What started as a backyard wine-making hobby became a vineyard in 1986, and it has since grown to a major Clarksville attraction, producing 10,000 cases of wine a year. Wilson Cooke and Abigail Scurlock join Charlie Koon to talk about what's new at Beachaven Vineyard and Winery, including wine flights, the downtown location, live music events, and even wine slushies.
Clarksville Conversations with Charlie Koon
The Story of Beachaven Winery
I've lived in Clarksville, Montgomery County nearly my entire life, and I've seen a lot of growth and met some amazing people along the way. There's a lot going on in our community, and on this podcast, I hope shed some light on what's going on in Clarksville. I'm Charlie Kuhn, and this is Clarksville Conversation. Wilson and Abby from Beach Haven, Winery, welcome to Clarksville Conversations. How y'all doing? Doing well. Thanks for having us. You know, it's always good, first thing in the morning, when somebody comes toting in a bottle of wine, you're thinking, "Man, are we having mimosas? Are we just... What are we doing?" Well, it's fresh off the line. We wanted to show you what we were doing today. Fresh off the line. Well, we're going to get to what you guys produce and all that here in a minute, but Wilson, can you give us kind of a brief history of Beach Haven, Winery? I'll try. I was there, but I was four years old. But yeah, we established ourselves in 1986. Judge Beach had been a pretty avid wine enthusiast, became a home wine maker, really was just kind of fooling around in his own basement. My parents got married, my dad moved to Clarksville, kind of developed an interest in what the judge was doing, and a few amateur awards later decided they were going to basically go knock on all their friends' doors and try to pull some money and build Beach Haven Vineyards and Winery. They put the vineyard in the ground in '86, same time they broke ground on the building, which you've all seen there off the side of I-24. Then by 1990, we'd expanded enough, we were building warehouses in the mid-2000s, we've expanded again, our footprint just for storage, case goods, raw materials, things like that, and additional production space as well. Then we've also built some new office and laboratory space in the recent couple years, and then now we are right around that 10,000 case mark for production. Is that a per year, 10,000 per year? Yeah. That's kind of, there are certain sweet spots in the wine industry, 10,000 to the next, echelon would be 15,000, so we need you guys to come out and buy more wine. Oh, there's no doubt about it, and I've been out there for so many things, whether it's jazz on the lawn, or I know our leadership, mental Tennessee has had some events out there, so you guys have been really community-minded. Of course, you are in our community, and that's one way you grow locally, is to have people out there. What do you find success in being involved in the community? What kind of things are you involved in? I'm involved in a couple of different things, like networking, stuff around Clarksville, so I'm always out talking with other business owners and just different people in the area, and so by collaborating with other small businesses and different people like that, that really helps us grow, I feel like, and get our name out there. People like a small business who's willing to collaborate with other small businesses, so the community likes that as well, and consumers like that, and so we're kind of like we can't do this on our own, and so we like to kind of get with other people as much as we can, but we're involved in things like the, what is it, the commerce and stuff like that? Chamber of Commerce. Yeah, Chamber of Commerce is going to business after hours, things like that. We do, over at the Vineyard, we're definitely family-friendly, so we'd like for those events to come out like a vintage fair and things like that, or kind of family-friendly, and so we kind of see ourselves as a community, welcoming the community out to... Yeah, Mom grew up here, and she knows a lot of the movers and shakers in the community. Yeah, Louisa. Yeah, right, and she loves to be on those boards downtown, and tourism, and all the things that are kind of moving and shaking in town, bringing people to town, trying to keep Clarksville and everybody's mind, and basically, boost visits to town. Oh, there's no question about it. She's been involved for years. I've been on some boards with her, and she's definitely a mover and shaker, and knows how to get people involved. Let's talk about the line-making process. How do you, kind of what are some of the steps, and then what, I'll call them flavors. What flavors do you make, and how do you decide what they're going to be? Well, we have at least 30 products on the menu right now, a lot of balls that keep in the air, but essentially, we start with raw materials, so on site at the winery, we grow three different varieties of grapes, Save All Blanc, Sunbelt, which is kind of like Concord, and Kataba, and we are trying to make something exciting every time we come up with a product, so we're really focusing on sparkling wine with those three varieties, so we'll do a dry champagne style with the Save All and a fruity sparkling with the Sunbelt, and the Kataba can do it all, it goes into the blends, it goes into its own particular product, but then, you know, Moscato is a very popular word, Chardonnay, Cabernet, all those varieties of people really recognize, and so when we source those raw materials, be it from, you know, Bill Sanderson's Vineyard, White Squirrel in West Tennessee, he grows sura, but we tend to bring in dry red fruit, or dry fruit for dry red wine from West Coast, juices out of New York, essentially though, we pick a product and we try to make the best end result we can. Yeah, absolutely, and Clarksville is full of wine connoisseurs, there's no question, you can see wine bars popping up all over the place, and we'll get to you guys being downtown, but do you have, what's your best-sellers? Well, we are in the Sweet Tea Belt of the nation, so we really do sell a lot of Sweet Wine, and that's great, you know, we enjoy those products, and we want the people that come through the door to enjoy the things that we offer, so Golden Rose, Sweet Cotton Cordets are one product, peach and blackberry, hot on its heels, the Musketines that we talked about. Yeah, yeah. And I know a lot of people seem to like the fruity flavors. Yeah, luckily we're kind of in an area where I see Clutchville is a little bit of a melting pot. We have the military here, you know, a university and stuff like that, and people that are working in Nashville live in Clarksville, and so I see that we have a lot of, we have a very large palette that we're trying to appease to here. So yeah, the Sweet Wines are best-sellers, those are the ones that are really, you know, kind of keeping the doors open, that's the ones that are really moving, but we do have a market for dryer wines, and people who kind of want to dryer products, so that's where those, you know, Chardonnay, CAB, things like that are going to come into play, and they may not move as fast as the Golden Rose, the peach and the blackberry, those fruitier flavors, but the area in general I think we have a very large palette here, and so we kind of have something for everybody, which is something I think, you know, sets us apart a little bit. Yeah, I've been out to, and let's talk about your locations here in town, I've been out to the winery itself, to some wine tasting, and then to some private events and stuff like that. Talk to us about what people can do, or how they can set up a wine tasting, or how they can visit the winery, and then your location downtown. Yeah, so at the vineyard, so now we have two locations, obviously. So we have downtown, and then we've been kind of referring to our main location as the vineyard. So over at the vineyard is where we do our wine tastings. So those are just walk-in based, so people can walk in, they can walk right up to the bar and do a wine tasting. We do also have like vineyard in production tours, and that includes a tour of the property and then also a tasting, and that we do request that people call us ahead of time, just for the best kind of experience. We're really busy on the weekends, and that's typically when people want to come out. So we do ask that people call ahead of time and let us know how many people they're bringing, but then we also do wine flights. We also sell by the glass and by the bottle, so we have a very large picnic area that people can get a wine flight, get a glass of wine, and we also do wine slushies. Those are a big thing. So people can go and enjoy our picnic area, while also just sharing a glass of wine with some friends. And then we are about to get into our kind of summer season, where we're going to have live music and track. So that's another additive for the vineyard. So this time of year, that's really going to kind of amp up. But then as far as our downtown area, we don't do like the wine tastings. The space is a little bit smaller, it's more of a laid-back kind of experience. So you can come in and get you a wine flight, a glass of wine or a bottle. We also have the wine slushies down there. We have mimosas and some other kind of specialty drinks that we do there. And then we do live music every Friday and Saturday night. So it's a little bit more of a laid-back, just going and relaxing and sharing your glass with a friend. But that's all walk-in kind of base, no reservations. So what drives you to open a location in downtown Clarksville? Wilson, do you want to-- I don't know, you can start and then-- You know, I really-- I do like downtown. I grew up with friends that lived near downtown. We would go ride our bikes and just explore. And now that I'm an adult, I feel like I spend 90% of my time between exits 8 and 4. But I do like downtown and I want to get downtown and help downtown expand. And to be honest, this location, we'd been looking, just soft looking around. And this location really just fell into our hand. But right across the street from the Roxy, we're on Franklin Street on the corner at 101. You know, I spent a lot of time in my early years at the deli right next door, which I hope somebody can revamp that space. But with what's going on downtown with the arena and the new hotel and just the growth that we hope will come to downtown Clarksville, revamp it and we want to be part of that. Yeah, I think what's happening downtown, a lot of people may not know it. But I work down there as well and the foot traffic has-- I mean, it's increased exponentially over the last six months to a year. If you go down there almost any night of the week, there are people milling around all over the place. Yeah, we've-- so, I mean, we obviously opened the downtown area or downtown space in September. And so we kind of went into a weird season when it was kind of starting to get colder and things like that. So we're really excited to see spring and summer and kind of the foot traffic down there. But right now, we're just open on Friday, Saturday and Sundays. We just kind of kept it as-- you know, that's where we see the most traffic is on the weekends. Weekdays is typically, you know, a little bit slower. So we're really excited to see kind of what spring and summer brings as far as foot traffic. But we're just happy to be down there. And, you know, we're really thankful for the spot that we got there on the corner. It's a great little space. I mean, it's big enough for what we kind of wanted it to be. But we definitely see downtown building up. And a lot of those buildings down there that are running down or can't keep people in them are-- you're starting to see business actually being able to survive. And, you know, the parking is about to get a lot better down there without parking garage coming up. And so I think our downtown area is really going to, you know, expand in the next couple of years. And we kind of wanted to get in there on the front end and, you know, establish ourselves down there and just kind of create a different-- you know, a second footprint here in Clarksville. I mean, we already, you know, love the community. And so just by creating a later night space for our customers to also enjoy, it's kind of a big thing for us because we close a little bit earlier over at the main vineyard. So having that second space is, you know, kind of extends our hours. And I know you talked about downtown being, you know, you walk in, you can, you know, listen to your music and have some drinks or whatever. But do you rent out either of both of those places for private events or corporate events? We do. So typically we don't rent our spaces out on the weekends just because we're doing our own thing on the weekends. We have our own live music going on. And that's just kind of like our increased traffic. But downtown, specifically that space, I'm happy to rent it out Monday through Thursday in what you want. Yeah, I get it too. So because we're not open down there those days. And so we've done a couple different events for people, you know, meetings or different things like that where they just want to do like a week night. But then I'm also renting the space out on Sunday mornings for bridal showers, baby showers, like that, kind of a brunch style kind of shower or tea that people want to do. So there's like a two hour block. We open up at noon down there on Sundays. And so, you know, from 10 to noon, that's a perfect little time for a little two hour kind of event. So we have rented a couple people for that. At the main winery, we don't typically rent out our indoor space just because we are a production facility. You know, are in use of a lot of our indoor space, especially during the week. And then we utilize those indoor spaces that we do have available for customers for the people that are just kind of coming in and doing tasting. But we do rent out the picnic area. So that is something that people are welcome to do. Again, weekends are really hard if you're wanting a weekend event, just because that's when we're having our own live music. That's when we have increased travelers and traffic coming through and tourists. And so we do a lot of like what people call a hail and farewell. Yeah, we do a lot of those. Those are typically on a Tuesday or Thursday night. And so that doesn't really, you know, impede into any of our events. And so definitely weekday nights, people can rent out our picnic area. They just have to give us a call and we'll give them the details and kind of how it works. Well, what's cool about it is if people have not been to a winery or have been to some, everyone owns a unique experience. So instead of just, you know, being in an indoor room, you can be outside and kind of get the vibe of seeing the great vines and the, you know, all the things you've guys got working out there. Yeah. And I think that's something that we, you know, we have a lot more outdoor space than we do indoor space. And so, you know, during those nice days in the summer months and stuff like that, that's when it's the best time to come out and see us. But, you know, one thing that we really pride ourselves on is just creating a good experience for any travelers coming through. So even when the weather is bad, we try and really accommodate, you know, and set up tables inside some standing pub tables and things like that. We'll bring our live music inside. You know, if it rains, we can kind of, you know, pivot. Yeah. Because we just want to create a good experience for everybody and our customer service is kind of one of our number one things. I mean, great wine, I think, is number one, number two is customer service. But, you know, we just want our customers to enjoy the place and feel like it's, you know, somewhere they can go regularly and feel at home, I guess. All right, Abby. So what's your, what's your favorite wine that you guys produce? That's going to have to be sparkling jazz. That is, well, since I'm here, that's what it is. Yeah. Well, it's a, it's kind of a staff favorite, I would say. But it is a sparkling goverge demeanor. Wilson can tell you a little bit more about it, but it's just, it's, it's kind of a good daily drinker, you know, it's, it's, you know, champagne is something you typically drink when you want to celebrate something jazz, something you can drink, celebrate just every day. All right. Wilson's obviously got a different favorite. I don't know. No, that's not true. So I, I really do prefer the sparkling, the bubbly stuff. Yeah. Like Abby said, you know, you can always celebrate with a, a glass of champagne. But on Sunday afternoon, I want to fire the grill up, throw a strip on the, on there. Yeah. And I really do like our cabs and our sorar, yeah, more low, you know, I think a lot of our wines really do compliment food very well. And I try, that's something I try to explore. Yeah. But you know, they're all my children. So I can't. Yeah. I tell you, I've been to, I've been out there a few times. And my favorite is that mixed slushy. And I don't know what's in it, but I know it's two different things. So what's in the slushy? So we change our slushy around a little bit. So now I don't know what I like. I like today. You don't know what you like. You don't know. So every now and then we'll do kind of like a sangria style thing where we'll mix a couple of wines in there. So maybe that's what you had. But a lot of times we use our golden rose. That's the Sunbelt and Concord wine. They have a sweet red. So we use that one a lot of the times. Our peach is a really good one. People really enjoy the peach slushy. Blackberry every now and then we'll throw in blackberry. It's pretty good. But you know, we don't always do the blackberry. But something that we have just recently kind of discovered is a frozen mimosa. So there you go. Yeah, we're, you know, we're thinking about this summer getting some of the local donut trucks and stuff to come out and work kind of on Saturday mornings. And so I was like, well, what can we do mimosa wise? It's kind of a fun thing. And I was like, well, we already did slushy. So let's do a frozen mimosa. So we've kind of been playing around with like a muscato slushy or a peach slushy and then throwing a little orange juice on there. It's delicious. It's really good. You're talking, he's smiling. Everybody's happy. Well, we've had to sample it all day long. It's really unfortunate, but we've had to test it out. And I think we're all pretty happy with the product that came out of it. But our slushies are definitely a big thing in the spring and summer. And so, you know, it's never always the same thing. We're kind of switching it around a lot of time. Yeah, depending on, you know, kind of what we're feeling that day, whoever mixes a slushy gets to choose the flavor we're doing. That's funny. Okay. Well, listen, I appreciate y'all coming in. And really, the important part is not only your business, but your connection to the community and your willingness to help the community grow. And I know Luis has been a big part of that and your entire family. So thank y'all for coming and kind of sharing your story. And hopefully people will get out and check out Beach Haven Winery. Cheers. Thank you for having us. Yeah. All right. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]