Community Highlights: Meet Jodie Morgan of Grinder’s Switch Winery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jodie Morgan. 

Hi Jodie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I’m the General Manager and Assistant Winemaker here at Grinder’s Switch Winery. Grinder’s Switch Winery was started in 2006 by my parents, Joey and Gail Chessor, on our family property in Centerville, TN. My dad started growing grapes and making wine as a hobby after my brother and I moved out and began our own lives. Dad’s turning point was when he entered one of his dry red blends, a Cabernet Sauvignon and Touriga Nacionale grown from his own vineyard, that took best of show at an amateur wine competition here in Tennessee. That was the catalyst for them, they knew that they had something worth turning into a business then. After that, they began work on turning our family home, a hand-built log cabin, into a tasting room and a tiny cinder block building that my grandfather built in the 60s into a tank room. The rest is history from there. My parents ran the business by themselves for a couple years and even still lived in the back of the house for a while. My brother, Mick, came on two or three years after they opened and took over the vineyard, maintenance, and a lot of the day-to-day wine-making tasks. He keeps things running around here. I came on later, around 2010, and leaned more towards the sales and marketing side. It wasn’t until maybe 5 years ago, after we opened our Nashville location, that I got a lot more involved in the production side of things. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There’s no such thing as a smooth road when you own your own business. We’ve certainly had our challenges. We lost our entire vineyard to a late frost in 2007 and had to replant the entire thing the following year. That meant we didn’t get a harvest from our vineyard for at least three years. We took that opportunity to expand the vineyard so in the good years we could bring in more fruit and hopefully offer ourselves a little cushion for the future. 

Of course, 2020 was struggle for us like everyone else. I dubbed it “the year of the pivot” because we were making so many changes and decisions on the fly all year long. I spent hours and hours adding in curbside pickup options, easier online ordering, a whole revamp of our website and social media just so we could try to make more sales and stay afloat. When the pandemic hit, we were right in the middle of our winter production and had fermenting wine in the tanks and thousands of gallons of wine in varying stages of production. We had no idea what to expect or how to plan for the future. We laid off nearly all of our staff for 6 weeks, my brother and I took a pretty heavy pay cut and my parents took no pay at all. When we could reopen, we did our best to take all of the precautions while still staying open and making sales. 

I will say that we have learned a lot from all of our struggles. The pandemic especially has really forced us to try new things and take chances on new ideas that we would have never done before. The end result being that we are much more diversified in our guest offerings and revenue streams than we were pre-COVID. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We produce, bottle, and sell about 15,000 gallons of wine every year. We currently have about 15 different wines on our list that we sell direct to consumer through our two tasting rooms and in our online store. We also distribute within the state of Tennessee to many liquor stores and restaurants in the area. 

I think, besides our delicious wines, we are most known for our casual and friendly atmosphere. We pride ourselves on treating our guests like family as soon as they walk in the door. We do our best, each and every day, to make wine less intimidating and more enjoyable for the average person. It’s something that we try to work into our brand by keeping our tasting rooms relaxed and cozy and our customer service warm and accommodating. We aren’t snooty people and we don’t want our wine to be snooty either. 

Both of our locations offer tastings every day as well as a more private experiences. Our Nashville location offers wine and cheese pairings in a cozy back bar that’s perfect for girls’ trips and romantic getaways. Our Centerville location is a little more laid back with fire pits and fire tables that our guests can reserve for an afternoon to hang out with friends. 

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Probably that we are all self-taught! My parents had no background in the wine business other than the experience that they had picked up as an amateur. They had owned and operated a couple of successful businesses before, but the paperwork and bookkeeping for a winery is a whole lot different than most businesses. 

My brother went to school to be an auto mechanic and ran his own shop for a while. He had no background in vineyard maintenance or agriculture. 

I graduated from college with a Fine Arts degree and sales and marketing was never something I thought I would get into, much less winemaking! 

We have all spent thousands of hours learning from other experts and wineries in the area, we’ve gone to classes and conferences, suffered through tons of trial and error, and learned from a lot of mistakes along the way. It really goes to show that you can do and learn anything you set your mind to. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: GSWinery.com
• Instagram: @GSWinery
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrindersSwitchWinery/
• Twitter: @GSWinery

Image Credits
Lara Sue Hooper
Jodie Morgan