On a Friday evening in downtown Franklin, the door of a restored historic home at 134 2nd Avenue North stands open, and anyone who walks through it is handed a glass. There is no ticket, no reservation, no cover charge, and no obligation to buy anything. For two hours, from 5 to 7 p.m., the shop pours a rotating lineup of wines and lets the town taste through them. That is the whole idea behind the weekly Free Open Wine Tasting at Saint Goose Wine + Spirits, and it has become one of the more unusual rituals in a town that has no shortage of things to do on a Friday night.
The premise is deliberately simple. Each Friday is built around wine, with the selection changing week to week to highlight different regions, grapes, producers and styles. One week the table might lean toward the classics of France or Italy; another it might wander into less familiar corners of the map. Staff are on hand to talk about the wines, the people who make them and the places they come from. Every bottle being poured is available to purchase and take home that same night, which is, in effect, how the tasting pays for itself. The shop is candid about that arrangement: the free tastings are made possible by the support of the people who show up and occasionally leave with a bottle under one arm.
It is a format that suits a walk-in crowd. Guests are invited to stop by anytime between 5 and 7, grab a glass and taste along, which means the evening functions less like a seated seminar and more like an open house. The shop runs a companion tasting on Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m., a longer, looser session pitched as a chance to sip while you shop, but the Friday edition has its own character: it is the end-of-week version, framed by the shop as a trip through Europe before the weekend begins.
What makes the tasting worth understanding, though, is the building and the business behind it. Saint Goose opened in October 2021 in a newly restored historic home on 2nd Avenue, the creation of owners Andrew and Ashley Kilpatrick and co-founder Kate Ham. Ham was a sommelier trained at the International Culinary Center in New York City. The concept they announced was broader than a liquor store. In a 2021 opening announcement, the founders described Saint Goose as a wine shop and whiskey experience set inside a home on 2nd Avenue, offering a curated selection of wines from around the world along with classes, tastings and culinary wine pairing events. Ham, for her part, described a philosophy that still shows up in the Friday tastings: a deep respect and love for the classic expressions of the old world and new, paired with genuine excitement about new winemakers with different points of view. That tension, between the established regions of Europe and the newer voices pushing against them, is essentially the argument the weekly tasting makes in liquid form.
The shop's name comes with its own piece of invented folklore, which the business tells on its website. The story begins with Georges, a monocle-wearing abbot from eastern France during the Middle Ages, known as the wise Abbot Goose for his optimistic outlook, his unsolicited advice and his flock of pet geese. Georges, the tale goes, would visit townspeople carrying wine and words of wisdom. When a fire destroyed the abbey's vineyard, he tried heating the wine to make it last longer and discovered, to his surprise, that it grew more potent as it cooled, a process that became distillation. For his faith, his unselfish wisdom and his spirit of curiosity, sainthood was bestowed on the abbot, and his new nickname was Saint Goose. The shop is upfront that the exact origins of the tale are unknown. It is a piece of branding as much as a legend, but it explains the goose motif and the shop's self-image as a place that dispenses both wine and advice.
Ownership has since changed hands. Saint Goose is now run by Heidi and Brent Hyland, who describe themselves as building on the foundation laid before them by curating unique selections, fostering good conversation and creating an inviting space for everyone who walks through the doors. The team also includes Val Schinke-Holzer in marketing, Joel LaTondress as director of wine and spirits, and wine consultants Rob Spieler and Liz Brassell. The Hylands inherited not just a wine list but a community institution with a monthly wine club, nicknamed the flock, whose members receive new bottles each month and access to exclusive tastings, along with special events and classes that have ranged from martini-making sessions to pickup parties for club members.
That club structure and the free weekly tastings are two halves of the same strategy. The tastings remove every barrier to entry, and the club and the bottle sales convert curiosity into a relationship. It is a model that depends on a certain amount of trust: that people will come in without spending anything, taste carefully, and decide for themselves whether anything on the table is worth taking home. In a downtown that draws tourists and locals alike, and in a county where the wine and spirits business is competitive, giving the wine away for two hours every Friday is a bet on the idea that familiarity sells bottles.
For anyone weighing whether to go, the practical details are as uncomplicated as the shop intends. The tasting runs Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at 134 2nd Avenue North in historic downtown Franklin. It is free, no reservation is required, and guests are welcome to arrive at any point during the window. The lineup rotates, and the bottles on the table are for sale. The shop's own framing of the evening is hard to improve on: come sip, discover, and find your next bottle.