the winery’s hilltop perspective.
Sam Chapman was just a boy in the mid-20th century when his father, Clarence, and his Uncle Roy, established the Chapman family farm on the 700+ acres spread out over the rolling hills and valleys near Norris Lake, one of the deepest and most pristine lakes of the historic Tennessee Valley Authority. Sam’s family had immigrated to this piece of the American frontier in the 1770’s, becoming early settlers in the Cumberland Mountain valley, still known today as Fincastle.
Sam Chapman’s family ancestry in Campbell County, Tennessee includes treasured letters between brothers during the Civil War.
Working hard, Clarence and Roy raised their families as they raised cattle, corn and wheat on the Chapman farm up until the late 1980’s and were important to the farming community of Campbell County and economy of East Tennessee. The next generation, however, not interested in farming themselves, made the decision to sell the land to a family who would eventually build Deerfield Resort, now the winery’s neighbor. The four-acre summit that the Comptons bought from the estate of Roy Chapman’s widow was, in fact, the last parcel of the original Chapman farm to be sold.
Chuck and Sherry now share a close friendship with Sam and Vicki Chapman, the way neighbors who navigate the unique challenges of country living nurture. Their commitment to honor the family, the farm, and a faithful heritage of hard work and pressing into excellence is reflected in their own dedication to the caliber of wine they produce and the exceptional experience of hospitality they extend to every guest.
