I rented a cabin overlooking the Ohio River for my mother’s birthday in Adams County, OH. Before prohibition, this was the largest wine producing region in North America. Some of the impetus of the trip was to go see what the new owners were doing with Kinkead Ridge, who were previously making some of the best wine in Ohio. To my dismay, the vineyard was lost to a freeze and the new owners didn’t feel it was worth keeping–it is now soybeans. They are still making wines–but the fruit is coming from California; not for me. Determined to make the most of it, we did go to Meranda-Nixon Winery (which was great!), Baker Bird Winery, Old Pogue Distillery, and Harmony Hill Vineyards.
Meranda-Nixon Winery is starting to make some quality wine. I tried 2013-15 verticals of their Norton, Cab Franc, and Cab Sauvignon, respectively. My favorite was the Norton, which was actually a 90/10 blend of Norton and Cab Franc. It had great acid, tannins, and mid-pallet. I really think this will be an ageable wine. It’s aged for 12 months in new oak, but both the '13 and '14, the oak wasn’t too evident. Went home with half a case.
The Cab Sauvignon was lush with a great dark fruit and coffee nose. The Cab Franc, I found, to be a bit too round and flabby. It was well made and ripe (no green peppers), just not too interesting. While they were nice visits, neither Baker Bird nor Harmony Hill had any wine I thought was worth sharing.
Old Pogue Distillery is an interesting story. It’s a historic distillery that made it’s last barrel in 1933. The ancestors found some old bottles, and found it great. They originally contracted with Willet, to recreate the mash bill and sub-contracted it out. After a few years of co-producing it with Willet, they now have an new copper still in the same place as their historic distillery in Maysville, KY (same spring water.) Maysville has an interesting history as it was the port where whiskey was first put in barrels and sent down the the river to N.O.L.A. We tried the 9 year old Master Select Bourbon and a four year old Bottled in Bond Maysville Rye. The distiller, John Pogue, explained that almost all the grain came from an organic farm, only 7 miles away. The bourbon was around 70% corn and more rye than average. Great stuff. The Rye is a single-malt and I went home with a few bottles.
Josh - Thanks for posting your wine tasting in an area that people would not seek out. That region got hit very hard by the polar vortex a few years back and hence a rough road for vinifera growers. Happy to hear you found some nice wine and distilled spirits. Thanks for sharing.
It was sad to see the old Kinkead Ridge Vineyard go. It was a great spot that could produce superb grapes when the climate allowed, which was just not often enough to make it worth replanting. I still have a few bottles of the 10 and 13 Kinkead Ridge cabernets that are excellent and can compete with anything California has to offer. The former owner retired and the vineyard was lost although it was mostly dead by the time the brand and winery was sold. The former owners originally planted a pinot vineyard in Oregon that was sold to Tony Soter for his new project when he moved from Napa to Oregon. This location was picked because the Bentley’s thought it was a great site that emulated the soils of St. Emilion with limestone overlayed by clay on a flat hilltop with 360 degree exposure and a climate moderating Ohio River nearby. A very pretty site too. Here are a couple of pictures of grapes hanging in September of 2012.
Thanks for sharing. I understand they are now retired in North Carolina. So I’m hoping they see that granite and think it might be the same soils as Northern Rhone and start planting some Syrah. That’s what I loved, was their Syrah. Also, if you ever come across it, give the Meranda-Nixon Norton a try. I think Norton is a noble grape. It’s Vitis aestivalis! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_(grape)
Thanks for the post. My family history runs through both Adams county and Maysville, yet I didn’t know about the history or current wineries. It’s probably been close to 20 years since I was last in that area but I doubt it’s changed much.
Too bad about Kinkead - surprisingly good wines from an area I never would have considered prior to tasting the wine. Nice people too.
Josh - as far as Norton being a “noble grape”, it isn’t. That’s a meaningless term created after WWII and usually attributed to Emile Peynaud, but sometimes to others. I think it’s his term though. At the time, there were French grapes and “others” and not all the French grapes were respected by the people with money, i.e. the English wine traders in Bordeaux. It’s not much used today and it reflects a very limited view of wine and grapes. For all practical purposes, the only “noble” grapes are those identified with France, which includes Riesling.
“. . . There are noble varieties which are the only ones capable of producing wines of refinement and longevity, recognizable for their fine flavor and the power and individuality of their aromas. Some of these have become so well adapted to their original production zones that, transplanted elsewhere, they become virtually unrecognizable. Such is the case with Pinot and Merlot. Other noble varieties such as Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon have a more stable character and their more general success has meant that they are planted worldwide.
There are also semi-noble varieties which can produce and excellent wine in a particular area, but which yield something very ordinary elsewhere. Example of these are the Tempranillo in Rioja, the Palomino in Jerez, the Nebbiolo in Piedmont, the Sangiovese in Chianti, the Grenache in Chateauneuf du Pape, Navarre or Sardinia, and many others.
Finally, there are the common grape varieties with produce neutral table wines of little quality."
Norton is a native American grape. Jefferson was concerned because all the vitis vinifera grapes were dying - they didn’t know about phylloxera at the time. And Dr. Norton was a depressed guy trying to come up with hybrids of American and European grapes. He came across Norton, which was the only native grape that made decent wine. It was given his name and he cheered up and survived. At one time it was the center of American fine wine, grown mostly in Missouri.
