A Couple of Local Favorites

As more wineries pop up around here, I’m increasingly asked, “What are your favorite local places?” I have to take an invariable deep breath when I get that question to keep from being, shall we say, overly honest.

The view from La Vigna  Estate Winery -- Higginsport, OH

There’s a reason that the best known wines in North America aren’t grown in the Midwest. Is there some good juice out there in America’s heartland? Sure there is! Alas, the process of creating those wines is going to be much more difficult than making good wine in, say, Sonoma County.

Most grapes that thrive around here are either going to be our area’s indigenous grapes or hybrid grapes crossbred to withstand our humid summers and cold winters. Let’s face facts – most of the wines made from either of these grapes are inferior. I have yet to find a winemaker that could wring consistently good wine out of Norton or Chambourcin. (Especially the latter…by the Seven, that’s awful crap. Prove me wrong, someone.) Even the native stuff, like Catawba and Concord, can rise a level above Manischewitz, but not much more than that.

There are a few wineries and winemakers in the area that fly in the face of our oenological reality. A small number have the proper terroir to grow vinifera grapes – grapes like Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Viognier, Chardonnay, etc. The winemakers at these wineries also need the technical knowhow to make these grapes into decent wine. Most importantly, those folks must possess the level of bullheaded stubbornness that prevents one from settling for an inferior product. A couple of these combinations are in the vicinity of Ripley, Ohio – Kinkead Ridge Estate Winery and La Vigna Estate Winery.

Every year on Memorial Day & Labor Day weekends, many local wineries take the opportunity to release some of their new offerings. The Sweet Partner in Crime and I took a little roll down the road to Ripley to enjoy a beautiful day’s drive and sample some of their new goodies.

We started at Kinkead Ridge, where we got reacquainted with Nancy Bentley, co-owner of the place with Ron Barrett, the winemaker. Nancy handles all the “front of house” duties. Kinkead Ridge, available in many local establishments, releases their new whites on Memorial Day. (Labor Day is for the reds.) They were pouring their three new whites for the assembled folks.

They opened with their River Village Cellars 2012 White Wine, a “field blend” of seyval blanc, Riesling, chardonnay, and a few other grapes from their “experimental” block, including albarino. The result was a light, zippy, grapefruity white that calls for a porch and some warm weather. $10.

The Lineup at Kinkead Ridge

From there, they shared the Kinkead Ridge 2012 Viognier/Roussanne. This is my personal favorite of the wineries’ selections, and they’ve rarely missed on a vintage of this. This is a more tropical, creamy wine than the River Village with a very pleasant, perfumey nose. The crisp finish would make it a nice accompaniment to plenty of fish, shellfish, or chicken dishes. $17.

Finally, they poured their River Village Cellars 2012 Traminette. Traminette (technically a two-vinifera hybrid, but we’ll give it a pass) yields a wine that’s a little on the sweeter side. It’s got a similar profile to gewürztraminer, but without the fullness of flavor or pepperiness. It still creates a fruity product that’s friendly enough – especially with spicy foods. I liked it, but it came in third at this tasting. $10.

We also learned that Nancy and Ron are trying to sell Kinkead Ridge and move eventually to North Carolina for their “second retirement.” We will hate to see them go, for sure.

We then rolled back up US 52 a piece to Higginsport, where we checked in on the latest offerings from La Vigna. Brad Hively, La Vigna’s passionate winemaker, was quick to greet us when we bellied up to the tasting table. Brad had two new releases to share with the world this time around, as well as several of his past releases.

The first of his two new wines was the La Vigna 2010 Proprietary Red. This cabernet franc-based blend is the winery’s signature wide-release red. I thought it was even, balanced, and fairly straightforward at this point in its life. Aged for 26 months in barrel, it’s got plenty of potential. $24. I thought it was fascinating to taste this alongside the 2008 Proprietary Red, of which some still existed. The 2008 was somewhat fuller and more complex than the 2010 – giving a hint into how the ’10 might develop. We split on this. I like the ’08 a little better. The SPinC liked the ’10. Either would be lovely next to a nice hunk of grilled meat.

The second new release was something I’d not expected. Because of last summer’s climate, the grapes ripened too quickly, which ordinarily yields a wine that Brad said would not “have reflected what we’re trying to do up here.” Rather than make an overextracted, one-note red, Brad used the whole crop to make a dry rosé in the manner it’s made in places like Provence. The result was, in my opinion, fairly remarkable. I’m a dry rosé addict this time of year, and the La Vigna 2012 Carnevale Rosato di Cabernet Franc was excellent. Wonderful bold fruit, very dry but substantial body, and crisp to finish – you could easily have this alongside…well…just about anything, but risotto or Nicoise salad would be good options. At $15, it’s a good value as well. It is a “crack and drink” wine. We had a little bit left over, and it wasn’t as good the second day.

Hardtop!

We also had the opportunity to try one of the first “reserve” wines from La Vigna. Resulting from the “winning” barrel of 2008 juice at a recent barrel tasting, Brad made a wine he called “Hardtop,” sealed with a black wax capsule over the cork. This Bordeaux-style blend isn’t inexpensive – it’s around $40 at the winery; but it drinks like…well… a very good Bordeaux. I snagged a couple of bottles to stash for a couple of years, because I believe it’s potentially something special.

There are a few other wineries near Ripley with tasting events on those days. If you’re looking for a nice Memorial Day getaway, it’s worth the little trip up the road. Kinkead Ridge’s tasting room is open Saturdays for the rest of the summer from 11-5. La Vigna is open on Fridays from 2-7 pm and Saturdays from 12-5. For more information, see Kinkead Ridge at http://www.kinkeadridge.com/ and La Vigna at http://www.winegrown.com/

Memorial Day shindigs

If  you're casting about for things to check out over the upcoming long weekend, a couple of the local wineries we've featured here before are having events. Both of these are about an hour's drive (and a very pretty one at that) east of Cincinnati.

Kinkead Ridge Vineyard & Winery will be having their traditional Memorial Day release of their 2011 white wines. They're going to be releasing:

• 2011 Kinkead Ridge Viognier/Roussanne. $15.99
• 2011 Kinkead Ridge White Revelation. $13.99
• 2011 Kinkead Ridge Riesling. $11.99
• 2011 River Village Cellars Traminette. Residual sugar 1.9% Production. $9.99.

The winery will be open for tasting on May 26 & 28 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day They will also be showing these whites on June 7 at the Cincinnati Art Museum's "A Taste of Duveneck." Kinkead Ridge is located in Ripley, OH.

La Vigna Estate Winery will be having their 2nd Annual La Vigna Food and Wine Festival on May 26 & 28 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. They're releasing their 2011 Proprietary White, made from 100% Petit Manseng.

The festival will feature Fireside Pizza made to order, complimentary goat cheeses from JZN Goat Farm, vegetables and herbs for purchase from Organic Farm at Bear Creek in Clermont County, and live music from "Rockin'" George LaVigne.  La Vigna is about a mile north of Higginsport, OH.

Previous Naked Vine coverage of these wineries can be found here and here.

"There's more than corn in Indiana..."

The Sweet Partner in Crime and I needed some rest.

Without going into too much detail, I'll simply say that this was the least relaxing summer either of us can remember. Thankfully, as the season wound down and things began to calm somewhat, we decided we needed to get away for a few days. We'd heard about some wineries in neighboring Indiana, and we figured "Why not?"

This trip was about relaxation. The wineries simply provided structure for our wanderings. Our expectations weren't sky high for the wine itself. Why? Our experiences with "nontraditional wine growing areas" haven't exactly been stellar. Many times we've bought a bottle because it was the best wine at the tasting room but, as a friend of mine often comments, "That's damning with faint praise." The best of the wines are generally mediocre and twice as costly as they should be.

There are now wineries in all 50 states, but there's a reason the "traditional" locales make most of the wine. Vinifera grapes are persnickety. They generally need a very specific climate to produce at their best. Certain places (read: "Pacific Coast, Finger Lakes, and a few other patches") support that cycle. Outside these areas, climate and terroir make growing many kinds of grapes problematic. The blast furnace summer days and high humidity of the South and Midwest aren't exactly ideal.

Sometimes a place gets lucky. A grape used sparingly somewhere finds a spot and becomes a winner. Think Malbec after moving from France to Argentina. Other times, science comes to the rescue -- discovering a hybrid grape that can thrive in a new climate. Unfortunately, many of these hybrid grapes simply don't produce quality wine.

There's also a winegrowing saying: "A little sugar makes up for a lot of mistake." When we've visited many small wineries, almost universally the best seller is some version of syrupy sweet Concord-tasting grape juice with a little alcohol, or worse, a berry wine of some kind. (There are a few decent fruit wines we've found, but they're the exception.)

With taste expectations at a minimum, we set off down the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail. Our itinerary wasn't to crash around to every winery in the state. We just wanted to see what we could at our leisurely pace.

We were heading down US-150 when I spied a little sign on the side of the road in Hardinsburg which simply said "Winery" with an arrow pointing down a narrow road. Couldn't resist. Three miles later, we arrived at Vinetree Farm Winery. They opened up their tasting room for us and Patricia (who had some wonderful watercolors for sale in the tasting room) poured for us. She and her husband started the winery because they wanted "fellowship beyond just square dancing." Their wines, named after local friends, animals, and landmarks, were reasonably good. The highlight was a Vidal Blanc (one of the aforementioned hybrids, often used for ice wine) called "Lorretta." A little sweet, but still refreshing.

After some time rolling through the small towns in rural Indiana, past Patoka Lake and the nearly-abandoned town of Birdseye, we stopped at Winzerwald Winery in Bristow. I'd seen their website before and was intrigued by their logo:

Wine and pretzels -- a great combination. We met Donna Adams, who owns the place with her husband Dan. They did a number of very decent wines, several with German varietals I'd never heard of -- Lemberger, Liebfraumilch, Black Riesling, and several others. These wines were certainly distinctive -- definitely worth trying. Our favorite was their 5^th Anniversary "Schaumwein" (German for "sparkling wine") that would have fit in nicely with the semi-sparkling varietals. The wine was crisp and only a little sweet. We tried it with [I can't remember] and we agreed on the quality. A very pleasant sparkler -- especially in the heat we've been having. They also did a very nice straight-up Gewurztraminer, which was semi-dry and nicely spicy.

The next day led us down a number of twisty roads to eventually land at Huber in Starlight, Indiana. The winery is a small part of this "agricultural entertainment complex." U-Pick fruits, cheesemaking, an ice cream factory, a kid's park, a huge wine-related gift shop, a café, and on and on. Our experience had typically been that the more extraneous stuff there was at a winery, the lower the quality. We were pleasantly incorrect. Huber did a number of very decent hybrid wines -- Seyval Blanc (similar to Sauvignon Blanc and grown widely in England), Traminette (a hybrid of gewürztraminer), and Chardonel (a Seyval/Chardonnay cross). They also have an on-site distillery, and their reserve apple brandy was nothing short of impressive. I was reminded more of scotch than brandy -- but I plan to pick some up for wintertime.

Our last stop in Indiana was Turtle Run -- a small winery outside of Corydon. Turtle Run was, at least for me, the highlight of our discoveries. Nestled among rolling hills, winemaker Jim Pfeiffer constantly tinkers with varietals and blends to create some very solid, relatively inexpensive selections. His Chardonel is "in the style of a French Burgundy," and he's dead on. We had that with a grilled swordfish and some saffron rice, and it was delicious. His Summer Solstice (a blend of Chardonel and Traminette) is the "prettiest" wine that I had on the trip.

You may notice that all of the wines I've mentioned are whites. I think white wine grapes must be much more forgiving -- because very few red grapes, in my opinion, grow well outside of the "usual" places. The most common red grape is Chambourcin -- and I've yet to find one of those I'd actually pay for. I've seen some cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon, but they've not generally been anything outstanding. (Although Smith-Berry winery in Kentucky seems to be on the right track.)

We also had a wonderful night's stay and some delicious cookies at the Leavenworth Inn, had a fantastic burger at Pinky's Pub in Paoli, and discovered that West Baden is "The Carlsbad of America."

Mike's recommendations:

Vinetree Farms Winery "Lorretta" White -- $11
Winzerwald Gewürztraminer -- $15
Huber 2006 Seyval Blanc -- $12
Huber 2005 White Blossom -- $15
Turtle Run 2006 Summer Solstice -- $14
Turtle Run 2005 Chardonel -- $14

I believe all these wineries are able to ship out of Indiana, so if you're curious about wines grown outside the "normal" places -- these would be well worth a purchase. Even better, take a drive and visit. And tell them The Naked Vine sent you.