Jeff Frisbee

When Jeff Frisbee looks at a bottle of wine from his vineyard, Addison Farms, he thinks of history. “There’s something fundamentally life affirming about wine — it connects us to our past,” he says. “It’s a drink that the Romans and the Egyptians and the Greeks all consumed.”

The wine also preserves the history of Frisbee’s family. His grandfather purchased the vineyard property in the 1930s, and Frisbee grew up nearby, about 15 miles north of Asheville. His career took him away from the area, but he never forgot his family’s idyllic farm.

Years later, while living in Atlanta, Frisbee and his wife, Dianne, longed for the unique combination of urban and rural amenities back home. “Asheville is quite dense, but because we have an abundance of farmland around, it allows us to fuel the local food movement,” Jeff says.

In 2009, the Frisbees planted the first grapes on the family farm, and today, they produce about 8½ tons of fruit and six varieties of wine. “My personal favorite is our Coming Home bottling, a cabernet sauvignon” Jeff says. “Building the vineyard was the trigger for our homecoming.”

The farm wouldn’t be home without family, he adds. His parents, Eddie and Maleada Frisbee, are also his business partners. On weekends, when the tasting room is open, the four Frisbees all pour wine for their visitors. “The one thing I want everybody to feel when they walk through the door is that they’re visiting a friend,” Jeff says. “The experience is one of connecting with a local farming community, a local vintner.”