NASHVILLE – After seven years of debate, Nashville residents will finally be able to purchase wine in grocery and convenience stores, starting in July 2016.

Nashville was among several municipalities in the region that approved a referendum on November 4 to allow sales of wine in supermarkets, convenience stores and big-box retailers. The referendum won by a landslide, with more than 77% voting in favor in all the municipalities who weighed in.

"It bears out what we have known for the seven years we've been fighting this fight," Rob Ikard, Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association president, told The Tennessean. "Tennesseans overwhelming want to buy wine where they buy food."

The next step for grocery stores and retailers that are affected will be to begin building relationships with wholesalers, and determining how to allocate shelf space for the new inventory.

The General Assembly voted for wine to be sold in grocery stores last spring in municipalities that allow bars or liquor stores, but cities and counties had to approve the measure through local referendums. Several large grocery chains, along with other retail partners, led the referendum effort, enlisting close to 30,000 volunteers who gathered more than 262,000 signatures to include the wine-in-grocery-store vote in the mid-term ballot in more than 78 municipalities. The petition drive fell short in 14 other Tennessee areas, however.