A bottle of wine shouldn’t require a glossary, credit check or a chemistry degree. Yet for many shoppers staring down a wall of labels, the experience can feel intimidating – hundreds of bottles staring back and no clear way to know what’s worth buying.
That anxiety only multiplies when the bottle comes from unexpected places, like Tennessee, a state more often associated with whiskey than wine.
TJ and Kelsey Rogers, the husband-and-wife team behind The Nashville Wine Duo, have built their platform around a simple counterargument: Wine can be enjoyable without being intimidating, and the “right” bottle is the one that fits your taste, your budget and your night, not someone else’s idea of sophistication.
“We take a non-snooty approach to wine,” TJ says.
Their philosophy is rooted in the idea that price and pleasure aren’t synonymous.
“There’s great wine out there for $6 a bottle, and there’s great wine out there for $100 a bottle,” TJ says. “It’s about finding what you like. If you like sweeter wine, drink it. If you like dry wine, drink it.”
From cork to following
TJ and Kelsey were working at Trader Joe’s in Green Hills when the seeds of their project began to sprout in the everyday routine of helping people shop. TJ handled the wine order, managing displays and bringing in bottles, while Kelsey oversaw the cheese order, which naturally led to pairing ideas.
It was the early COVID era, and like many side projects that grew legs in 2020, theirs started with a simple thought and a phone camera.
“We said, ‘Let’s start posting bottles and cheese on a charcuterie board and talk about wine from Trader Joe’s,’” TJ recalls.
They weren’t talking into a void. They already had relationships with customers who trusted their suggestions, and those customers wanted a way to keep following along.
For Kelsey, the timing mattered as much as the content, especially in the early months of the pandemic.
“We didn’t talk about what was going on,” she says. “We tried to keep it light and just talk about wine.”
People reached out with messages that stayed with her, saying that watching them was the only thing getting them through it.
Just as important, their approach met a practical need. Budgets were tight, and plenty of people wanted something better than “whatever’s on sale” without stepping into a world that felt exclusive.
“So many people were interested in budget-friendly wine,” Kelsey says. “They loved that we showed you could enjoy wine without knowing everything.”
‘What are you looking for?’
TJ and Kelsey have watched the wine world “turn their nose up at certain types of wine,” he says, “even wine made in Tennessee.” But they aren’t trying to turn every listener into a sommelier. Their goal is more basic: to give people the confidence to choose a bottle and enjoy it without feeling judged.
In their view, that fixation on prestige can make people forget what wine is for. Kelsey describes wine as something that “brings people together,” and she rejects the idea that it belongs only to certain kinds of consumers.
“We can all come from all walks of life and enjoy wine,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be just for certain kinds of people.”
TJ says the mistake many shoppers make is assuming that liking one bottle means they’ll automatically like another.
“You might not like what I like,” he says.
That’s why their recommendations start with a few simple questions.
“Do you like it sweeter? Do you like it drier? Do you like something more fruit-forward?” TJ says.
Once those preferences are clear, the bottle wall becomes less paralyzing and more about what someone wants in a bottle for the night or weekend.
That mindset is also why TJ and Kelsey don’t do public takedowns of wines they don’t enjoy. Wineries send them bottles, events invite them and people hand them glasses and ask for reactions. But when something doesn’t land for them, they’d rather stay quiet than turn the internet into a place where someone’s hard work gets mocked.
“We’ve seen the winemaking process,” Kelsey says. “It’s really complex, and I don’t think anyone should be criticized for putting effort into making a product.”
Tennessee’s sweet realities
That generous spirit carries into how TJ and Kelsey talk about Tennessee wine. They’ve visited many wineries across the state and along the Tennessee Wine Trail, including Crown Winery, Grinder’s Switch, Beachaven in Clarksville and Amber Falls. In Nashville’s orbit, they also mention Arrington Vineyards.
One of the first realities they point to is taste – or, more accurately, what wineries believe their customers want.
“For Tennessee wine, the Southern palate tends to favor fruity, sweet wines,” TJ says.
Kelsey frames it slightly differently: it isn’t always that consumers demand sweetness as much as wineries feel boxed in by expectation.
“When people think Tennessee, they think blackberry wine, they think muscadine,” she says. “They think fruity.”
When the couple talks about the Tennessee wines they’ve enjoyed most, they gravitate toward bottles that show what hybrid grapes can do in thoughtful hands. Kelsey pulls up a past post to jog her memory of a visit to Beachaven and lands on a specific recommendation.
“It was the Chambourcin rosé,” she says. “It was dry and smooth, with just a tiny bit of fruit on the back end.”
They also light up when the conversation turns to sparkling wine made in a less conventional style. Kelsey’s wish list for regional producers includes more pét-nats (short for pétillant naturel), naturally sparkling wines that ferment in the bottle and tend to be less manipulated.
“A lot of these hybrid grapes do really well in that format,” she says. “They get really dry, almost like a brut-style sparkling wine.”
“It’s unfiltered – less manipulated,” TJ adds.
At another Tennessee stop, their memory was similarly specific.
Kelsey says they visited Belle Meade and that she remembered liking the Hina blanc.
Beyond the bottle, she says she appreciated how the venue leaned into education and pairing.
“They had wine dinners and things like that,” she says. “They were really big on pairing food and wine.”
A story in every glass
The Nashville Wine Duo’s work sits at the intersection of farming and fun. They’re not trying to crown a “best” wine or enforce rules about what counts as legitimate. They’re trying to make the whole thing less intimidating, whether that means normalizing a budget bottle, asking a couple of questions to find the right style or encouraging Tennessee wineries to embrace what they can do well.
TJ says he appreciates anyone “showcasing Tennessee wineries and trying to spread the word,” especially at a moment when “the alcohol industry is in a funk, and sales are down.”
For Kelsey, wine matters for reasons that have little to do with sales figures or trends. Wine, she believes, carries stories – of farming, of place, of people – and those stories risk being lost if the experience becomes disposable or overly commercial.
“There’s so much history in it,” she says. “It’s farming, and that’s what makes it so cool. When we drink wine, we attach it to a story, and I’d be devastated if future generations didn’t get to experience something that’s been around for centuries.”
For a couple whose mission is to make wine feel like it belongs to everyone, that idea fits perfectly: keep it real and remember there’s a story behind the bottle – even when it costs only six bucks.