Kinkead Ridge Vineyard and an Estate Winery Weblog

Musical Interlude

I just came back from Steve Kaumann's Acoustic Kamp in Alcoa Tennessee; I play the banjo, and this is a phenomenal opportunity to take lessons from internationally recognized players. If you are interested in the banjo, the teachers were Bill Keith (who invented Keith tuners), Jens Kruger, Bill Evans and Gary "Biscuit" Davis (three time national banjo champion). I'm as passionate about my banjo as Ron is about the vineyard.

Of course wine is ALWAYS in the picture. The Marysville College campus where the seven day event is held asks you to be discreet about alcohol; so I set up a tasting in the laundry room! Here I am with fellow banjo pickers Mikey from Nome Alaska, and Lauren from Palm Beach Gardens.

Nancy and Mikey with their banjos

While I was gone, the hay was cut on the back ridge. This is the view from the back porch. I thought it was lovely.
And now I'm back in the car delivering and tasting. White Revelation is down to 60 cases from 150. That's almost last call when you have 100 wholesale customers!

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley
Banjo Picker
Owner/Managing Partner Kinkead Ridge

Buzz continues

We are shipping wine to Andrew Stover, CSW. He has two restaurants in Washington DC This is a unique opportunity to get some national recognition. The two wines we are shipping Andrew called "stunning".

Meanwhile, back in the real world. I had 44 cases of wine in the Blazer to go to the Cleveland area. This is pre-ordered wine. People trust us and our quality, they pre-ordered without even tasting the wine! The Blazer was handling like a large boat, so I annoyed a bunch of people when I was driving 40 mph and they had no chance to pass due to the double yellow lines.

Disaster at the Days Inn, my hotel up there. 

After I took my shower, I realized the hot water faucet was broken, and I could not turn it off. So hot water is spewing without rest into the room. The mirrors are so fogged up I couldn't even use the mirror to put makeup on. After an exchange with someone who didn't speak English, constantly using the work "broken" with hand signs, I got to move all my stuff to a new "upgraded" room. Now what is the difference between the room I had and the "upgraded" room. Here it is: a couch; a bottle of complimentary water; a package of microwave popcorn; a complimentary granola bar.

A word to the wise: Order this Revelation blend now if you want it. 90 cases of 150 have been sold. It was released on Memorial Day.

Your friendly wine blogger

Nancy

Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge

Glitz and Gloom

Gloom:

Delivered 3 cases of wine to a fine restaurant in downtown Cincinnati. I don't have truck plates. They said to park in the hotel parking lot across the street, $1 after 4 p.m. Unfortunately when I emerged from the parking garage, I was four blocks away from the restaurant. Uphill. 85 degrees. 120 pounds of wine on the dolly. When I finally got in there (and in this restaurant, you then need to transport the wine down two flights of stairs to cellar) they looked at me, and said "Are you OK?" I burst into tears. It was just one of those awful days.

Glitz:

Spent 3 hours next to Tony Coturri at the Dayton Fleurs et Vin wine festival. He's organic. I told him there is no way we can grow wine organically in Ohio with the fungal disease pressure. I really liked his single barrel Pinot Noir. JT Mayer, a local wine aficionado brought over Meeker to taste our Viognier Roussanne. He wandered away with the glass, so I didn't get any feedback. Then I was at Sher-Blis in Columbus and ran into Karen Culler Also a small producer from Napa who grew up in Mansfield Ohio. She's been written up in the Wine Spectator; the same magazine that has told me that they don't cover small wineries. Her production is about the same as ours. The translation is the Wine Spectator doesn't cover small wineries unless they are from Europe, California or New York. Is it possible Culler doesn't have a web site? Couldn't fine one.

Here I am with Tony Coturri and his distributor, Cory.

Fantastic review of the samples I sent to Oya in Washington DC. From their sommelier andrew@chiefwino.com

"Tasted the wines today with Paul Roberts of Deep Creek Cellars in Maryland. Needless to say our jaws were on the ground. Both the Viognier/Roussanne and the Revelation White are stunning wines.

I was very impressed with the Viognier because too often wineries just dont get it right. Its either way too fruity with a little residual sugar left on the wine or they've picked the grapes too early and you end up with a Sauvignon Blanc-like wine.

Kudos to you and your team for making wines that should make Ohio proud not to mention such great examples of what regional wine in this country can really be."

We treated our employees to tickets for Fleurs et Vin in Dayton. Someone said "Oh I saw your posse", our four fantastic girls. I'm thinking T-shirt. Kinkead Ridge Posse. Maybe a Kinkead Ridge bottle of wine with a cowboy hat on top!

Hectic-ness

Our hectic life. We opened the winery for the release of the 2008 white wines on May 23 and May 25. Huge weekend, over 300 people visited on Saturday. Because we hadn't finished bottling, we had to tear it all down and set up the bottling line. Bottled 600 plus cases of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc last Wednesday and Thursday. Then the bottling line is torn down, and the tasting room is set up for the summer. I usually sob after the last bottle comes off the line, it is such a relief.

Here's the happy crew.

Left to right: Ron Barrett, Winegrower, Nancy Bentley, Managing Partner, Gretchen Yaus, champion picker and corker, Judy Carrizalez, Cellarmaster, Ron Hitt, vineyard and winery assistant, Amy Smith, vineyard and winery assistant.

There was an event connected with Chef Jean Robert de Cavel on Sunday night at the fabulous Art Deco Omni Hotel in Cincinnati; Ron told me to bring the "baby", the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. I was nervous, since it was just bottled; and it's a huge wine needing lots of time in the bottle. It turned out to be the absolute hit of the evening. Jean Robert, his wife Annette, and Chef Sturkey came back for seconds.

Meantime, I am now on the road with the white 2008 wines. Everyone loves them. Case orders.

There was a little story though at a wine shop. I came in when David Shiverick (of Langdon-Shiverick, importers) was there. Well, sometimes you just get off on the wrong foot with someone. He held up a Riesling, and asked if I wanted to taste it, and said "It's 9%". I assume he's talking about residual sugar. I say: "Oh, I've only ever had a 9% residual sugar wine, it was a Scuppernong from the south." David: "No, 9% alcohol by volume." So I now look like an idiot. Next exchange. David. "I have a vineyard". Nancy: "Really, where?" David, with no French accent, who lives in LA, names some town I've never heard of. I look blank, assuming it must be some city in California. Long pause. David: "In France." Strike two. Then I realized when I left I had a big run in my black stocking. Looking like white trash.

Good grief. He did taste our Riesling. He said it was a well made wine, so I guess that's nice.

Just a word to those interested. The 2008 Revelation, which is Ron's favorite from the vintage... we only made 150 cases. With over 100 wholesale customers, this wine will be gone in the blink of an eye. Get it now.

The vineyard is now in high maintenance mode, the shoots are going crazy. The staff is lifting catch wires, tucking and tying.

Nancy

Your friendly wine blogger

Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge Estate Winery

Only in a small town!

We released our 2008 white wines this weekend, to great acclaim and lots of sales!

Most of you probably know Ripley is a small town located along the Ohio River across from Kentucky, with its own boat dock.

We had two sets of boaters this weekend who wanted to visit the winery, which is not walking distance from the dock... the first set could not get a taxi to come get them; so they called the winery for help. We were well staffed, and I was able to send our Judy out to pick them up and return them after the tasting! The other set was even MORE creative. They had lunch at Rockin' Robin's Soda Shoppe... and asked the waitress if they could BORROW HER CAR to go over to the winery and back... someone they'd never met! And she agreed! I hope they left her a good tip!

I have so much paperwork on my desk that I managed to knock a full glass of wine into my MAC keyboard; so far we have rinsed it and tried to dry it in the oven, no luck yet. So who can I borrow a keyboard from in a small town? Oh yes! Maybe the local library has a spare! They did! And they lent it to me!

Here's an early review of the wines.

http://dogswine.blogspot.com/2009/05/kinkead-ridge-2008-white-wines.html

And other days are better...

We had a fantastic Saturday white wine release. The winery was steadily full of 20-30 people all day. Open again Monday. The youngest visitors ever, two nine week old twins! I did a couple of private tours of the garage door that Ron damaged on Friday! Everyone had a big laugh over that!

Some days are just like this...

On the eve of opening the winery for the release of our 2008 white wines.

This morning, I needed to get a wine delivery to one of our grocery store customers before 10 a.m. Well, needless to say, I got stuck behind THREE separate farm vehicles creeping along the highway next to a double yellow line at about 3 mph. Got there exactly at 10, and was paid with a Western Union money order... which I promptly managed to lose somewhere in the store. Went to the front desk, and put the manager through phone hell as she tried to connect to a person to void the money order and reissue another one. I went through the store one more time, and found the original slapped up against a tray of sirloin steaks in the meat department. Joyfully brought it back to the counter, and was too late, she'd already cancelled it.

Meanwhile back at the winery, Mr. Last Minute, Ron Barrett, had concrete poured this week. The job was not up to par. There are still piles of dirt and branches around the winery, which were supposed to be taken care of yesterday, no sign of the contractor. He had concrete poured so he could get a ductless air conditioning system installed. It's 12.30, it's still not working, the installer had to drive home for 2 hours to get a missing part. And we can't put the window air conditioner in, in case of emergency, because where we would put the ladder now has part of the ductless unit installed. And on top of this, the garage door broke. When I left a few minutes ago, Ron was hammering holes into the door to get in there to open it up... which I need, because much of my tasting room collateral is in that building.

SO YOU ALL THINK IT'S GLAMOROUS TO HAVE A VINEYARD AND A WINERY! THINK AGAIN! I'll probably be up until midnight getting things set up. Aarrgghh!

Nancy
Your stressed wine blogger

2009 bottling is almost over!

All the 2008 white wine is in bottle. Only 2007 reds to go. We were hoping to get it all done before the Memorial Day opening for the white wine release, but can't. So we open May 23 and 25, then tear everything down to bottle red wine, then set the whole tasting room up again for the summer. We learned the hard way a few years ago, the wine CANNOT be cold when you bottle, or the labels don't stick. 2005 Syrah was a nightmare. Nancy, Emily, Ron Hitt, Gretchen, Judy and Ron. Photo by Gretchen and Emily's brother Logan. Logan is so tall he can stack the 7th tier on a pallet without a ladder! Note Nancy's T-shirt. It's a stamp... for .33 cents. Must be an old T-shirt since first class mail is .44 as of Monday.

Here's the happy crew on Riesling day.

  Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley
Owner/Managing Partner

Bottling the 2008 whites, and eye-popping COGS

On May 7 and 8 of 2009 we bottled 360+ cases of Viognier/Roussanne. A big change from last year, when the Easter frost took out 90% of the white grapes from 2007, resulting in only 48 cases of this blend! Gretchen, Amy, Megan, Ron Hitt and cellarmaster Judy helped Ron and Nancy; it was a smooth bottling, no major catastrophes! This wine is an stunning 14.8% alcohol by volume. We have also completed the white Revelation (predominantly Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon), and the River Village Cellars Traminette that was sourced from Rock Springs Vineyard, Kentucky. Still to go, Riesling and the 2007 reds. The winery re-opens on Memorial Day weekend, May 23 and May 25 to release the whit

Here's a 2009 Kinkead Ridge mini-movie of this bottling:

I have been writing BIG checks. The Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) gets higher and higher; thankfully gas prices are down from last year, it was costing us a fortune to deliver wine. One check for almost $13,000 went out today to our glass company, $4,000 plus for corks, $4,200 for capsules and $2,400 for labels.

We continue to garner kudos...  Andrew Hall and friends (see his blog) blind tasted Ohio wines vs. the world. Kinkead Ridge Revelation bested Clos de la Siete. "The Clos de la Siete was generally found to be too hot and monolithic while the svelte profile and acidic balance of the 'Revelation' gave it the edge. I like the Michel Rolland Clos de la Siete more than I expected (and far more than other vintages), but the more pure Meritage-like character of the 'Revelation' gave it an integrative personality." 

And River Village Cellars Syrah bested Cycle Buff Beauties.  "I will admit that in good part I choose the 'Cycle Buff Beauties' (a Syrah/Malbec blend) because of the label. It is a disjointed and flakey wine which I enjoy more than I had expected. The River Village Syrah is a nice wine, not deep, but having a nice Syrah character and spice. It was also a 6-1 winner. From the comments, the peppery nature of the Syrah was the kicker and it was clear it would be better with food than the Aussie."

Your friendly wine blogger,

Nancy Bentley, Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge

Auxiliary Tasting Rooms: Will Ohio Join Its Enlightened Neighboring States

Fingers crossed, right now it doesn't look like there will be any spring frost surprises. The 2006 River Village Cellars second label Cabernet Franc won a Silver Medal at the Finger Lakes Wine Competition. It continues to be a favorite pour in several Cincinnati restaurants.

For our non-Ohio readers, happy spring... for our Ohio readers, read on.

Nearly all major wine producing states allow their wineries the option of operating one or more auxiliary tasting rooms located a distance from the winery. All of the states surrounding Ohio offer this option.

Many of you are aware of Kinkead Ridge Winery's commitment to the betterment of the wine world in general and local wineries in particular. Toward that end we have, with the help of our state senator Tom Niehaus, introduced legislation (Senate Bill 82) which allows for the establishment of one off-site tasting and sales facility per Ohio winery.

Wine is fundamentally a value added agricultural product. Usually made from grapes or other fruit, the raw material is often grown and made into wine at a location which is not optimum for sales. Rural wineries are often inconveniently located out of the tourist mainstream or may lack the amenities expected of a formal tasting room. Opening a tasting room in a higher traffic location such as a local small town not only makes good business sense for these wineries but also leverages tourism and benefits the local economy. Larger wineries often choose to open additional tasting rooms in high profile locations such as tourist destinations, shopping malls or off major highways. In some cases these, often elaborate, tasting rooms evolve to become tourist attractions themselves. So while their style and scale may vary, auxiliary tasting rooms can fit well with the business model of any size winery.

This legislation will give Ohio wineries an opportunity to expand their marketing opportunities, generate revenue for the state, and it will also benefit small struggling towns around Ohio; for example, we hope that if we can open a tasting room in Ripley on the Scenic Highway along the Ohio River, it will attract other tenants to the empty storefronts. The Ripley town council agrees, and have expressed their support to the legislators involved. Other small wineries throughout the state have embraced this concept and have contacted their state senators.

Details of the legislation are provided in the links below.

We ask your support of this grass roots effort and encourage you to contact both your state Senator and the chair of the Senate agriculture committee

Senator Kirk Schuring, Chair Senate Agriculture Committee
Senate Building
Room #137
First Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 466-0626.

A letter to Senator Schuring with a copy to your own Senator is ideal, phone calls are helpful and e-mails useful. We appreciate any support you can provide.

Please click here for more information and contact information.

Let's twist again...

Let's twist again! We're tying up the third cane, the vigor diversion cane. A short movie on youtube.com describes the process.

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley, Owner/Managing Partner

The Jury is Out on Wine Competitions

I am a medal junkie. Ron could care less.

Recently, I've been reading some very disturbing stories about wine competitions, and the judging that takes place.

In our entire eight year history, every competition we have entered, our wines have medalled; with two exceptions. I will not name the competitions by name, but in one of them, after we saw the tasting notes, it was dramatically clear that our wine had been mixed up with someone else's... this was the 2003 Viognier/Roussanne, which was rated one of the Top 100 Exciting Wines in the World; and the tasting notes from this competitions said things like "Skunky, sewer smell, refermenting in the bottle." Well, clearly there was some mix-up there. And most recently, in a second competition, a wine of ours that has medalled consistently, did not even rate a bronze.

So my friends, the two excerpts below are pretty damning. Are we throwing our money away in the elusive quest for medals? Fees range from $55 to over $100, and anywhere from 2 to 6 bottles are requested, plus shipping charges.

From Wine Business Monthly...

Study Show Wine Judges Aren't Consistent

"In a four-year study that investigated wine competition judging performance, judges were found to give inconsistent ratings of wine. The study, "An Examination of Judge Reliability at a major U.S. Wine Competition", was conducted by Robert T. Hodgson and was published by the American Association of Wine Economists.

"According to the AAWE report, "the purpose of this investigation was to provide a measure of a wine judge's ability to consistently evaluate replicate samples of an identical wine." To test this measure, wine judges for the California State Wine Competition from 2005 to 2008 were given repeat samples of the same wine during blind tasting sessions. The study showed that 90 percent of judges failed to give matching or even close scores to identical samples poured from the same bottle at repeated tastings."

For the full study, visit http://www.wine-economics.org/journal/content/Volume3/number2/index.shtml

From Richard Thomas, Vineyard and Winery Management magazine.

"A recent study by the California Institute of Technology (Antonio Rangel and colleagues) has indicated that price and perception of quality are closely related. According to the report summary, tasters were given five wines (actually only three, with two samples being the same but marked with a high price on one and a low price on the other). Functional MRI brain scans showed greater pleasure with the higher-priced wines, even with the duplicate pairs. When the tasters did not know the prices at all, they consistently liked the lower-priced one."
"I think the value of this study is that the tasters were "Joe average" citizens because that is our real marketplace. Maybe this helps explain why the hard-to-get expensive wines are always thought to be top quality. Note how often during wine judging that with a panel of five judges, it is not uncommon to have a vote of three golds, one bronze, and a "no award." As as matter of fact, all judges agreeing on high quality is so rare than many judgings now give a double gold (or some over-grandiose term like platinum) to indicate that five judges finally agreed on the high quality of a given wine. May I also point out that in another judging that same wine may only get a bronze award."

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley

A tale of two Ohio cities.

It was the best of times... it was the worst of times... A Tale of Two Cities, wasn't it? Charles Dickens.

Let's talk about Cincinnati and Cleveland and the April Food and Wine Magazine, wine writer Lettie Teague.

Yesterday I got the following information:

CINCINNATI   

2001 KINKEAD RIDGE CABERNET FRANC "BEST VALUE"

A small group from the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Wine Society recently blind tasted eight Cabernet Francs from France, California, and North Carolina.

In a field of eight wines, the 2001 Kinkead Ridge Cabernet Franc was voted "BEST VALUE" against six wines from France and California, and a Biltmore Reserve.

It finished in the top three in "BEST QUALITY" behind two $40 Napa wines, and bested the French entries. Thea Teich, who relayed this information to me, said it was fascinating because it was one of the oldest wines and it really held up, while the ones from France just died. Plus it was right up there with wines 2 or 3 times the price. The California wines were 2005 Dare (Viader) at $40 and 2005 Titus at $40. The two French Cabernet Francs from Chinon were 2005 La Pensee de Paulus and 2006 Domaine de la Chantelleuserie Bougueril. The cost for the Kinkead Ridge first vintage wine? $15. We met Delia Viader at an event (I forgot, it was Fleur de Fetes or Gourmet Sensation), and she tasted a later vintage of our Cabernet Franc and made a point of telling us how impressed she was.

A reminder, this was our first vintage. This will give you an idea how the wines are holding up.

Now before you read on, I want to remind you that two Kinkead Ridge wines have made the Top 100 Exciting Wine Finds in the World List by Tom Stevenson, British wine writer; including our Cabernet Franc. Hmmm. last time I checked, this was an OHIO red wine. And... this same wine won a DOUBLE GOLD medal at an American Wine Society Competition. And one of our Cabernet Sauvignons won a gold at another AWS competition... only 15 gold medals for Cabernet that year. And our 2005 Petit Verdot was rated 2007 Wine of the Year by the highly respected Ann Boucher of Columbus Ohio.

So much for the Food and Wine issue article that says "Why do Ohio Reds Taste So bad"....  I guess neither Lettie or Jim have sought out or tasted, outstanding Ohio reds. To some, it sounds like an oxymoron "outstanding Ohio reds".

You can check out the results for the Cabernet Franc tasting at http://www.KinkeadRidge.com/htm/whats_new.htm

CLEVELAND

Read it and weep. The very fine national magaine, Food and Wine, published a story from Lettie Teague, a New York wine writer, who was hosted in Cleveland by her friend Jeff.

This is an excerpt from the April food and wine magazine about northeast Ohio. Full link at

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/a-wine-snobs-favorite-new-city-scene

"After lunch, we drove eastward to visit a few wineries. Jeff particularly wanted to visit South River Vineyard, a winery in a former church. “I’ve heard they make a pretty good Riesling,” he said. But the people at South River had just refinished their floor, and the wines smelled like varnish (and tasted quite sweet).

Down the road at Debonné Vineyards (“Ohio’s largest estate winery”) it was much the same story: Though the air was clearer, the wines were as sweet. “Ohio has a history of sweet wines,” said Debonné’s winemaker, Ed Trebets, a native Clevelander (who turned out to create the wines at South River, too). Debonné makes a wide range of wines and even brews its own beer. The simple, clean and not-sweet 2007 Grand River Chardonnay was my favorite by far, though Jeff liked the (very sweet) Vidal ice wine best. Neither one of us was keen on the red wines, especially the Pinot Noir and Syrah blend—a combination that would make a Burgundian blanch.

“Why do Ohio reds taste so bad?” Jeff asked as we drove away. (He actually used a stronger phrase.) There were many possible reasons, I said, ticking them off: bad winemaking, the wrong grapes, the wrong soil, the wrong vineyard techniques. I was still enumerating them when Jeff stopped at Marathon gas to fill up the tank. Inside the station were bottles of Ohio ice wine, wedged between the candy and the motor oil. “I could have bought my wine here,” Jeff exclaimed."

In the past, I have emailed Food and Wine editors, thinking they might be interested in the renaissance occurring in the wine industry in southern Ohio, a historic viticultural area; but I never heard from them.

My response to Food and Wine was something like this:

"I read with great dismay your article by Lettie Teague in the April issue about Cleveland. Despite the long history of winemaking in northern Ohio (which actually occurred after fungal diseases hurt the southern Ohio wine industry), something very exciting is happening in the Ohio River Valley. We grew Pinot Noir in Oregon for over 10 years. In 1999 we planted our all vinifera vineyard east of Cincinnati on a southeast facing slope draining to the Ohio River... on soil similar to St. Emilion. Two of our wines have made the Top 100 Exciting Wines in the World list by British wine writer Tom Stevenson, including our Cabernet Franc. Our 2004 Cabernet Franc received a Double Gold medal at the international AWS wine competition. Our 2005 Petit Verdot was named 2007 Wine of the Year by Ann Boucher, Columbus, Serendipity, and Cutting Edge Manager. We have mentored five new wineries in the area, and wineries throughout Ohio are garnering gold medals in international competitions. We have been wildly successful in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus; Cleveland is another story, there is a lot of prejudice against Ohio wine in the fine wine shops and restaurants. Our Cabernet Sauvignon, Franc and Petit Verdot ripen beautifully down here, harvested as late as the end of October. Kudos to Fire Restaurant in Shaker Square for supporting us and our red wines for multiple years.

To publish a question like "Why are Ohio reds so bad?" and not do a little investigative reporting is careless at best. Just Google "Ohio vinifera" and see what turns up."

Look, I'm am a born and bred New Yorker. Are we dealing here with the innate prejudice that New Yorkers have, a distaste for all things non-coastal? The Wine Spectator is another magazine that in my memory has only done one "Wine Across America" issue in the last ten years. Pour our wines blind, and people are amazed. Tell them the wines are from Ohio, and the prejudice kicks in.

We have been very successful in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, and our wines are in the finest restaurants and wine shops. Cleveland has been very difficult from the beginning because many serious wine drinkers in Cleveland won't touch an Ohio wine with a ten foot pole. In addition to Fire Restarant, other restaurants supporting local growers are JeanRoBistro, the Dilly Deli, and Chef Julie Francis at Nectar in Cincinnati and Dragonfly, Rosendales, and Z Cucina in Columbus. Also kudos in Cleveland to Chucks Fine Wines in Chagrin Falls. We also have sold wine in Cleveland to Whole Foods on Cedar Blvd., Joan Pistone, Pat O'Briens, and Colonial Beverage to a lesser degree.

Sure, there's sweet wine in Ohio. There are dry wines as well. We are producing internationally recognized, estate vinifera wines, as are some wineries up north, a special tip of the hat to Ferrante, Markko and a few others.

All I can say is, Cleveland, Jeff, Lettie and America: WAKE UP! Not all Ohio reds are bad wines. We personally are producing wines that stand with any in the world for value and quality.

At age 61, Ron and I have a limited amount of time to make a difference. Currently, Ron has a knee problem. He is limping like a 90 year old, but still is out there from dawn to dusk caring for his vines. This is why I get so furious with people who don't understand how much we care about quality. And why I get so furious that people are judging Ohio wines from a limited geographical sample.

If you are a fan of what we are attempting to accomplish down here, i.e. grow world class vinifera grapes for wine, please contact www.foodandwine.com with your comments.You will have to scroll down to the Contact Us section.

Your friendly wine blooger,

Nancy Bentley
Owner/Managing Partner
Kinkead Ridge Winery

The power of the Internet... and EPA wants to regulate farm dust...

One of the joys of living in a small town is you can send press releases and stories to the local paper and they are usually published (of course you must advertise... pay to play). One of my recent stories was given the headline: OH: Wineries Making a Comeback... and was picked up nationally by the Benson Marketing Group and www.winebusiness.com. I knew it would be big when I got an email from our friend Dick Erath (Oregon and Arizona wine grower) that he had seen it! Here is a picture of our web site hits from March 17 when it hit winebusiness.com... more than double a typical day. The last time we had a bump like that was when Gary Vaynerchuk of www.winelibrarytv.com reviewed Ohio wines. This was very satisfying for us since we have mentored several of these vineyards and wineries. You can get to the article by going to www.winebusiness.com, search the archives for Ohio on March 17. You will be able to download the pdf file.

The big day was March 17 (our lucky day!), see the large blue rectangle below.

Meanwhile back in the land of Kafka. The federal government and EPA are now going to attempt to regulate dust. And farms are not excluded. I read about this affecting Ohio in our Farm Bureau newsletter. On the verge of my 45th high school reunion, I can't remember ever seeing anything so ludicrous. You can read the story and comments at
http://townhall.com/news/business/2009/02/27/epa_says_farm_dust_requires_regulation

Your friendly wine blogger
Nancy Bentley
Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge

The Vineyard Year Begins

It's cane pruning and brush pulling time! 5000 vines need to have multiple canes taken down to two or three.

Your friendly wine blogger, Nancy Bentley Owner/Managing Partner Kinkead Ridge Vineyard and an Estate Winery

Kinkead Legacy: The Winery Was Named After William Kinkead, who settled our road in 1790 and had nine children

Some of you who have followed us for a few years know that we named the vineyard and winery after William Kinkead of Scotland, who settled our road in the 1790s, and had nine children. We have met direct descendants of William Kinkead. We have also connected with Dick Kinkead in Florida, who has done extensive genealogical work about the Kinkead family, which has included DNA testing on the various branches of the family. (I wanted to name the winery "Glaciers End", but that's another story... Ron would have given a free geology lecture with every bottle.) The Kinkead genealogical story also includes branches of the family with other spellings, including Kinkade.

Anyway, tonight Dick let us know about the passing of his oldest cousin, Florence Marion Phelps Hidy (daughter of Nina L. Kinkead, his great grandfathers's first cousin). She died in her sleep this morning at the age of 104. She was blind in her later years, but otherwise sharp as a tack until the day she died.

Why am I telling you all this? She loved Kinkead Ridge wine. And in fact, in this photo, she is drinking it out of a Kinkead Ridge wine glass (Dick Kinkead has purchased many for his Kinkead relatives.) So the moral of the story is: Drink Kinkead Ridge wine! Maybe you'll live past 100! A toast to Florence, and her long life!

Here's another one! Some years ago I got a request from Ireland from the son of a Kinkead, to ship a bottle of Kinkead Ridge wine to him for his father's 80th birthday. And here he is with a bottle of really early Kinkead Ridge wine and some Kinkead Ridge vinifera jelly! The wine must be 2001 or 2002 because of the label with the blue border.
The moral of the story is: Having a winery can be a lot of fun. And DRINK KINKEAD RIDGE WINE for a long life!

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley
Owner, Managing Partner Kinkead Ridge Winery.

Life's Work: The Kinkead Ridge Red Vertical Tasting

On July 20, 2008, our dear friends and long-time winery supporters, David and Jan Lazarus, treated a group of us to a Kinkead Ridge white vertical tasting. Today, February 21, 2009, they treated us to a Kinkead Ridge red vertical, including our red wines from 2001 through 2006. What a fantastic treat! Lots of surprises. The older Syrahs were really nice. The 2001 Cabernet Franc was stunning. The Cabernets, all of them, were showing really well. Guests included bloggers Michelle and Kevin (http://www.wine-girl.net) and Mike Rosenberg (http://www.thenakedvine.net).

Here's Ron with Jan and David, and the line-up. Here's what's amazing: If I'm counting correctly, we have released 32 red and white wines since 2001. This table has 15 of them! Syrahs on the left, followed by Cabernet Francs and Cabernet Sauvignon and Revelation blends. For descriptions of the older vintages and their medals, please see http://www.KinkeadRidge.com/htm/earlier.htm. For those of you with these older vintages in your cellars... lucky you!

Because we don't have a library of our wines in our own cellar (for two main reasons: we sell everything because we need the money! and every year the wines get better!)... it was fantastic to have this opportunity to taste the older vintages.

From our first vintage, David and Jan understood our vision, predicted our success, and had almost more confidence in our future than we had in ourselves!

Now for the 2009 releases... it was a long, hot summer; the 2007 reds are big big high alcohol reds, more like big California Cabernets than our normal European style wines. Production was impacted due to the Easter frost of 2007, so quantities are much smaller than usual...

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon: 247 cases
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon: 344 cases

2007 Cabernet Franc: 216 cases
2005 Cabernet Franc: 383 cases

There will be no Syrah from the 2007 vintage. Ron is not happy with the quality. It is not even good enough for second label. Possibly not even good enough to bring home... it may wind up being poured down the drain. There is still 2005 Kinkead Ridge Syrah and 2006 second label River Village Syrah available around the state. ($19.95 and $11.95 respectively). If you like Syrah, there will probably be a 2008 Syrah released in 2010.

So a word to the wise... after sales at the winery on relesae day, the 2007 reds won't last long. The 2006 red Revelation, which was released in September 2008, 404 cases, is down to 4 cases in the winery. The 2006 Syrah is also down to 4 cases. These two wines are still available around Ohio. If you are out-of-state and interested, see http://www.KinkeadRidge.com/available.pdf for two wine stores in Cincinnati that can ship to you.

The 2008 whites, which will be bottled in May and released Memorial Day weekend are going to be excellent: our estate grown Viognier/Roussanne, white Revelation (Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon), Riesling (off-dry) and Rock Springs Vineyard (Ohio River Valley) Traminette.

Your friendly wine blogger
Nancy Bentley
Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge Winery

Wind

This post has no photos! We are in the middle of the storm that swept over Oklahoma. I wish I could convey the sounds. It's a rolling, thunderous sound. The sound of wind is amazing. Even in our sturdy 1880s farmhome, things rattle... for example, the vent for the stove flaps open and close. There was a beautiful rainbow, albeit brief. The clouds are traveling fast. Briefly there was a dark large cloud hovering overhead while the weather radio was warning about a tornado watch. Any cat stuck outside was happy to return to the couch in the family room. We have to take down the bird feeders from the trees and put the garbage cans onto the back porch to prevent them from blowing away. Update from Brad Hively of LaVigna about the wind at their vineyard near Higginsport: "This wind is unbelievable! My 550 Gallon Synder tank was picked up and tossed into the woods!" Check out their upcoming wine label here.

Tornado? My plan? Head for the basement with a couple of bottles of wine! The vineyard gate blew open and I had to head out there with rope to close it up so the deer wouldn't get in there. One thing I have always loved about living here is watching the lightning storms from the back porch. They are very dramatic. Quite a treat for a girl who grew up in New York City!

I feel terrible about the fires in Australia. I can't imagine what those people went through trying to get away from the fire and several vineyards are devastasted.

Mother Nature is not always motherly.

Other things: Ron's knee was blown out for several days. He was crippled. First diagnosis was it could have been degenerative arthritis; after a few blood tests, it turned out to be an infection, so some anti-inflammatory drugs are helping. For any little winery/vineyard like us, if anything happens to Ron or me, things will go to hell fast! I can't do the vineyard or fix the tractor... Ron can't type! So forget Ron doing any email or Quickbooks stuff!

Your friendly wine blogger
Nancy, Owner/Managing Partner

Kinkead Ridge Vineyard in Winter

A picture is worth a thousand words! Around the house: we're throwing carrots and apples to a very hungry rabbit, and feeding the birds. We have seen coyotes roaming the back ridge.

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley

Secondary advantages of buying your own wine barrels

It's January 28. And we have dodged a major ice storm and have not lost power. One great thing about buying your own barrels... they come with cardboard protectors. We are burning our top of the line Boswell Hybrid Barrel cardboard protectors in the wood stove! The All Clad pot filled with water on top of the wood stove is pumping humidity into our very dry house.

Here's Willy the Cat looking out the window.

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley, Owner and Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge, an Estate Winery

Ice is Nice...

Ice is nice... in a gin and tonic. But not at the vineyard and winery.

It's 9.30 p.m. on January 27, and we are potentially facing the worst ice storm since 2004. We could lose fruit trees. Our local birds could be in big trouble, including the cardinals. I have moved the bird feeders from the apple trees to under the porch, because I know that the lids could freeze shut, precluding replenishing the feeder.

Our cellarmaster Judy, who lives in Ripley, will call us if there's a power failure. Because if she has one... the winery has one.

The vineyard will probably be OK, but 1/2" of ice from the freezing rain is expected.

We brought our generator onto the porch. Do winegrowers in California ever face such trauma! We will be able to run the furnace and the refrigerator from the generator. Not much else. So I've laid out all the candles.

Here's a photo from the frost of 2004. This weather event could be worse. We're crossing our fingers we don't lose power.

Tomorrow may be another great photo opportunity!

Your friendly wine blogger
Nancy Bentley
Owner, Managing Partner
Kinkead Ridge Winery   

Polyvinylpyrrolidone

Ron had dosed the 2008 white Revelation (a Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend this vintage) some days ago with Polyvinylpyrrolidone, also known as PVP. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (maybe they should use this word in the National Spelling Bee).

Or... how about as a question on "Do You Want To Be A Millionaire"

Polyvinylpyrrolidone is

a) a special floor cleaner for vinyl floors
b) a new fabric being used in Burberry raincoats
c) a wine fining agent
d) a charcoal fire starter

For $128,000 the answer is

c) !!!

Finings are substances that are usually added at or near the completion of the processing of wine, beer and various nonalcoholic juice beverages. Their purpose is for removal of organic compounds; to either improve clarity or adjust flavor/aroma.

Well, unfortunately, the PVP had not totally settled out. So as Ron and Judy were sending the wine through the filter pads, they plugged twice. They had to abandon the filtering.

Ron issued those ominous words: "It didn't do the wine any good."

He'll probably fix it in the end though!

It's such a slow time of year that I cranked up Photoshop and started designing next year's Christmas card for our wholesale customers. Here are two options so far:

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy

Not a creature was stirring...

People often wonder when our "slow time" in the vineyard and winery is. Well, it's January. Every other year we visit the big trade conference in Sacramento, Unified Symposium, but this is the off year. Ron is dropping catch wires in the vineyard during daylight hours. We had a nice party last night with local southern Ohio winemakers, including Chip Emmerich (Burnet Ridge), Steve Pearce, Bill Skvarla (Harmony Hill), Joe Henke (Henke Winery), and Tom Crush (Renascent Vineyards). I can highly recommend the Cuban Pork Roast that I made... see the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cuban-Pork-Roast-I/Detail.aspx

To give you an idea of the lack of activity, it's January 5 at 6:30 p.m. I snapped these shots of Ron, the winegrower, and our six cats. Seems I'm the only one stirring... working on all the end of year federal and state forms required for small businesses.

Ron with Gigi and Marshmallow.
 
Momma and Baby.

Willy

Kukla

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy

Friends and Wine

My friend Inge visited us from Maryland last week. In addition to bringing us some fantastic Stichelton Stilton Blue Cheese (available from cheese importers in Philadelphia www.DiBruno.com), she came bearing two other extraordinary gifts. A 1966 Chateau Lafite Rothchild, and a 1977 Diamond Creek Red Rock Terrace. According to Diamond Creek Vineyards, the best Diamond Creeks in the 1970s are drinking beautifully at 25-30 years of age and show no sign of decline. We're really looking forward to popping the corks on these two!

And recently I was able to acquire some of our older vintages from a friend, including two bottles of 2002 Revelation! This is wonderful, because we don't keep a library of our wines. Everything pretty much gets sold unless something winds up in the back of the basement!





Happy holidays to all our blog readers... for a pretty e-card, also see
http://www.kinkeadridge.com/htm/christmas.htm

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley, Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge

Ron's Watercolor?

Isn't it pretty! But it isn't a watercolor. It's a chromatograph. When you drop a spot of wine on this special paper, you are able to analyze how much malic acid has been converted to lactic acid by lactic acid bacteria. When the process is complete, the wine is stable and ready to barrel.

Some great press this month... the Wall Street Journal wrote up our annual barrel tasting on November 26. In the same company as Napa, Walla Walla, Rutherford, and the Finger Lakes! To my knowledge, this is the first time the Ohio River Valley was mentioned in the journal. And our red Revelation blend won the first Ohio/Michigan Wine clash... number one red wine in a field of 60 wines tasted.

The winery is dressed for Christmas... here's our clothesline of marketing kudos!
 
 
Happy holidays to everyone... here's the photo we used for our holiday card this year! This is the same Syrah (so Christmas-sy!) that was in the Journal article. Without knowing it was my photo, Ron saw this picture, and said, "Good lord, look at that leaf necrosis!"

Your friendly blogger,
Nancy Bentley, Owner/Managing Partner
Kinkead Ridge