My Wine Education

Guest Post: Kentucky's Jean Farris Winery

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Shannan Boyer, a local parenting blogger and one of the driving forces behind Cincinnati Women Bloggers - also one of my close friends! Thanks Shannan!
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Every summer our family packs up the car and heads down to Somerset, KY for a little boating on Lake Cumberland.  The drive down is about 2.5 hours long, giving us plenty of time to play car games and check out the scenery.  On our drive one of the things I’ve often noticed and have always been curious about were the road signs posted along I-75 for local vineyards.

Well this past weekend we headed down for our first trip of the summer and this time, rather than driving straight through to Somerset, we decided to be a little adventurous. We decided to pull off outside of Lexington and visit Jean Farris, a cute vineyard located off the very scenic Richmond Road.

Not having heard of Jean Farris, we had no idea what to expect as we drove down Richmond Road. When we finally arrived, we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.  The drive up to the main building was lined with rows and rows of grapes.  It was like nothing we’d ever seen before.

While normally my husband and I would have sampled a few of the wines before buying,  the bistro was not open at the time we arrived, so we went with our guts and purchased a bottle of their Riesling ($16).

From the label:

Cold fermented to preserve the bright tropical fruits and citrus notes. This lightly sweet Germanic white has a delicate balance, and soft floral notes.

Keep in mind I am no Michelle Lentz (ed. note: I think Shannan is doing just fine!), but I have to say that this was one amazing Riesling. I found it to have a sweet taste and could definitely identify the citrus notes.  The wine was smooth and I really enjoyed the fact that it didn’t have a dry aftertaste.  If you like dry wines, this would not be the wine for you. This wine was extremely easy to drink, and in fact, my husband and I finished the entire bottle in less than an hour – a feat for me – as usually I am a VERY slow wine drinker.

We are heading back down to Lake Cumberland soon and I will definitely be picking up a few bottles of their Riesling to have at home. Overall if I was using Michelle’s rating system, I would give Jean Farris’ Riesling a giant smiley face.

A local parenting blogger, Shannan Boyer resides in northern Kentucky with her husband and two young boys. When she’s not blogging about her family’s many adventures on her blog Mommy Bits, she and her family are likely to be found out exploring and enjoying all that greater Cincinnati has to offer.

Jim Beam Red Stag: Black Cherry Infused Bourbon

Back in February we announced the news that Jim Beam was releasing a black cherry-infused bourbon. My thought at the time was that they were shooting for the same crowd that enjoys flavored vodka - sort of young, hip crowd. I'm obviously not young and hip. I prefer my vodka pure and please don't mess with my bourbon.

That said, I was willing to give Jim Beam's new venture a chance. I wasn't going to judge it sight unseen or untasted. (Kevin, on the other hand, is a bourbon purist. He went into this already disliking it.)

Two weeks ago we picked up a bottle of Red Stag at Party Town, who seemed to be the first in the area to carry it. The rep had, of course, told the staff amazing things but the staff hadn't all tried it. We were left on our own.

Again - I went into this with an open mind. I don't mind the Wild Turkey American Honey, but at least Wild Turkey bills that as a liqueur. This is still bourbon.

Kevin instantly hated it. Much to my surprise, so did I. The best comparison I've got is cherry Nyquil. Bleh. It looks like bourbon, but one whiff and you smell can already smell the cough syrup. There's an aftertaste of syrup and plastic that is fairly unpleasant. I know it's supposed to be infused with natural flavors, but it sure doesn't smell/taste that way.

In an effort to be fair, we thought we'd mix it. When I travel and want a mixed drink, I go with either Beam or Jack and Coke. In theory, this would be a cherry Coke, right? While a Coke definitely improves the flavor of the bourbon, there's still the plastic aftertaste. We also tried with Sprite, much to the same effect. There's a chance this might add an interesting flavor to Bourbon Slush. My Slush recipe uses peach tea bags, and this might add a little more oomph to that, but I still worry about the aftertaste. I'm not sure how it would work with a Manhattan, but I think I've given up trying.

I really did want to like this - I love bourbon and I enjoyed the idea of extending my options. I do believe that it should be billed as a liqueur and not a bourbon, which has a strict definition. Either way, we give it a firm .

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WBW #58: Dean Martin and the Drink n Stick Syrah

This month's Wine Blogging Wednesday snuck up on me. I've been so wrapped up in work, travel, and family issues that it was just suddenly here. Thank goodness I was ready.

The theme, as put forth by Katie at the Gonzo Gastronomy blog, is pairing music with wine. Now, she specifically requested no Michael Buble, but here's the thing - I was a swing dancer for years and I'm still a ballroom dancer, with a love of foxtrot and quickstep. My ear is a distinctly retro ear, and my favorite music - the music that puts me in the mood for wine or sometimes a martini - tends to be somehow tethered to the Rat Pack.

I've always thought I was born in the wrong decade. 40 years earlier and I could have grown up listening to Frank, Sammy, and Dean while they were alive. I could have danced the Lindy Hop and Jitterbug the first time around, instead of the resurgence. (Although I believe Bob Hope sang that everything "is better the second time around.")

I have a collection of Dean Martin music, and I recently added a new CD, as in NEW - a Dean Martin CD released in the last couple of years. Oh, it has the standard classics on it, but it is beautifully remastered. And there's this black and white photo of Dean on the cover just cracking up laughing ... Sigh. I think Dean Martin is dreamy. Of course, I understand he was also a a drunk and a womanizer, which brings me to my wine.

In honor of Dean, and because there's something about this bottle that perfectly (PERFECTLY) fits with the Dean Martin music in the background, I chose the Drink -n- Stick Mataro/Syrah blend from Some Young Punks out of South Australia.

I was distracted for a full hour by just the bottle. If you flip through the Flickr slide show below, you'll see that there is a Bettie Page-esque pin-up girl on the label. There's also a plastic strip that you carefully unwrap to reveal that our Bettie is actually the equivalent of a paper doll. That plastic strip has all sorts clothing on it. I think I tried almost every possible combination on Bettie before settling on a ruffly shirt and crop pants. Ladies, there are even scarves and hair bows.

You know, the bottle appeals to both sexes, as I discovered in the store. Unwrapped, it's a Bettie Page pin-up in retro lingerie. The guys were all excited - it's a pin-up!  The ladies, on the other hand, were enamoured with the paper doll aspect. I mean, when is the last time you played with a paper doll? Like Dean Martin, it's a great trip down memory lane.

What's inside the bottle? It's a blend of 59% Mataro (think Mouvedre) and 41% shiraz. This wine needs to be decanted for a bit first, although we didn't. For future reference, we will. It is, of course, a crazy high-alcohol wine from Down Under at 14.5% AbV. It didn't taste as hot as I was expecting, and it didn't give me the instant headache that some of these Aussie powerhouses do.

The nose was earthy and not very fruity. The wine started out just a mouthful of tart cherries. As it took some time to breathe though (and just interact with the oxygen in general), it changed to more fruit, with earth on the finish.

Sticking with our retro theme, Kevin took a big ol' steak and marinated it in the Drink n Stitch. This was a fantastic idea, by the way. The wine and the steak were a fantastic pair.

For all its big alcohol and big label, it's actually a fairly subtle wine. Maybe that subtlety comes from having Dean Martin in the background. "Everybody loves somebody sometimes ...."
Our rating is a but had we decanted, that might be higher.  Hmm ... I wonder what it would have tasted like with Bon Jovi in the background. No, that just would have been wrong.

Some Young Punks Drink n Stitch Mataro/Syrah blend. Available at Party Town Turfway for $22.

Our thanks to Katie at Gonzo Gastonomy for hosting this month's Wine Blogging Wednesday edition.

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Winery Week: Chateau Thomas

We veered off of our well-beaten path this past weekend and visited the Chateau Thomas tasting room in Nashville, IN. Chateau Thomas also has a winery you can visit in Plainfield, just outside of Indianapolis. However, I've been going to Nashville, a cute crafts-oriented village, since I was a little girl. This seemed a great opportunity to go back.

Nashville is located just outside of Bloomington and is a fun little retreat. It boasts two different tasting rooms: Chateau Thomas and the Brown County Winery. Chateau Thomas is located in Coachlight Square, right as you pull into town.

The tasting menu blew us away. There are around 54 different types of wine listed. Of that list, you can pick 5 to try for free. Kevin and I each picked 5 and shared, giving us 10. We still didn't make a dent in the list. We came back later in the afternoon and tried another couple wines, plus 5 wines off of the reserve list. (The reserve tasting is $7.) The list is rather overwhelming. Looking at it now, I'm noticing things I didn't while in the tasting room, such as a 1991 Chardonnay library release. Had I noticed it then, I would have loved to try it!

The list is nicely organized based on Dry White, Classic, Dry Red, Sweet Wines, Slender, and Reserve. The back of the sheet offers a nice little quiz, magazine style, that helps you establish your wine tasting preferences so you can jump into the correct portion of the list.

In case you're curious, Chateau Thomas doesn't grow their own grapes. They import their grapes from Canada, Washington, California, and Oregon, and then all the blending, aging, and fermenting happens in Indiana.

As usual, the endorsement is in the wines we came home with. We brought home 1 each of the three Slender wines, because we want to give them a more in-depth review. Kevin is even taking a white Slender to the Wine Bloggers Conference with him. We also brought home a Teroldego and a Late Harvest Viognier.

After the jump, find our quick notes on the wines we tasted:

Winery Week: Harmony Hill

Harmony Hill is by far my favorite place to end a day. They now have a farmer's market on Saturday afternoons, as well as live music on Fridays and Saturdays.

We've been here so many times that we didn't really have anything new to taste, but we did get a special treat. The Ovation is one of my favorites at Harmony Hill and winemaker Bill Skvarla let us try some right out the tank. The Ovation 2008 was going to be bottled last Wednesday.

Ovation is a blend of traminette (there it is again) and cayuga. It's was bright and fruity, with some spice behind it. This is a back-porch / back deck white if there ever was one. I have always wanted to buy a case of this for summer, but it hasn't happened yet. I really want a case of this particular wine. Why? Because Kevin and I helped harvest the grapes!

Bill told us that he ran into the high alcohol issues as well. What I love about Bill is that I can ask him a winemaking question and he'll answer me in regular old English. He loves to share the knowledge and he is great at explaining things. He told me that high alcohol tends to result from a long, hot growing season, coupled with a drought. It crankes up the brix, cranks up the alcohol. What's brix? I like this definition from Wines of Canada:

The measurement of soluble solids in grapes at harvest, taken with a refractometer and expressed in degrees. In unfermented grapes, degrees of Brix are approximately the same as percent of sugar. After fermentation, the alcohol concentration is roughly half the sugar concentration of the juice. Thus, grapes harvested at 22.5 degrees Brix will produce a wine with an alcohol content between 12.5 to 13.5%.

While we were at the winery, we also tried the 2006 Rhapsody, which is a blend of 94% Cabernet Franc and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. I have no doubt we've tasted this many times before. This time, however, it surprised us. It seems to be turning into something similar to a Sangiovese, softening up the tannins and retaining the structure. Who knew? I love wine because it's dynamic, and this was the perfect example.

Opening weekend, Harmony Hill was packed. If you plan on going one evening this summer, make sure you get there early and bring your own picnic. With all the people, you might want to bring your own lawn chair or blanket as well. And even your dogs (on leashes) and kids if you want.

Winery Week: Meranda-Nixon

We'd met Seth and Tina, winemakers and proprietors, at the Wine Festival this year but hadn't had a chance to get to the winery. Since they're also in Ripley, not that far from Kinkead Ridge, we popped in before heading to Harmony Hill.

The first thing I learned is that Meranda-Nixon is wonderfully scenic. I got some great photos, despite the rainy, cloudy weather.

The next thing I learned is that Meranda-Nixon is open year-round, except for January. On weekends, they also offer dinner. Their tasting room/restaurant is lovely, decorated in a decidedly Tuscan style.

Like any winery after my heart, they have a couple vineyard dogs hanging around as well.

The last thing I learned? They make a large variety of wine. Whether you like sweet or dry, red or white, they've got it. I know we tried at least 10 different wines, of varying vintages, although I didn't get notes on all of them. Once again, I get busy chatting and my note-taking skills suffer.

As usual, a good endorsement is the fact we left with some wine. In this case, we took home 2 bottles of 2008 Traminette and 1 bottle of the Red Oak Creek red blend. Not that there weren't others we wanted -it's just that by winery #2 we were already up to a case.

After the jump, you'll find notes on several of the wines we got to try.

Winery Week: Kinkead Ridge

I never hide how much I love our local vineyards. We always try to put in appearances several times over the course of a summer. When the wineries opened this year on Memorial Day weekend, we were there. Of course, we chose to go on a rainy Monday, but that was alright. Even the rain couldn't dampen the fun.

Our first stop was Kinkead Ridge in Ripley. If you haven't been to Kinkead Ridge, the winery is in a little house on a residential street. The first time we went, we thought we were at the wrong place. Then you walk in and you see barrels and tanks everywhere. And people. The winery always seems to be filled with happy people mingling, tasting, and enjoying the wine.

This year they were able to release a bunch of new whites, including a Riesling, Traminette, Viognier-Roussanne, and the Revelation blend. Since their whites are actually my favorites, I was excited to try them. We were also lucky enough to get to taste the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from the tank, and even two 2008 reds from the barrel.

I thought I'd taken better notes. When I sat down to write them up, I realized they're terrible. So my apologies on that. The best endorsement of all, of course, is what we went home with: 3 bottles of Viognier-Roussanne, 3 bottles of Revelation White, and 2 bottles of the River Village Cellars Traminette. We're thrilled enough with these that Kevin is taking a bottle of Revelation White and a bottle of the Viognier-Roussanne to the Wine Bloggers Conference with him in July.

Rob Barrett, the winemaker, creates what the grapes tell him to make. These releases are slightly higher in alcohol than you might expect. I heard that from several local winemakers this year though. The wines are balanced, however, so the alcohol will sneak up on you, as opposed to banging you on your head.

My absolute favorite of the Kinkead Ridge wines is the Viognier-Roussanne. The 2008 is 14.8% AbV, which means that I'll happily drink an entire bottle and then probably happily fall down. I am usually fairly sensitive to high-alcohol wines, but this one isn't hot at all. Ron may have contended with high alcohol, but he dealt with it superbly.

After the jump are the few notes I managed to scribble down. Did I mention how poor my notes were this time?

Party Town Adds a Tasting

We're about to brave the possibly inclement weather and head to Kinkead Ridge, Meranda-Nixon, and Harmony Hill for the day. Cross your fingers that the rain holds off for us.

Before we leave, I want to tell everyone about a new tasting that Party Town has added. It's on Tuesday evenings from 6-8 6-7 pm. This is in addition to their popular Saturday/Sunday tastings and their Friday night beer events.

I was told that soon, these Tuesday night tastings will become wine and food pairing events. They're starting off small, gauging interest. Since I know we all want these to evolve into pairing events, please go!

As always, wine tastings at Party Town are free!

Party Town is located at 6823 Burlington Pike, Florence, KY‎, right off Turfway Road. I'll see you there!

TasteCamp: Lunch @ Shinn Estates

Saturday we had lunch at Shinn Estates, provided by Shinn, Macari, and Jamesport Vineyards. The food was excellent and all local- duck, arugula, mushrooms and couscous, asparagus and pasta salad, and I'm not sure what all else. I played vegetarian and stuck to the salads. 

There were a multitude of wines on the table, for which I might have scribbled tasting notes for a couple bottles. But first - the conversation.

The winemakers talked with us about sustainable, organic and biodynamic farming. They incorporate practices from all three into their vineyards, but have found that the Long Island land/climate prohibits them from going completely biodynamic/organic. Pesticides, for instance, still need to be used occasionally. For the most part, the vintners try to "trust in the land."

They pointed out that they feel lucky to have anything grow at all, considering that Long Island is just a "giant sandbar sticking 120 miles into the ocean."  I can't argue with that, but based on the sheer number of vineyards, nurseries, and farms I saw, growing doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. Long Island grape growing, however, is only about 40 years old.

To achieve sustainability, they try to be true farms (yes, folks, vintners are often "grape farmers"), with chickens, rabbits, cows, and horses all resident on the property. This allows for effective composting and fertilizing, all within the farm. Part of the sustainability is letting things like dandelions grow wild. I can't remember why, per se, but it makes for a lovely photo. You'll also notice that the dandelions grow in the area directly under the vines, so something is healthy there somewhere.

It was a really interesting conversation and, oddly enough, they even passed around a flower pot filled with, um, manure. Sounds worse than it was. This is what they bury in the horn at the full moon, or some such thing. I've always sort of poked fun at that practice, but they made mention that the horns add calcium to the soil, so I feel better knowing there's a method to the madness.

(Tasting notes and more conversation after the jump.)

TasteCamp: Paumanok Vineyard

On Saturday we visited Roanoke, Paumanok, Shinn, Bedell, and Lenz, with a myriad of tastings in between and during each visit. I managed to still be taking notes when we got to Paumanok (only 2 wineries in). We also got a rather nifty barrel tasting at Paumanok, straight from the wine thief (which is a tool, not a person).  This German family-owned winery was one of our favorites that we visited.

Nifty tidbit: Paumanok was the first vineyard on Long Island to move to screwcaps for many of their wines.

Tasting notes are after the jump.