Reborn Vintages

The Ohio River valley was once America’s greatest wine-producing region… at least before the Civil War.  And even today at 16-million acres, it’s still one of the biggest in the country.

And today there’s a renaissance going on in Ohio. Ohio winemaker Bill Skvarla says,

“It’s gone from the perception that the Ohio Valley is grape juice with alcohol in it to where we’re now producing world quality and international award winning wines.

Southeastern Ohio has a long history of wine making.  The earliest wines were produced here in the 1820’s and by 1860 the Ohio River Valley was the largest wine producing region in the country. The industry dried up during Prohibition, but a new wave of wine pioneers has changed all that. Today Ohio boasts more than 75 wineries. The state has worked to improve its agricultural output and has already become one of the top ten wine producers in the country. Nancy Bentley of the Kinkead Ridge Winery says,” A lot of the states in the country have had similar experiences where you have an infant industry. And I would say we are in the infant phase at this point. We are happy that we have other people growing grapes and there are three other wineries open near us. And we’re just really happy that the whole area is renaissancing.”

Nancy Bentley along with Ron Barrett runs the Kinkead Ridge Winery near Ripley, Ohio. They’re leaders in the renewed Ohio wine efforts. They two spent ten years in the Oregon wine business. In 1997, they were looking for a new challenge and they found it in the Ohio River Valley. Ron says, “The French are absolutely right when they say that soil is important. It’s certainly one of the critical issues in wine growing and growing grapes. This particular property is limestone, old limestone.” The soil here is well suited for growing ultra premium European Vinefera wine grapes.”

But soil makeup is only part of the equation. Just as important are wine grape varieties that can handle the cold Midwest Winters. Ron and Nancy planted their first vines in 1999.  Today, they produce a cabernet sauvignon, an award winning cabernet franc and two other wines. Kinkead is a small winery producing only a few hundred cases of wine each year. But despite its size they’ve had success in reaching a growing audience. Nancy says, “You know often I will taste people blind and not tell them we’re from Ohio. And if I had a nickel for every time someone said we can’t believe these wines are from Ohio...So I’m especially proud of that.”

About 30 miles west of the Kinkead Winery, another couple turned its winemaking hobby into a successful vineyard and winery. But it’s a little bit different.  Harmony Hill Winery, 35 miles east of Cincinnati, is a small vineyard producing 700 cases a year from vines planted in 2000. It’s ironic there’s a winery here at all because Tate Township is dry...as in no alcohol sales. Harmony is allowed to sell wine only because everything from growing grapes to corking is done on site. Winemaker Bill Skvarla says, “What we grow here are the French American hybrids and those are just plants that have been hybridized from French, from fine European wine grapes, but crossbred with something else that would do a little better in our location.”

Bill and his wife, Patti, produce medium priced wines from such grape varieties as Chambourcin and Vidal Blanc. Bill says the taste of these American hybrids has improved over the years, “I mean we’re winning international awards, so we’re doing something right.”

Something else they’re doing is blending wine with entertainment on the weekends.

Visitors to the winery are invited to bring a picnic dinner. Bill and Patti provide the wine.

And with wine sales in the United States topping more than 25 billion dollars a year, vintners here hope to offer consumers even greater variety and capture a larger share of a growing wine market. 

Early Wine Facts
While glass blowing was known as early as 40 B.C., the first wine bottles weren’t developed until hundreds of years later.

The color of the wine bottle is more important than the shape. Colored glass protects the wine from the damaging affects of the sun and ultraviolet light.