The Best Cellars Dinner is one of the Foundation’s signature events that is known for pairing Best Sellers (country music’s top selling artists) with Best Cellars (Nashville’s top wine collectors) plus an extraordinary gourmet meal prepared by a guest chef. 

This intimate, premier event was started in 1999 by Nashville wine enthusiast and record industry executive Billy Ray Hearn who had the idea to bring together great friends with incredible wine cellars to share their wine with guests combined with a special gourmet meal prepared by a nationally known guest chef.

Billy Ray brought together members of his family, record industry executive Bill Hearn, President and CEO of EMI Christian Music Group; daughter Holly Whaley, Community Relations Executive for EMI Christian Music Group and Joe Galante, Chairman of Sony Music to Co-Chair the Nashville’s Best Cellars Dinner.  “The Nashville Best Cellars Dinner brings together top artists, wine collectors, incredible chefs and wonderful supporters of the T.J. Martell Foundation,” said Hearn.  “To date, the event has raised more than $1.5 million for T. J. Martell which funds innovative cancer research locally at the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.”

The Nashville Best Cellars Dinner proved to be a great success and led the T.J. Martell Foundation to launch Atlanta’s Best Cellars Dinner, Co-Chaired by Joel Katz, Chairman Global Entertainment and Media Group of Greenberg Traurig-Atlanta and Mark Goldman, Founder and Partner of The Gift Bag Company.  

The T.J. Martell Foundation is excited to offer you the opportunity to participate in the Best Cellars Dinners in Nashville and Atlanta. Please refer to the designated pages on this website to learn more about how you can participate.

Welcome to the T.J. Martell Foundation’s

Best Cellars Dinners