Blueberry wine ferments in Layton Hastings’ barn in Dayton, Tennessee, where he and his father plan on opening a winery on May 7, 2015.DAYTON, Tenn. — The blueberry and blackberry bushes and the muscadine and grape vines growing on 30 rolling acres along state Highway 60 have roots that draw deeply on the Hastings family’s history and love for the land.
Sitting on the front porch of the family home on Thursday, Layton Hastings and his father, L.V., said there’s something savory in those ties to share with people, and they hope to bottle it in the form of wine.
Surrounded by lush green pasture divided by stands of fruit-producing plants in varying stages of spring bloom and fruiting, the family farm in East Dayton is where Layton Hastings hopes to launch a winery business.
The younger Hastings’ vision for the land is a retail store fashioned after the family’s small homestead, built when 81-year-old L.V. Hastings’ mother bought the property back in 1941.
The elder Hastings first tried his hand at wine-making when he was maybe 4 years old or so. In those days the family of eight children, led by his widowed mother, lived in Martin, Tenn., near a plum orchard.