Buy Local…Three Great Wineries in your backyard

By AngelaL

This Saturday I decided to go the Ohio River Valley 6th Annual Barrel Tasting. First off it was a beautiful day and what a lovely drive. Since I live in Northern Kentucky, I decided to go to Harmony Hill Vineyards  in Bethel, then to the Ripley to Miranda-Nixon Winery and then end at Kinkead Ridge Winery.

Disclaimer: When sampling wines that are still aging in the barrel are not complete or finished products. So when tasting them you can taste the potential of what they will be. All of the wines I will will be talking about came straight from the aging barrels.

My first stop was Harmony Hill Vineyards. As we drove back to the tasting room and the barrel tasting all we could think of was how beautiful and quaint it was. Harmony Hill is a Certified Wildlife Habitat and everywhere you look there are donkeys, fawns, birds, and many other wildlife. The Barrel tasting was held in the underground wine cave. We tried 2 wines a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chambourcin. The Sauvignon Blanc was good you could tell when it’s done aging it would be a crisp medium bodied wine. The Chambourcin was decent, but when you tried the finished product in their tasting room it was yummy. A great bold red wine with tastes of oak, currant, and pepper. My suggestion if you go to Harmony Hills go during their summer months, pack a picnic basket and buy a bottle of wine and listen to the live music. Its a whole entertainment experience.

Second was Miranda-Nixon Winery, this place was beautiful too! Not only can you see the acres of vineyards its next door to a horse farm. We sampled 3 wines from the barrel a Chardonnay, a Sangiovese, and a Cabernet Sauvignon. The Chardonnay was amazing and it will be even more amazing once its finished aging. The Sangiovese was young of course but you could tell it had great potential when finished aging. I liked the Cabernet but I really thought the other 2 had more potential. There tasting room overlooks the hills of the vineyards and the horses on the farm. We tasted some of the wines in the tasting room and I fell in love with 3 of their wines. The 2010 Traminette (a crisp white wine that has a hint of sweetness), 2010 Catawba (a blush wine with hints of citrus and sweet), and the American Cabernet Sauvignon (a balanced cab with hints of berry flavors with a semi-dry finish). My suggestion go to their Saturday night tasting dinners $55 per couple accompanied with a bottle of wine with your choice of Salmon or Steak.

Now I have saved the best for last! My favorite Winery was the Kinkead Ridge Winery, they have their wines mastered. These wines will stand the challenge against of any wines anywhere. We first tasted wines as the finished product and then we tasted them out of the barrel. The first wine we tried was their Cabernet Franc and I all ready knew I wanted to buy a bottle. We tried 4 wines from the barrel and all of them were showing strong characteristics of big red wines. We started off with the Cabernet Franc which all ready had some tanins, a hint of cherry, and a little spice aftertaste. This was by far my favorite out of the barrels. I then tried the Cabernet Sauvignon which was on its way to be a full-bodied tanic cab. It was of course still in its young stage but it sure showed potential. Next we moved onto the Syrah which was a little more fruitier tasting or lighter tasting than I would expect from a Syrah. I’m sure after it’s fully aged and bottled the wine will be great after a few years of aging in the bottle. The last barrel tasting was a Petit Verdot this was also showing strong tannins and a spicy aftertaste. This will be the wine to buy when it gets released next year. Trust me when all of the wines get released next year, I’m going to be the first in line to purchase them.

] Pictured: I’m with the winemaker of Kinkead Ridge Winery, Ron Barrett, I bought the last bottle of Viognier/Roussanne which he autographed for my collection.  Here it is on their website.

Cheers and remember support all your local vineyards/wineries. You’d be surprised what’s in your own backyard.

Angela

Harmony Hill Opens This Weekend!

Summer is finally here … maybe. It’s May, right? Time for flowers and maybe, just maybe, hints of sunshine.

The most fun winery in Southern Ohio is kicking off it’s summer festivities this Saturday and you should join them. If it wasn’t for my enduring love of the Kentucky Derby, I’d certainly be at Harmony Hill. 

This Saturday, May 7 from noon-8 pm, ‘The Hill’ will rock, as has come to be expected. We will release all of our five previously sold out award winning wines. We will have continuous entertainment all day. We have scheduled our Kick-off in conjunction with BAMfest, Bethel’s annual art and music festival in the heart of The Village. I can think of no better time to ‘Head East’ and see what this quiet farming village has to offer. We will kick off this 2011 summer in style. Our newly revamped website will answer any questions you might have about the upcoming festivities.

So there you go. Head on out to Harmony Hill this weekend for great music, great wine, and hopefully (fingers crossed), great weather.  Perhaps if we start acting like it’s summer, the weather will catch up.

Cheers!

Valley Vineyards Brings Back the Festival

Once upon a time, Valley Vineyards in Morrow had a heck of a wine festival each spring. I have friends who would rent an RV and camp there. But 4 years ago, they cancelled the festival. (Has it really been that long?)

According to Mark Fisher at the Dayton Daily News, the festival is returning on Saturday, June 4, 11 am – 11 pm.

The event will celebrate 41 years of winemaking at Valley Vineyards, and will feature oferings from food producers and restaurants such as Wildflower Cafe of Mason and The Jam and Jelly Lady of Lebanon. The festival also will include the winery’s annual “Walk-Run Through the Vineyards,” which this year will benefit a Hamilton Twp. “Shop With A Cop” program, according to the winery’s web site. Live music and hot-air balloon rides also will be offered.

This year they’ve modified the festival format, most notably limiting it to one day and there will be no camping or overnight parking. I know what you’re thinking – they’ve killed the party. Well, it’s a wine festival people, not a campground. And if you suspect you’ll be overindulging, you can stay at the Spring Hill Suites Cincinnati Northeast, which will be offering a free shuttle to and from the festival.

Visit the Valley Vineyards web site for more information.

Annual Southern Ohio Barrel Tasting Returns!

It’s Thanksgiving and time to start shopping for gifts and, well, wine – not that we ever stop shopping for wine! If you are somehow mall-ed out (how is that possible?) on Saturday, Nov 27, you can relax in some of our fantastic local wineries.

Each year, a group of southern Ohio’s wineries open up their cellars for barrel samplings of unreleased vintages. I think this is the third year (don’t quote me on that) and I’ve yet to attend. We’re never in town for Thanksgiving weekend. But if you are, and if the weather cooperates, go visit some or all of the participating wineries.

Barrel Sampling at Kinkead Ridge

It’s a great opportunity to visit local wineries that are often closed in the winter and snatch up their latest releases … not to mention trying some of their unreleased samples. For this year’s Annual Ohio River Valley Barrel Tasting Tour, you can visit

• Kinkead Ridge Estate Winery in Ripley
• Meranda-Nixon Estate Winery in Ripley
• Harmony Hill Vineyards & Estate Winery in Bethel
• LaVigna Estate Winery in Higginsport
• Burnet Ridge Winery in Cincinnati
• Henke Winery in Cincinnati
• Woodstone Creek Winery in Cincinnati

Hours and tasting fees vary by winery, so make sure to check the web site for more information.

Enjoy!

More Tino Vino …

First an explanation, then an update.

I had to take down the post with Lindsay’s letter. I know, I know, perhaps I erred on the side of too much caution. I was treading a line I wasn’t personally comfortable with and, well, there were a myriad of other reasons as well. You had only to read the comments to figure some of them out.

I did correspond with Lindsay after I removed her letter and she updated me on some happenings on Tuesday. She let me know that as of October 13, the winery was evicted. Left with no recourse, the landlord dumped all the wine. Unfortunately, if you had wine at Tino Vino, it’s now gone.

My apologies to those of you who are genuinely interested in what is happening with Tino Vino. I wish I hadn’t had to take the letter down. I’m working things out, so maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to re-post it later.

Cheers,

Michelle